Sunday, February 22, 2009

Whisner on a Dictionary for the Ages

Mary Whisner, University of Washington School of Law, has posted Dictionaries Make Strange Bedfellows, which originally appeared in Language and the Law: Proceedings of a Conference, ed. Marlyn Robinson (Buffalo, N.Y.: William S. Hein & Co., 2003), 93-108. Here is the abstract:
Bouvier's Law Dictionary was very popular among U.S. lawyers for a century, from the publication of its first edition in 1839. It is useful today for historical researchers. And it is very highly regarded by a particular sort of legal researcher--tax protesters, Patriots, Freemen, and their ideological kin. This essay offers biographical information about John Bouvier and discusses its current use.
Image credit.