Publications

Publication details [#28463]

Greenberg, Daniel. 2014. The Challenges of Compiling a Legal Dictionary. In Mac Aodha, Mairtin, ed. Legal Lexicography: a comparative perspective (Law, Language and Communication). London: Routledge. pp. 59–74.
Publication type
Chapter in book
Publication language
English

Abstract

Greenberg’s analysis makes a distinction between law dictionaries (such as Black’s Law Dictionary) and judicial dictionaries as exemplified by Stroud’s Judicial Dictionary. The former defines terms that are relevant to the law, the latter terms that are used in the law. He suggests that the boundary between dictionary and encyclopedia is blurred. He also discusses what material should be included, and demonstrates, for example, the value of including seemingly obsolete terms. Such terms, for example, prove their use when lawyers are called upon to apply commercial or legislative documents of great age. As regards the inclusion of terms in foreign languages, the author shows how the concerns of legal lexicographers are largely those of all lexicographers, but with a legal twist or two: namely the demands imposed by the existence of separate legal jurisdictions within the UK and by membership of the EU.
Source : Based on editor’s introduction