This first-ever, total A–Z shortened revision of Black’s features flexible cross-referencing that leads you quickly to the definitions you need. It was prepared by the noted legal lexicographer Bryan A. Garner and his team of prominent legal historians, scholars, lawyers, and judges, who rewrote every entry—both for substantive accuracy and for stylistic clarity.

This edition includes quotations and citations on terminological issues from authorities such as William Blackstone and Charles Alan Wright with illustrative quotations from hornbooks, treatises, and other scholarly sources. Black’s systematically incorporates legal terms from “cybersquatting” to “Megan’s law” to “statistical-decision theory,” and provides parts of speech and the etymology of terms where appropriate. And it includes dozens of subject and usage labels to quickly orient you to a term’s context.