The first mistake most law students make is they do not get the proper law dictionary that will assist them in learning the law.
The vast majority of law students pay no attention to this important decision. They wind up paying a heavy price. Many ignore the importance of having proper legal definitions and figure they can just get a cheap paperback version or simply Google it and learn what they need to know. Most get their understanding of legal terms from obsolete law dictionaries or from lay dictionaries that have pilfered terms from ancient non-copyrighted law dictionaries. After all, it is free. They fail to understand that most law is idiomatic and cannot possibly be understood or learned from a one liner definition. Concepts require in depth explanation and an understanding of the history of its development. A one liner understanding that is 150 years old is a platitude with dangerous implications which is why most law students have such a terrible time in law school. Most of their understanding of the law is worthless.
Generally if you do a cursory look, you might narrow your choice down to Black’s law Dictionary and Dean’s Law Dictionary.
Printed vs. Digital
Most of this comparison between digital and printed law dictionaries is obvious but most students are not paying attention to the issue and purchase a printed law dictionary. Most printed products, which include law dictionaries are relics. If you are really learning the law, you must use a law dictionary well over 10 times per day. If you want to waste a lot of time with manual look ups all power to you. A digital search for not only the base term but all uses of the term is extremely easy and saves enormous amounts of time. Of course, once you find the material copy and paste is out of the question for the printed dictionary. Do you want to spend a lot of time doing a partial looking up of base terms and then retyping or do you want to spend all your time on a complete look up of all usages of the term and a simple copy and a simple copy and paste? Most of the students who use the web to find legal definitions already realize the speed advantage but they are not taking into account looking up all usages of the term in other definitions nor are they considering if there is a complete definition on the web.
Digital products provide an enormous time saver. You do have to consider that there is a downside to digital; you lose all the exercise in carrying the printed product around all day long.
Printed products are simply more expensive than digital. Law school is all about the efficient use of time to gain a true understanding of the law.
Law school is all about learning complex idiomatic terms.
You need a law dictionary that has complete definitions and full prima facie case elements.
Believe it or not, the law is all about definitions and prima facie case elements. Many of these definitions are idiomatic and require an understanding of different theories in order to be able to manipulate those definitions in a lawyer like manner. First, if you don’t know the base definitions you will never be able to do a complete job in issue spotting facts to determine issues. That often results in extremely poor results on law school exams. Good definitions have all the prima face case elements in them listed in an easy to memorize exam writing format. We call these exam writing definitions. Law school exam grades depend on whether you have memorized these exam writing definitions. If you have memorized the definitions, you can ask all the questions and will never miss an issue on exams. A good law dictionary will have these exam writing definitions along with a complete explanation of the complex idiomatic terms that are part of those definitions.
It is essential that you do a little investigative work on your own before you make a serious mistake. Locate a copy of Black’s law dictionary (most local public libraries have one). Then get a laptop and download Dean’s Law Dictionary (http://www.deanslawdictionary.com). You can use it for free for 3 days. Go to the library and do this little experimental comparison. It will only take an hour or so but it is the most important hour of your law school career.
Look up the term nuisance. The average printed dictionary has less than 100 words. Nuisance is a complex idiomatic term that you must have complete mastery of to do well in law school. Nuisance has many terms associated with it and is difficult to understand unless you have complete explanations of all its theories available to you. Almost all printed law dictionaries do not even define any sub definitions. They do not have sub definitions, case cites, nor even statutory cites. There are certainly no comparison definitions in a printed law dictionary because they simply do not have the space to spare to be thorough. From this comparison you can easily see that a printed law dictionary or even a simple one line definition for the term nuisance just won’t cut it. Without a good exam writing definition and a complete explanation of all idiomatic concepts a law dictionary would be an incomplete tool of marginal utility for the average law student. Would a definition of say 100 words compared to one in excess of 25,000 words with case cites, statutory cites, sub definitions, and comparison definitions be adequate for helping you understand the complex idiomatic term of nuisance?
Do the same comparison for the terms of mens rea principle, insanity, proximate cause, negligence, product liability, jurisdiction, and res ipsa loquitur. There are over 300 key idiomatic terms that you must master, which are vital to success in law school. If your law dictionary does not contain complete explanations for these terms, it is of no value. A good law dictionary has full case and statutory cites. It has full histories for the important idiomatic terms. It has comparison definitions between key terms in order to better demonstrate the complex concepts between the terms.
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