Wolters Kluwer Bouvier Law Dictionary

Wolters Kluwer Bouvier Law Dictionary

Bibliographic Details

Main Editor: Stephen Michael Sheppard.
Format: Book and Electronic Format
Language: English
Call Number:
Published: Wolters Kluwer, 2011

Introduction

This dictionary is directly based on the sixth edition (1856) of John Bouvier’s law dictionary, which was the first major legal dictionary of the United States. But is “an entirely new book, with new definitions for every term, based on quotations and entries from tens of thousands of new cases, and statutes, as well on Bouvier’s final text and other classical materials.”(1). It contains more than 10,000 terms and phrases in 8,000 entries.

University of Arkansas law students and staff members help

This is the first new edition of the Bouvier Law Dictionary from the beginning of the 20th century. This dictionary has been in production at the University of Arkansas School of Law for nearly a decade, and many of the University of Arkansas School of Law students have worked
in researching the quotations and sources that support the drafting of its articles.

Sheppard enlisted the help of dozens of University of Arkansas law students and staff members while writing the dictionary. Current and former law students provided research and draft definitions, while members of the office of university relations worked with Sheppard to produce the voice work on the mobile applications. Sheppard also was supported in his research by the Enfield Professorship and by the University of Arkansas School of Law dean’s fund for summer research.

History

John Bouvier wrote the dictionary read and used by John Marshall, Daniel Webster and Abraham Lincoln. “Bouvier was baffled as to why American lawyers constantly consulted English authorities and based their legal arguments on how foreign English authorities were or were not applicable in the United States. He felt available English law dictionaries could not adequately define emerging “New World” legal concepts in a non-feudal, republican context. … Bouvier’s work became the “go-to”compendium for American lawyers and jurists through the early Twentieth Century.

The dictionary continued to be published… until the 1940s. By that time, Bouvier’s competitors included Black’s, Ballantine’s, and countless other legal treatises that described law in the United States. Bouvier was relegated to law library bone-yards where it sat gathering dust, awaiting a trip to the recycle bin.

Prof. Stephen Michael Sheppard (University of Arkansas) and Wolters Kluwer Law & Business saw the potential in this title and resurrected it from obscurity.”(2)

Organization of Entries

Like some encyclopedias, the dictionary is arranged alphabetically by concept. With this organization, the reader can put the word into a broader context.

The dictionary provides homonym entries to the structure of the legal principles it explains. Where most legal dictionaries provide definitions only, Bouvier provides definitions and related legal principles and doctrines that explain, modify, and expound.

In many entries, there is a note about the concept’s derivation that may include etymological notes or summaries from cases, law journals or other legal sources. These “derivation notes” explains where the word is derived from, its usage, comprehensive cross-references, including a case citation, if applicable. They are summaries which help the reader understand the evolution of the legal concept. Next are usage notes that quote sources properly using the word. Finally, the entry ends with “See also” notes that allow the reader to find similar law terms.

The content of the Dictionary includes latin phrases and special-meaning words.

The General Editor

Steve Sheppard grew up in Mississippi, where he went to school and college. He went to law school at Columbia and to grad school at Oxford, finishing his doctorate back at Columbia. Steve practiced law full-time for a while but still does amusing or important trials, mainly for charities and mainly in Mississippi.

He has taught law in many places, lecturing and giving scholarly papers in many countries. He teaches full time at the University of Arkansas.

“The Bouvier Law Dictionary enjoys a long and proud tradition within the U.S. legal community,”said Stacy L. Leeds, dean of the School of Law. “Thanks to professor Sheppard’s leadership and the many UA law students who assisted him in this work, there is now a strong Arkansas tie to this publication’s rich history. Given its accuracy and usefulness, and the obvious care and hard work that professor Sheppard put into it, Bouvier is poised to retake its place as the go-to law dictionary.”

Sheppard’s other works include editions of The Selected Writings of Sir Edward Coke, Karl Llewellyn’s The Bramble Bush and E. Allan Farnsworth’s An Introduction to the Legal System of the United States. He also wrote with George Fletcher American Law in a Global Context, and in 2009 Cambridge University Press published his “I Do Solemnly Swear: The Moral Obligations of Legal Officials.”(3)

Scope: Concise, Desk and Electronic Editions

The Wolters Kluwer Bouvier Law Dictionary was published in three editions for 2011. The Dictionary is availabe in print, in digital format and as a mobile application. The first print product was the Concise Edition, which is 1,230 pages long and was released in August 2011. In the late 2011, the
Desk Edition, of about four times that length, was released, including many of the quotations
on which the definitions are based. The desk edition is delivered in two volumes. This edition provides complete definitions for each legal term as well as word derivation and word usage, with many word usage examples. The dictionary for mobile devices has an intuitive interface.

From the Publisher

Derived from the famous 1853 law dictionary used by Daniel Webster, Abraham Lincoln, and Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. The Wolters Kluwer Bouvier Law Dictionary has been brought completely up-to-date by a distinguished and widely-published legal scholar and teacher. Steve Sheppard, with law degrees from Oxford and Columbia Universities, brings his scholarship, international practice, and litigation experience to bear in making the famous text as relevant today as it was when it first broke ground in American law. Definitions derived from contemporary as well as classic sources give the reference book its depth and authority. Building on Bouvier’s structure and entries, Professor Sheppard has added thousands of new terms and rewritten many original definitions. 8,500 robust, paragraph-length entries explain more than 11,200 words and phrases, far more than the original two-volume set of 6,600. Each entry is written to be understood by the modern student, argued by the modern lawyer, and cited by the modern judge. An intuitive structure and thorough cross-referencing makes the first complete revision of this essential dictionary in more than a hundred years accessible and easy to use.

Features

The classic becomes contemporary.
Definitions derived from ancient and contemporary sources, with current statutes, regulations, cases, and treatises building on ancient and medieval sources
Designed for modern use and contemporary issues
Authority in General Editor Stephen Sheppard:
Widely published by Cambridge, Oxford and other leading presses
Holds law degrees from Oxford and Columbia Universities, including a doctorate in the science of law
Draws on international legal practice, litigation, and teaching experience for the selection of terms
Encyclopedic in scope:
8,500 entries, explaining more than 11,200 words and phrases, far more than Bouvier’s original two-volume set with 6,600 entries
Robust entries, written in paragraphs rather than sentence fragments
Clear statement of meanings, context and usage of key terms
Intuitive structure, for ease of use:
Major terms organize concepts and related terms: e.g. exceptions to Hearsay under hearsay, the forms of estate under Estate
Thorough cross-referencing, making terms easy to find

Table of Contents

Table of Contents of the Compact Edition:

Welcome to the Bouvier Law Dictionary
How to Use the Bouvier Law Dictionary Compact Edition
The Order of Words and Phrases
The Bouvier Law Dictionary Project
The Entries, A-Z
First Appendix: The Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution
Second Appendix: Justices of the United States Supreme Court

Notes

2: Book Review – The Wolters Kluwer Bouvier Law Dictionary, Desk Edition, Holly Lakatos , AALL Blog
“Sheppard Releases All-New Law Dictionary”. University of Arkansas Newswire.

  1. “Aesthetic Zoning”. Wolters Kluwer Bouvier Law Dictionary
  2. “Aesthetic Zoning”. Wolters Kluwer Bouvier Law Dictionary
  3. “Aesthetic Zoning”. Wolters Kluwer Bouvier Law Dictionary

See Also

Bouvier’s Law Dictionary and Concise Encyclopedia, 1914
Bouvier’s Dictionary of Law
Bouvier’s Law Dictionary and Institutes of American Law
Maxims of Law from Bouvier’s Dictionary of Law
International Law: A Dictionary
Semantic Indexing and Law Dictionary
Mozley and Whiteley’s Law Dictionary
John Bouvier
Concise Law Dictionary of Words, Phrases and Maxims
Legal dictionary
Dictionary of International and Comparative Law


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