''Black's Law Dictionary'' is the most frequently used

legal dictionary A law dictionary (also known as legal dictionary) is a dictionary that is designed and compiled to give information about terms used in the field of law. Types Distinctions are made among various types of law dictionaries. Differentiating facto ...

in the United States. Henry Campbell Black (1860–1927) was the author of the first two editions of the dictionary.

History

The first edition was published in 1891 by

West Publishing West (also known by its original name, West Publishing) is a business owned by Thomson Reuters that publishes legal, business, and regulatory information in print, and on electronic services such as Westlaw. Since the late 19th century, West h ...

, 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''. 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 The invention of the Internet made legal research easier therefore many state- or circuit-specific case citations and outdated or overruled case citations were omitted from the seventh edition in 1999.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. As many legal terms are derived from a

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through ...

root word, the dictionary provides a pronunciation guide for such terms. In addition, the applicable entries provide pronunciation transcriptions pursuant to those found among North American practitioners of law or medicine.

Availability

An online version of the tenth edition can be accessed through the paid Westlaw legal information service, and is available as an application for iOS devices. The second edition of ''Black's Law Dictionary'', published in 1910, is now in the

public domain The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work to which no exclusive intellectual property rights apply. Those rights may have expired, been forfeited, expressly waived, or may be inapplicable. Because those rights have expired ...

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.

Bibliography

*''Black's Law Dictionary'' 11th ed. ( West Group, 2019),

Bryan A. Garner Bryan Andrew Garner (born 1958) is an American lawyer, lexicographer, and teacher who has written more than two dozen books about English usage and style such as ''Garner's Modern English Usage'' for a general audience, and others for legal profe ...

, editor, *''Black's Law Dictionary'' 10th ed. (West Group, 2014),

, editor, * ''Black's Law Dictionary'' 9th ed. (West Group, 2009),

, editor, * ''Black's Law Dictionary'' 8th ed. (West Group, 2004),

, editor, * ''Black's Law Dictionary'' 7th ed. (West Group, 1999),

, editor, * ''Black's Law Dictionary'' 6th ed. (West Publishing, 1990) * ''Black's Law Dictionary'' 5th ed. (West Publishing, 1979) * ''Black's Law Dictionary'' Revised 4th ed. (St. Paul: West, 1968) * ''Black's Law Dictionary'' 4th ed. (St. Paul: West, 1951) * ''Black's Law Dictionary'' 3rd ed. (West Publishing Co., 1933) (the first edition after Henry C. Black's death) * ''A Law Dictionary'' 2nd ed. (St. Paul, Minn.: West Publishing, 1910)
Public domain
(accessible for free through

Google Books Google Books (previously known as Google Book Search, Google Print, and by its code-name Project Ocean) is a service from Google Inc. that searches the full text of books and magazines that Google has scanned, converted to text using optical ...

) * ''A Dictionary of Law'' 1st ed. (St. Paul, Minn.: West Publishing, 1891)

Pocket editions

* ''Black's Law Dictionary'' 6th pocket ed. (West Group, 2021),

, editor, * ''Black's Law Dictionary'' 5th pocket ed. (West Group, 2016),

, editor, * ''Black's Law Dictionary'' 4th pocket ed. (West Group, 2011),

, editor, * ''Black's Law Dictionary'' 3rd pocket ed. (West Group, 2006),

, editor, * ''Black's Law Dictionary'' 2nd pocket ed. (West Group, 2001),

, editor, * ''Black's Law Dictionary'' 1st pocket ed. (West Group, 1996),

, editor,

Non-English editions

* ''Blackův právnický slovník''. Complete translation of 6th edition into Czech. Victoria Publishing, Prague, 1993. . * Āqāʼī, Bahman. ''Farhang-i ḥuqūqī-i Bahman: Ingilīsī-Fārsī: bar asās-i Black's law dictionary'' (1999) (Fārsī) * Muqtadirah-yi Qaumī Zabān. ''Qānūnī, Angrezī-Urdu lug̲h̲at: Blaiks lāʼ dikshanarī se māk̲h̲ūz (Based on Black's law dictionary) / nigrān, Fatiḥ Muḥammad Malik'' (2002) . (Urdu)

References

{{reflist

External links

WorldCat listing for all nine editions

Libraries with the Urdu edition

Libraries with the Persian edition

''Black's Law Dictionary'', 2nd Edition (1910)
at the Internet Archive West (publisher) 1891 non-fiction books Law dictionaries