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A Dictionary of Modern Legal Usage [Hardcover]

Bryan A. Garner (Author)
4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)


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Book Description

0195077695 978-0195077698 September 14, 1995 2
With double the length and coverage of the original, this new edition of A Dictionary of Modern Legal Usage (DMLU) thoroughly marshals and analyzes modern legal vocabulary. Since the first edition, Bryan A. Garner has drawn on his unrivaled experience as a legal editor to refine his positions on legal usage and to add a wealth of new material. Here's how Garner's revision makes DMLU, Second Edition indispensable:
-- Updates every existing entry, making this a second edition in the fullest sense;
-- Adds hundreds of new entries;
-- Adds hundreds of new sections within existing entries;
-- Adds over 3,000 new illustrative quotations from judicial opinions and leading lawbooks by prominent legal commentators;
-- Reconsiders previously held positions, now saying, for example, that contractions are sometimes permissible in legal writing;
-- Fully elaborates ideas only mentioned in the first edition;
-- Takes into account numerous comments received from first edition users;
-- Expands and updates cross-references to guide readers quickly and easily.
Influential writers and editors rely on DMLU daily. Charles Alan Wright, for example, says, "I consult Garner regularly. He offers authoritative guidance on many matters of usage that are unique to legal writing....Garner is almost always pithy; he is often witty. Any lawyer, no matter how expert on words and language, is sure to learn from Garner's fine book." And the editors of Harvard Law Review have found it essential: "In a work worthy of comparison to Fowler's Dictionary of Modern English Usage, Mr. Garner...sets forth an authoritative guide to American legal usage and style. All legal writers will find it an invaluable help; many law review editors will find it a source of delight. Don't confront your editor without it."
Features:
-- Functions both as a style guide and as a law dictionary
-- Guides writers to distinguish between true terms of law and mere jargon
-- Illustrates recommended forms of expression as well as common blunders with thousands of quotations and citations
-- Explains the origins of expressions lawyers regularly use, such as Know all men by these presents, or party of the first part
-- Records and evaluates more than 100 twentieth-century neologisms, from conclusory to farminor, from Mirandize to representee
-- Distinguishes American from British usage and refers to current practice among Australian, Canadian, and Scottish legal writers
-- Solves editorial problems by dealing with practical writing issues
-- Offers wit and erudition reminiscent of H.W. Fowler, author of the first so-called usage dictionary.
In short, in its Second Edition DMLU remains, as one reviewer hailed it in 1987, "truly unique in the literature of law." It is an essential resource for practicing lawyers, scholars of the law, and libraries of all sizes and types.


Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Like the superb first edition (LJ 9/15/87), this new version of A Dictionary of Modern Legal Usage is loaded with well-documented (and even witty) definitions and examples of legal usage. With hundreds of new entries the dictionary now lists some 9000 legal words and phrases, including some Latin terms. It has also been widely updated and expanded to include several thousand new illustrative quotations, most of them cited to judicial opinions. A former lawyer and law professor and now a highly respected consultant on legal writing, Garner advises on "the many grammatical and stylistic questions that arise in legal writing." Many of these are problems of usage unique to law. This is primarily a guide to American usage, but American and British differences are carefully distinguished. Legal writers in particular will benefit from the information and advice here, and for readers, too, it makes an excellent supplement to law dictionaries. This dictionary sets the standard for legal usage. It is absolutely indispensable for law libraries, lawyers, and judges, and a wonderful addition to all academic and public library reference collections.?Mary Jane Brustman, SUNY at Albany Libs.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

The well-received Dictionary of Modern Legal Usage (1987) has been updated in this superior second edition. This dictionary of law usage and etymology, not just definitions, is written in a clear and concise style. The number of entries has almost doubled from the first edition, and additional illustrative quotations have been added with complete citations. New terms in this edition include remote relatives, reverse discrimination, gray mail, shadow jury, lynch law, and misconduct in the office.

The entries are arranged alphabetically, interspersed with brief essays on issues of style, grammar and usage, legal lexicology, word formation, and punctuation. The initial words of these essays are capitalized to set them apart. So, for example, there is both a definition of forbid, forbade, forbidden with four quotations from cases or other law books and a discussion of forbidden words and phrases with a list of useless words--irregardless, wheresoever, etc.

It is unfortunate that the introduction from the first edition was not reprinted in the new volume since it describes the purposes of the book--perhaps the most important is "to make legal writers sensitive to the aesthetic possibilities of their prose, to goad them into thinking more acutely about what works in a given context, and what does not." Even libraries that have the first edition should consider this new one, which is highly recommended for any law collection in public or academic libraries.


Product Details

  • Hardcover: 984 pages
  • Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA; 2 edition (September 14, 1995)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0195077695
  • ISBN-13: 978-0195077698
  • Product Dimensions: 10.2 x 7.4 x 2.1 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 4.2 pounds
  • Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #873,138 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Bryan Garner is the award-winning author or editor of more than 20 books. He is a prolific lecturer, having taught more than 2,500 writing workshops since the 1991 founding of his company, LawProse, Inc. His works include Garner on Language and Writing and Making Your Case: The Art of Persuading Judges, co-written with Justice Antonin Scalia. Garner has served as editor-in-chief of Black's Law Dictionary since 1995, and he is the author of the grammar-and-usage chapter in the venerable Chicago Manual of Style.

 

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Average Customer Review
4.7 out of 5 stars (15 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Can't Live Without It, September 7, 2003
As an editor of legal newsletters, I do not know what I would do without this absolutely necessary tool of the trade. Not only do I, a non-attorney, find it indispensible, but my colleagues who are members of the Bar are constantly borrowing my copy "just to check." And whatever they, or I, am checking--it's in there.

Garner has a way of condensing solid and often very intricate information into a few paragraphs so succinct, and so informative, that anyone can understand. When one is rushing against a deadline, editing for and about attorneys and the law, reaching for Garner often makes the difference.

I would give up my dictionary before I would part with this book, and I cannot recommend it highly enough. Garner has earned his place in the annals of legal writing and editing, and I hold him--and this book--in the highest esteem.

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13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A reference that every lawyer should own -- and use., August 21, 2001
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John P. (Kennett Square, PA USA) - See all my reviews
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Garner should be carried shoulder-high for this work. Much expanded beyond the first edition, it provides intelligent, informed guidance on both individual terms and general topics. What does it really mean to "beg the question"? Is "struck" preferable to "stricken"? What's the plural of "cestui que trust"? Garner does not simply give thumbs up or down; he explains the pros and cons of various usages, with an outlook that is literate and, above all, practical. Time after time I find that he has anticipated my questions and has answered them with just the right level of detail.
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars The Best, June 15, 2005
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L. Thacker (Minnesota USA) - See all my reviews
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This is, by far, the single best resource on legal usage one can buy. I never cease to be amazed at how often I pull this book off of my shelf to find it giving me a clear and accurate answer to a usage question. I purchased this book several years ago after attending one of Garner's legal writing seminars. That seminar and this book have dramatically improved my legal writing skills. Those two tools positively influence my writing every single day. If you follow Garner's advice and guidance, you will eliminate deadening and condescending legalese from your legal writing and replace it with clear and concise prose. My clients appreciate receiving contracts that are actually readable and my contracts are less frequently subject to alternative interpretations because ambiguities are largely eliminated. As a lawyer or paralegal, do yourself a favor and buy this book. Better yet, buy this book and take Garner's Advanced Legal Drafting seminar. You won't regret it.
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Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
needless variant, slipshod extension, inelegant variation, irreparable injury rule, modern legal writing, phrasal adjective, formal legal prose, general lay sense, noun plague, special legal sense, buried verbs, nonlegal writing, formal legal writing, postpositive adjective, causal challenge, fancy variant, nonlegal contexts, legal idiom, former spelling, statute drafting, testimonium clause, legal slang, usage critic, inchoate dower, much legal writing
Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
United States, Glanville Williams, New York, Grant Gilmore, Fred Rodell, Roscoe Pound, Patrick Devlin, House of Lords, Sunday Times, Criminal Lou, William Geldart, The Law of Federal Courts, Alan Harding, The Law of Admiralty, Ephraim Tutt, The Death of Contract, Clinton Rossiter, Douglas Laycock, Edward Jenks, Eric Partridge, Jeremy Bentham, Max Radin, Rupert Cross, Gordon Post, Great Britain
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