Law dictionary - Law Society Info

[Nutty_Norm]

Hi Guys,

I know its not critical in this instance, but I thought I'd extend my research (and making fun) by using FOI requests via http://www.whatdotheyknow.com , So I put in a FOI request to the law society so we can know which law dictionary is current, and this is the reply. It's almost as if they pick from a selection of them to suit their aggenda

Norm.


Information Compliance
The Law Society

21 April 2009

Dear Norman,

Your enquiry was passed to the Law Society's library for suggestions
regarding the actual name of the dictionary used in the UK for court
proceedings and legal definitions. The Law Society library is a private
library for solicitors and as a general point, library staff do not
usually answer enquiries from members of the public.

As far as our library is aware, there is no one single source used in
the UK for legal definitions. Solicitors contact the library for
definitions which may come from a range of sources. In addition, we are
only able to comment on where definitions may be found within our own
collection; there may be other sources of legal definitions which the
library does not hold or have access to. If you wish to know the
dictionaries used within the HM Court Service, I suggest you contact the
courts directly for this information. From our library's own holdings,
two of the best known dictionaries giving details of where to find legal
definitions are the following:

1) Stroud's judicial dictionary of words and phrases. 7th ed (2007,
Sweet and Maxwell)
(this dictionary provides details of where words have been judicially
defined by the court)

2) Words and phrases legally defined. 4th ed (2008, LNB)
(this dictionary provides details of where words have been defined
within legislation)

In addition from our own experience, solicitors may request definitions
from a range of sources including the Oxford English Dictionary. The
consolidated index to Halsbury's Laws of England (4th and 5th eds) also
has a section called words and phrases which directs users to specific
passages within the 50+ volume publication. Legal definitions are often
found within the body of legislation; quite often Acts have a specific
section entitled definitions. Dictionaries such as Words and Phrases
note where these definitions may be found. In addition to these sources
the library has a further 22 dictionaries in our current law
dictionaries section and these provide information on legal definitions,
legal maxims, latin phrases etc. We also hold a range of other legal
dictionaries. Details of our library's holdings of legal dictionaries
can be found on the library's catalogue
http://www.lawsociety.org.uk/libraryonline. Select the Books search,
enter the phrase legal dictionaries within the keyword search box to
retrieve details of the dictionaries we hold. For your information, we
do not hold Black's law dictionary, 8th ed (2004).

As I mentioned before, this information is taken solely from our
library's holdings and should not be taken as a definitive list of
sources or as a recommendation should you wish to purchase or refer to
any of them.

Yours sincerely

Bob Stanley
Information Compliance Manager - Legal Services
The Law Society, 113 Chancery Lane, London WC2A 1PL
t: 020 7242 1222 (x4117)
f: 020 7320 5685
http://www.lawsociety.org.uk

[jg131]

Hi,

Sounds like a typically vague answer from a solicitors ,I suppose like many closely guarded professions they do not want to give anything away.....after all it's in their interests to keep their craft secret as if everyone knew what they were doing and how they operated they would be out of a job as everyone would do it themselves and put all the £500 per hour solicitors/lawyers out of a job.

Many Regards

jg