The new 8th Edition of this classic legal reference, by the redoubtable Bryan Garner, is completely revised and updated.

This edition has over 40,000 definitions and more than 3,000 quotations. It also works like a thesaurus since it has equivalent terms and expressions for many thousand entries.

New in this edition are:

• A new addition is a comprehensive appendix on legal abbreviations.
• All new definitions, keeping up with the zeitgeist of modern law (including the faintly ridiculous “chad” which, till the last US elections, everyone else thought to be a country not a ballot paper).

Other appendices, also in the previous edition, include legal maxims (updated), the entire US Constitution, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and more.

Bryan Garner himself, bordering on genius, remains passionately dedicated to the cause of improving legal writing and has authored several books on the subject. One of the most popular is Modern Legal Usage — a classic on the subject.

In his Elements of Legal Style, Garner argues for greater precision and concision in legal drafting. While the work may be slanted more to an American practice there are, nonetheless, important lessons for all lawyers in Garner’s books.

A more recent discovery is Garner’s online mailing list, The Tip of the Day — Garner sends out an email a day with a word, discussing its correct usage, etymology and common misuse.