Garner's Dictionary of Legal Usage - Tapa dura

There seems to be no linguistic topic he does not hold a vehement view on...The great strength of all the entries, whether controversial or not, is the compendious use of properly cited legal sources as examples. (Times Literary Supplement)

This new edition of Garner's Dictionary of Legal Usage marshals and analyses the modern legal vocabulary more thoroughly than any other contemporary reference work can claim to do. Since the first edition, Bryan A. Garner has drawn on his unrivalled experience as a legal editor to refine his positions on legal usage and to add a wealth of new material. The new Third Edition remains indispensable by updating numerous entries, adding dozens of new entries and hundreds of new sections within existing entries; adding hundreds of new illustrative quotations from judicial opinions and leading law books by prominent legal commentators; revising the selected bibliography; and expanding and updating cross-references to guide readers quickly and easily. A new preface introduces the reader to this edition and discusses content that has been newly incorporated.

Influential writers and editors rely on DMLU daily. It is an essential resource for practising lawyers, scholars of the law, and libraries of all sizes and types. DMLU functions both as a style guide and as a law dictionary, guiding writers to distinguish between true terms of law and mere jargon and illustrating recommended forms of expression. Common blunders are discussed in ways that will discourage writers from any further use. The origins of frequently used expressions are described with engaging prose. Collectively, there is no better resource for approaching legal writing in a logical, clear, and error-free way.