Why every student needs a Law dictionary

Consider these words:

appellant, respondent, interlocutor, tort, counsel, dictum, Master of the Rolls, plaintiff, 

All are found in the first opinion in one of the most famous cases in British legal history (though this is not the most famous opinion in it; instead it's a dissent). All technical terms that a student may not have encountered before.

Law is full of such technical terms, though fortunately the use of Latin has seriously declined in recent years. A student coming to a case afresh (and this case could be one of the first judgments they ever encounter the text for) may struggle to navigate some of the words in them. But the course is Law, not Vocabulary. Students must learn to master the terminology by themselves.

And so if there's one resource they need more than any other it's a Law dictionary. Trying to read legal sources without a guide to the terms can often leave one stumbling. Time and again my own has brought enlightenment, whether basic terms at the start or more complicated concepts.

I use A Dictionary of Law (and yes, the title on the cover says "Oxford Dictionary of Law" but one should always use the title and capitalisation on the inside front page as a book's title), one of many from the Oxford Reference series. It's proved invaluable as have some other volumes in the series - I once found some key details for an assignment in The Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists, not normally the first place to go on a Law degree.

So make sure you get a Law dictionary as early as possible.

Oh and the case? It's none other than Donoghue v Stevenson.

(Photo my own.)