English law dictionaries from native to non-native target users. Is there room for improvement?

The present study is concerned with the need to compile English law dictionaries addressing the law student from different legal systems, national and disciplinary cultures. To this purpose, we concentrate on three English law dictionaries currently available on the market: The Law Student’s Dictionary 2008 (LSD), Oxford Dictionary of Law 2006 (ODL), and The Longman Dictionary of Law 2007 (LDL). Whereas they target native speakers with various expertise (cf. Prefaces and/or informative blurb), in the absence of a pedagogical law dictionary for English learners they are most often recommended to non-native students. The investigation is carried out against the background of current debate on the genuine purpose of the dictionary (Wiegand 1977 ff.) on the one hand and its knowledge- and communication-orientated functions on the other (cf. e.g. Bergenholtz/Tarp 1995, 2003). Specifically, we adapt Wiegand’s (1977 ff.) actional-semantic theory of dictionary form in order to compare features of the meaning description of a restricted but highly representative number of entries across LSD, ODL and LDL. The lexicographical practices they adopt at the microstructural level are evaluated in terms of the specific needs of the non-native law student in the ESP classroom and of the translator alike. Since the analysis suggests that LSD, ODL and LDL are encyclopaedic dictionaries which assist specific target user groups with reception and knowledge-orientated tasks, we conclude giving some final thoughts to the future development of English law dictionaries into pedagogically-oriented multifunctional products addressing multiple target user groups.