Liddicoat, Johnathon --- "Australian Law Dictionary - Hard Copy & Online edited by Trischa Mann" [2010] JlLawInfoSci 16; (2010) 20(2) Journal of Law, Information and Science 121

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Australian Law Dictionary – Hard copy & Online

Trischa Mann (General Editor)

Oxford University Press (2010) ISBN: 9780195557558

617 pgs (plus appendices)

The study and practise of law revolves around denotations. Whether statutory or common law based, legal definitions regularly determine the operation of the law. As a consequence, a legal dictionary often sits on a legal practitioner’s and a law student’s shelf; or as it is now, a web browser’s bookmark list too.

Oxford’s first combined hard copy and online Australian legal dictionary is more than just a new edition with an online version. According to general editor Trischa Mann, the dictionary has been written ‘from the ground up’ as an entirely new publication with unique emphasis on 25 essential areas of law (including the Priestley Eleven subjects). The focus on these 25 areas of law enables the dictionary’s many contributors to contextualise certain entries within the broader layout of the law. This focus on core areas, including hierarchical diagrams of related causes of action, ostensibly makes the dictionary more student orientated. However, as dictionaries are designed as a first instance resource and often used, as the editor points out, ‘to jog the memory’, it still has utility for a practitioner.

The dictionary’s entries are accurate, concise and contain references to key publications, essential cases, applicable legislation and relevant websites. Modern cases such as Ice TV are cited and entries range from traditional Latin terms to modern phrases such as ‘emission trading’. In an arbitrary test of common and more obscure legal phrases, the only term that was found not to have an individual entry was ‘defence power’. A closer inspection indicated that a few other elementary federal constitutional powers were also missing, although these ‘missing’ entries were quite uncommon in a test that included ‘Makarrata’, ‘textualism’ and ‘ad idem’. Despite this, in general the text is sharp and precise and embodies the editors desire to give relief from the information overload which in this internet age can at times seem overwhelming; even to experts. It is also worth noting that like all other modern dictionaries, the appendices includes a copy of the Australian constitution, a list of High Court appointments, popular case names and a list of medium neutral law report citations.

Whilst the hard copy lives up to the expectations of a first point of reference legal dictionary, the online version is the selling point of Oxford’s package. The legal world in some aspects has moved a little slower towards the digital age than other professions, but recently Australian legal dictionaries have under gone a quantum leap: Lexis’ Australian legal dictionary is now available in an iPhone application and Oxford has this publication, which can also be bought just as an online publication.

The online version is accessed though a website at www.oup.com. A short registration is required and after entering a character code that is found in a booklet (it comes packed with the dictionary), you are granted access to their digital dictionary. Once online you can locate definitions by browsing entries using an alphabetically ordered list or via a search engine. There are links to descriptions of core subjects, associated websites and there are also links to pdf versions of the appendices.

The digital version of the dictionary is quite convenient and there are links between related entries that allow you to quickly obtain the information you need. Unfortunately however, this is the extent of additional features in the online version. Digitisation of hard copy resources has the potential to link limitless sources; from a publisher like Oxford it is conceivable to have the option to get combined access to other dictionaries as part of the same package. Moreover, the editor mentions in the ‘How to use this dictionary’ section that citations ‘take up a lot of room’. This may be the case in the hard copy, but not in the digital form; there is no reason why the digital version cannot contain additional citations to key cases and/or legislation; both with pin point references.

Another limit to the digital version is that it is only available online: this means that an active internet connection is required for access. One of the notable features of other digital dictionaries has been an installable version on your hard drive, which can be accessed offline. The digital dictionary that comes bundled with current Mac operating systems is an example of this convenience.

It is foreseeable that one day, a dictionary could be used as a first instance reference from which users have the option to quickly and seamlessly move to cases, legislation and then to secondary sources; especially when other sources are associated with the publisher or their partners. Oxford’s new Australian legal dictionary with its digital twin takes a step in that direction. Although criticism can be levelled at it, the product is user friendly, concise, convenient and affordable.

Johnathon Liddicoat

Research fellow, Centre for Law and Genetics, University of Tasmania