Black, Henry Campbell. A Dictionary of Law. Containing Definitions of the Terms and Phrases of American and English Jurisprudence, Ancient and Modern. Including the Principal Terms of International, Constitutional, and Commercial Law; with a Collection of Legal Maxims and Numerous Select Titles from the Civil Law and Other Foreign Systems. Originally published: St. Paul, Minn.: West Publishing, 1891. x, 1253 pp. Reprinted 1991, 2013 by the Lawbook Exchange, Ltd. ISBN-13: 9780963010605; ISBN-10: 0963010603. Tan cloth hardcover with red and black gilt lettered spine labels. New. Special $65. * Reprint of the rare first edition of the classic American law dictionary, now in its eleventh edition. Contains definitions of the terms and phrases of American and English jurisprudence, ancient and modern (including the principal terms of international, constitutional, and commercial law). There is also a collection of legal maxims, as well as a bibliography of the principal law dictionaries in English and other languages to 1891.
Black, Henry Campbell. A Law Dictionary. Containing Definitions of the Terms and Phrases of American and English Jurisprudence, Ancient and Modern, And Including the Principal Terms of International, Constitutional, Ecclesiastical and Commercial Law, and Medical Jurisprudence, with a Collection of Legal Maxims, Numerous Select Titles from the Roman, Modern Civil, Scotch, French, Spanish, and Mexican Law, and Other Foreign Systems, and a Table of Abbreviations. Originally published: St. Paul, Minn.: West Publishing, 1910. 1314 pp. Reprinted 1995, 2018 by the Lawbook Exchange, Ltd. ISBN-13: 9781886363106; ISBN-10: 1886363102. Laminate hardcover. New. $195. * The second edition of Black's classic dictionary incorporates many new definitions and additional citations to decided cases, besides being a thorough revision of previous entries. Also included are many Latin and French terms overlooked in the first edition. Medical jurisprudence in particular is enriched, with new definitions for insanity and pathological and criminal insanity. The second edition (1910) is an essential complement to the first edition (1891) as it provides the scholar and student of law important insights into the rapid development of law at the turn of the century. The second edition is also notable for its revamped system of arrangement, with all compound and descriptive terms subsumed under their related main entries. Libraries, students, historians, and practitioners will all benefit from this historically significant research tool.
The greatly expanded 11th edition, with new material on every page, is at once the most practical, comprehensive, scholarly, and authoritative law dictionary ever published. With clarity and rigor, it defines more than 55,000 law-related words and phrases, recording their historical and present-day nuances. This edition introduces 3,500 new terms, including accountability, anticipatory self-defense, cyber force, Islamic law, Jewish law, legal moralism, legal reasoning, moral equality, peacekeeping, remotely piloted warfare, right to rebel, and umbrella clause.
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"Well-known enough that it is recognizable simply by the name of its long-deceased creator, Black's is the most widely used law dictionary in the United States today. . . . [I]t has become the predominant American law dictionary." Sarah Yates, Black's Law Dictionary: The Making of an American Standard, 103 Law Libr. J. 175, 175 (2011).
The following member databases include historic editions of Black's Law Dictionary. Members must be logged in to jenkinslaw.org to access these databases. These databases are also available in the library.
Dictionary of Law Containing Definitions of the Terms and Phrases of American and English Jurisprudence, Ancient and Modern (1st ed.) [1891]
Available on HeinOnline. Also available on LLMC Digital.
The 11th edition of Black's Law Dictionary (2019) is now available at Jenkins. The 11th edition provides definitions for over 55,000 legal words and phrases. Library users can find the dictionary in print or from any of our four Westlaw computers.
To access the dictionary on Westlaw, search Black's Law Dictionary in the main search bar, then click the content page link in the suggestion bar. You can also find it in the Tools and Resources menu within the Secondary Sources. Westlaw allows you to search the dictionary by definition term or definition text.
The first edition was published in 1891 by West Publishing, with the full title A Dictionary of Law: containing definitions of the terms and phrases of American and English jurisprudence, ancient and modern, including the principal terms of international constitutional and commercial law, with a collection of legal maxims and numerous select titles from the civil law and other foreign systems. A second edition was published in 1910 as A Law Dictionary.[2] Black died in 1927 and future editions were titled Black's Law Dictionary.
The sixth and earlier editions of the book additionally provided case citations for the term cited, which was viewed by lawyers as its most useful feature, providing a useful starting point with leading cases. The invention of the Internet made legal research easier therefore many state- or circuit-specific case citations and outdated or overruled case citations were omitted from the seventh edition in 1999. The eighth edition introduced a unique system of perpetually updated case citations and cross-references to legal encyclopedias. The current edition is the eleventh, published in 2019.[3]
As many legal terms are derived from a Latin root word, the dictionary provides a pronunciation guide for such terms.[4] In addition, the applicable entries provide pronunciation transcriptions pursuant to those found among North American practitioners of law or medicine.
The second edition of Black's Law Dictionary, published in 1910, is now in the public domain and is widely reproduced online. References to case law are out-of-date, and that edition of the dictionary omits legal terms that have since come into use and does not reflect contemporary changes in how legal terms are used.[6]
The 7th and 8th editions of Black's Law Dictionary were the first edited by Bryan Garner. This review of the 8th edition of Black's Law Dictionary focuses on the approach taken by Garner in thoroughly revising the dictionary and places his work in the context of the recent history of legal dictionaries and lexicography.
Legal dictionaries provide definitions of legal terminology and words in their legal sense or use. They typically provide a short definition with reference to cases and other legal sources for authority, and frequently give examples of word usage in various legal situations. Black's Law Dictionary is the leading legal dictionary in the United States. Legal dictionaries can be found in print and online sources.
Free legal dictionaries are available online, but online access to recent editions of pre-eminent legal dictionaries is typically restricted to subscription legal research databases. The subscription resources marked with a padlock are available to researchers on-site at the Library of Congress. If you are unable to visit the Library, you may be able to access these resources through your local public or academic library.
West Publishing Co.'s Words and Phrases is a multivolume research tool, similar to a legal dictionary in that it includes legal definitions of words. However, Words and Phrases also includes multiple entries indicating how the term or the word has been defined by the courts. An electronic version of the resource is available on Westlaw (see link below).
The subscription resource marked with a padlock is available to researchers on-site at the Library of Congress. If you are unable to visit the Library, you may be able to access these resources through your local public or academic library.
For more than a century, Black`s Law Dictionary has been the gold standard of the language of law. Today, it is the most cited law book in the world. By Editor-in-Chief Bryan A. Garner, the 10th edition is the most comprehensive legal dictionary ever published. It contains more than 50,000 terms, including more than 16,000 new definitions. The Deluxe Edition of Black with a high-quality leatherette cover and thumb cuts for quick reference includes over 55,000 terms, early usage data, a pronunciation guide, Latin maxims with index, a bibliography of 1,000+ sources, and 6,000+ citations. Black`s Law Dictionary, Pocket Edition is considered one of the most valuable reference works for the legal community, providing over 21,000 clear, concise and concise definitions for over 15,000 terms. It is the essential companion of the complete 11. Edition of Black`s, which contains all the commonly used terms from this edition. As a standalone tool, this paperback edition includes a dictionary guide and the full Constitution of the United States. Black`s is cited by judges and lawyers more than any other legal dictionary, is recommended by law schools, and is available in this pocket format and a variety of other useful editions. For more than a century, Black`s Law Dictionary has been the gold standard of the language of law. Today, it is the most cited law book in the world.
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