For those who missed out on the revolutionary seventh edition of Black’s Law Dictionary, the eighth was published on June 4th. Here is the description at amazon.com, and here to order from amazon.de:
The editorial review says:
bq. Edited by Bryan A. Garner, the worlds leading legal lexicographer, Blacks Law Dictionary, 8th Edition is now better than ever! The new 8th Edition has more than 43,000 definitions, plus almost 3,000 quotations. Alternative spellings or equivalent terms and expressions are provided for more than 5,300 terms and senses, serving a thesaurus-like function. The extensive appendix on legal abbreviations is a major addition. Its the first time such a comprehensive guide has been included in a modern law dictionary, and is an invaluable aid to the legal researcher.
-17,000 more definitions than the 7th Edition
-Newly enhanced with West Key Numbers for research reference
-Includes changes made since the creation of the department of Homeland Security
-Almost 3,000 quotations from authorities drawn from sources over at least five centuries
-More than 1,000 law-related abbreviations and acronyms are defined
-Extensive appendix on legal abbreviations
-Faculty recommended
What was revolutionary about the 7th Ed., by the way? I still have the sixth…
The 7th had a new editor, Bryan Garner (of the dictionary of modern legal usage). He rewrote all the definitions. Before that, most of them hadn’t been changed for decades. I used to find Black’s quite useless because the definitions seemed too long, too short or counter-intuitive.
Isn’t this a ‘Yank’ law dictionary? I assume it is US only – with limited Eng. Common/Scots law use. Or is truly Transatlantic?
West Key suggests to me Cubanophile author’s Ernest Hemingway’s Key West in Florida.
and Key lime pies, of course.I would call it American, but it aspires to more. It does now have David Walker on the team for Scotland, and also one O.F. Robinson.
Oh Well, David might open it up to us Sassenachs. One or two at the Inns of Court back in London have told me he is one of the greatest living authorities on both Scots & Eng. law and knows ‘every reported court case in GB going’. As there were about 850,000 reported Eng. & Welsh crim. cases at the last count and it’s going up all the time, I wonder how he does it with all the other cases…