Legal Lexicography

Legal lexicography is a term used to describe the complex of activities that are concerned with the development of theories and principles for the design, compilation, use and evaluation of dictionaries within the field of law, see e.g. Nielsen 1994. The aim of legal lexicography is to suggest principles and strategies that lead to good law dictionaries. A good monolingual law dictionary will contain relevant terms with appropriate definitions, and if the purpose of the dictionary is to facilitate legal translation, e.g. a bilingual law dictionary, it will contain definitions, translation equivalents and other relevant information such as collocation and phrases in the source language and in the target language.