Legal Lexicography ― A Comparative Perspective

Legal lexicography or jurilexicography is the most neglected aspect of the discipline of jurilinguistics, despite its great relevance for translators, academics and comparative lawyers. This volume seeks to bridge this gap in legal literature by bringing together contributions from ten jurisdictions from leading experts in the field. The work addresses aspects of legal lexicography, both monolingual and bilingual, in its various manifestations in both civilian and common law systems. It thus compares epistemic approaches in a subject that is inextricably bound up with specific legal systems and specific languages. Topics covered include the history of French legal lexicography, ordinary language as defined by the courts, the use of law dictionaries by the judiciary, legal lexicography and translation, and a proposed multilingual dictionary for the EU citizen. While the majority of contributions are in English, the volume includes three written in French. The collection will be a valuable resource for both scholars and practitioners engaging with language in the mechanism of the law.

MA!irtA-n Mac Aodha currently works as a lawyer-linguist (working largely with the Irish language) at the Council of the European Union. From 2009 to 2012 he was employed as a legal reviser in the Legal Service of the European Commission. He is carrying out doctoral research at the UniversitAc de Strasbourg on the law dictionary and how it can be improved from the translator's point of view. He spent three years as a visiting scholar and researcher at the Quebec Research Centre of Private and Comparative Law, McGill University. He is the editor of the fourth edition of the Dictionnaire de maximes et locutions latines utilisAces en droit. His research and publications are in the field of jurilinguistics.