How To Cite Black’S Law Dictionary?
Citation Data
- MLA. Brian A. Garner, editor in chief. Black’s Law Dictionary. St. Paul, MN :Thomson Reuters, 2014.
- APA. Brian A. Garner, editor in chief. ( 2014). Black’s law dictionary. St. Paul, MN :Thomson Reuters,
- Chicago. Brian A. Garner, editor in chief. Black’s Law Dictionary. St. Paul, MN :Thomson Reuters, 2014.
Does Black’s Law Dictionary have a special citation form?
How to Cite Black’s Law Dictionary Forest Time First published in 1891, Black’s Law Dictionary is considered by many to be the premier reference for legal terms and quotations. The dictionary follows its own form of citation. It is form commonly recognized and used by legal professionals throughout the United States. List the title being sure to underline it.
Is Black’s Law Dictionary credible?
Never think of a legal dictionary as a final stop in your research. While some, like Black’s, are considered very trustworthy, remember that the definitions in a legal dictionary are not official, authoritative statements of the law.
Who is the publisher of Black’s Law Dictionary?
Black’s Law Dictionary
| Image of the 7th edition | |
|---|---|
| Editor | Bryan A. Garner (1999–present) |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Publisher | West (Thomson Reuters) |
What type of source is Black’s law dictionary?
Legal dictionaries define terms that are unique to the practice of law. Legal dictionaries are available in print and online. Black’s Law Dictionary is the most well-known legal dictionary and is often cited by courts when addressing the meaning of particular legal terms.
Is Black’s law dictionary a primary source?
The following is a guest post by Shameema Rahman, Legal Reference Specialist in our Public Services Division. Shameema is no stranger to In Custodia Legis. Her previous posts include: World Digital Library and the Qatar Foundation ; Classes Offered by the Law Library of Congress ; and Researching an Unfamiliar Country’s Law,
This spring several of the staff in the Law Library Reading Room began to update the quick guides to legal research, which can be found on our website. I had created the Guide to Secondary Legal Resources in 2006 and I thought now would be a good time to direct our readers to this and other guides as well as to provide some brief information about various secondary legal resources.
Legal resources are divided into two broad categories: primary and secondary sources. Primary legal resources are statements of the law from a court in the form of an opinion or a law passed by Congress or a state legislature. Secondary legal resources provide an analysis or commentary on primary law. 
There are a variety of secondary sources available to researchers of U.S. law. These include: legal dictionaries and encyclopedias; annotated law reports; legal periodicals ; legal treatises and nutshells; Restatements; loose-leaf services; and legal directories.
The Law Library of Congress has an extensive collection of legal treatises and other commentaries that can be located through the Library of Congress’s online catalog, Legal dictionaries and legal encyclopedias are two of the most basic secondary legal sources. Legal dictionaries provide definitions of words in their legal sense or use including foreign and Latin legal phrases.
A legal dictionary may also give examples of use in a legal context. The leading legal dictionary in the U.S. is Black’s Law Dictionary, Words & Phrases, which is a multivolume publication, also provides legal definitions of terms as well as multiple entries showing how a word or phrase has been defined or used by the courts. 
Other secondary legal resources include annotated law reports with essays that analyze and discuss particular points of law and provide citations to other primary and secondary legal resources. The American Law Reports (ALR) series is the most comprehensive set of annotated law reports: 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5 th, 6th and Federal ( ALR Federal ),
Legal treatises are single or multivolume publications which provide a highly organized, detailed exposition of a specific area of law such as contracts, torts or criminal law. Nutshells also provide an overview of a specific legal topic but they are more concise in their treatment of the topic than a treatise.
The Civil Procedure in a Nutshell for example is a very helpful publication for a quick glance on a specific area of interest. Additional secondary legal resources include legal periodicals which are useful in helping locate up-to-the-minute information on developing areas of the law, often in highly specialized areas.
- There are a variety of legal periodicals including law school journals, bar association periodicals, legal newspapers and newsletters.
- Other secondary resources include Restatements and loose-leaf services.
- The Restatements organize and codify common law: each section begins with a restatement of the law which is followed by hypothetical examples.
The Restatements are written by members of the American Law Institute many of whom are important members of the bar. Loose-leaf services by contrast are commercial publications which collate regulations and statutes in areas of the law which are changing quickly such tax, banking, securities or employment law.
- Loose-leaf publications are published in binders and new pages can be easily inserted while out of date information is removed.
- Legal directories are used to locate legal and government information.
- For example the United States Government Manual is a directory of federal agencies.
- Entries include a short description of responsibilities of the agency, contacts, and references to legislation which established the agency.
Martindale-Hubbell Law Directory is one of the most popular legal directories; it provides a listing of attorneys and law firms by state and country. Some directories include information about lawyers practicing in a specific area of law and/or in specific jurisdictions.
Is black laws dictionary a secondary source?
Black’s Law Dictionary is one of the secondary sources you can search in Westlaw. You can find definitions for more than 55,000 law-related words and phrases.
How do you cite a legal dictionary in APA?
Published on November 6, 2020 by Jack Caulfield, Revised on June 16, 2022. This article reflects the APA 7th edition guidelines. Click here for APA 6th edition guidelines. To cite a dictionary definition in APA Style, start with the author of the dictionary (usually an organization), followed by the publication year, the word you’re citing, the dictionary name, the publisher (if not already listed as author), and the URL.
What is the most trusted dictionary source?
Dictionary by Merriam-Webster : America’s most-trusted online dictionary.
What is the most reliable dictionary source?
Oxford English Dictionary More than a dictionary, the OED is a comprehensive guide to current and historical word meanings in English. The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) is widely accepted as the most complete record of the English language ever assembled.
Unlike typical language dictionaries, which only define words in terms of their current uses and meanings, the OED is a historical dictionary. Each entry lists a word’s changing meanings (including those now obsolete), and illustrates those changes with quotations from literary texts and other historical records.
For American English, see the, : Oxford English Dictionary
Who is the author of the law dictionary?
Law Dictionary | Book by Steven H. Gifis | Official Publisher Page | Simon & Schuster.
Who is the author of Black’s law dictionary 2nd edition?
Black, Henry Campbell.
Which Black’s Law Dictionary is the best?
Black’s Law Dictionary is considered by many to be the preeminent legal dictionary for American Law. It can be found among the Library’s print collection (Reserve KF156. B53) and is also available electronically on Westlaw.
When was Black Law Dictionary published?
The First Edition of Black’s Law Dictionary Henry Campbell Black. A Dictionary of Law: Containing Definitions of the Terms and Phrases of American and English Jurisprudence, Ancient and Modern. St. Paul, MN: West Pub., 1891, Henry Campbell Black (1860—1927) was born in Ossining, New York.
- He was educated at Trinity College in Connecticut, from which he received a bachelor’s degree in 1880, a master’s degree in 1887, and an LLD in 1916.
- He studied law in Pennsylvania and was admitted to practice there in 1883, but soon abandoned the practice of law, and with his parents moved to Washington, D.C.
In addition to authoring Black’s Law Dictionary, he also wrote Handbook of American Constitutional Law, and was the editor of The Constitutional Review from 1917 until his death in 1927. Regarded as the definitive law dictionary in the United States, the first edition was published in 1891.
Shorter than Bouvier’s law dictionary, Black’s soon eclipsed all competitors and the first edition was followed by a second in 1910. In his preface, Black wrote that his aim was to publish the first comprehensive law dictionary. He acknowledged his reliance on other law dictionaries and treatises in preparing his work.
However, he also noted that his dictionary contained many entries for “which the definition had to be written entirely de novo,” The sixth and earlier editions of the book provided case citations for the term defined, a feature popular with practitioners since this provided a starting point for further legal research.
- The eighth edition introduced a unique system of perpetually updated case citations and cross-references to legal encyclopedias.
- The current, ninth edition was published in 2009 and edited by Bryan Garner.
- To date this dictionary has been cited by the U.S.
- Supreme Court in roughly 250 cases, the first time in 1901 for Black’s definition of “common law.” Gift of Bryan Garner (UT Law 1984) and Pan Garner.
: The First Edition of Black’s Law Dictionary
What type of source is a law dictionary?
Secondary sources explain the law. They include legal dictionaries, legal encyclopedias, legal periodicals, annotations, and treatises.
What does black mean in Black’s law dictionary?
S) There is no Definition for BLACK in Black’s Law Dictionary 1st Edition. t) There is no definition for BLACK in Bouvier’s Law Dictionary(1856). u) NO Definition of Human in Bouvier’s law dictionary of 1891. –
Do law students need Black’s law dictionary?
Black’s Law Dictionary – A good legal dictionary should be standard for every first year law student. Legal dictionaries are helpful to understand what the lawyers call “terms of art.” These are often ordinary words or phrases that carry special connotations in the legal context.
For instance, the word “consideration” in Contract law carries far different meaning legally than in normal speech. There are several good legal dictionaries to choose from, but one of the best is Black’s Law Dictionary. The abridged version with pronunciations should be detailed enough to carry you through three years of law school.
Unless you plan to open a legal library, you probably don’t need the unabridged version. You also generally will not need a pocket dictionary and a home dictionary. Keep the dictionary close to where you actually read your assignments. Any time you don’t understand a term or think the term might carry additional meaning, look it up.
Is it proper to cite a legal encyclopedia in legal writing?
Use a legal encyclopedia for background and to help you get a sense of the vocabulary for your issue. These are an excellent place to start if you do not know much about a topic. Although great for background material, avoid citing to an encyclopedia as your source of authority for an argument.
Is Black’s Law Dictionary authoritative?
Black’s Law Dictionary, 11th edition Garner, the world’s leading legal lexicographer, the 11th edition is the most authoritative, comprehensive law dictionary ever published.
What does a dictionary citation look like?
If you are creating an in-text citation for a dictionary entry, you would follow APA’s standard in-text citation guidelines of including the first part of the reference and the year. For example, your in-text citations might look like this: ( Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, 1999) or (Onomatopoeia, n.d.).
- These in-text citations would then align with your reference list citations.
- If you are citing a full dictionary in your reference list, you would place the title of the dictionary in the position where the author’s name would normally go, so it would look like this: Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary (10th ed.).
(1999). Merriam-Webster Incorporated. If you are citing a single entry in an online dictionary, you will need to include the word that you looked up first, so it would look something like this: Onomatopoeia. (n.d.) In Merriam-Webster’s collegiate dictionary,
Learn more about citing electronic sources. See How do I cite in my text? for more tips on in-text citations. View some common reference list examples on the Writing Center’s website,
Further Questions? Would you like a current or future assignment to be reviewed by the Writing Center? If so please visit the Writing Center’s Paper Reviews webpage and make an appointment with us! Do you have other general writing questions? Email the Writing Center at [email protected],
What are the four elements of a legal dictionary citation?
The basic elements when citing a legal dictionary include: Dictionary Name. Pinpoint page number. Edition number.