Legal bibliography explained

Legal bibliography is the bibliography of law. The term has been applied to "the kinds and functions of legal materials" and to "lists of law books and related materials".^[1]

Percy Winfield said that a "perfect legal bibliography" would be "a critical and historical account of every known source of the law of the state with which it assumes to deal".^[2]

History

In 1835, David Hoffman said that the legal bibliography of France and Germany, especially in the separate treatises on various branches of the law, was, by that date, "extensive, exact and learned". He also said that in England "in jurisprudence (beyond a naked catalogue) we have scarce another name than Bridgman".^[3]

Marvin's Legal Bibliography was the first publication of its kind to originate from the United States of America.^[4]

In 1988, Bookman's Yearbook said that legal bibliography was in a "sorry state".^[5]

References

• Friend, William Lawrence. . United States Government Printing Office. Washington DC. 1944.
• George Watson and I. Willison. The New Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature. Cambridge University Press. Columns 2277 to 2280.

Notes and References

1. Pagel, Scott B (Editor). The Legal Bibliography: Tradition, Transitions and Trends. The Haworth Press. 1989. . Page 1. Digitised copy from Google Books.
2. Winfield, Percy H. "Some Bibliographical Difficulties of English Law" (1914) 30 LQR 190. This definition is adopted by the same author in "The Chief Sources of English Legal History", Harvard University Press, 1925, at page 23.
3. Hoffman, David. A Course of Legal Study: Addressed to Students and the Profession Generally. Second Edition. Joseph Neal. Baltimore. 1836. Volume 2. Page 654. Digitised copy from Google Books.
4. British and Irish Association of Law Librarians. The Law Librarian. 1981. Volume 9.
5. Bookman's Yearbook. Bookman's Weekly. 1988. Page 10.