[DSNA] RE: Query re the non-divinity of lexicographers

[RonButters at AOL.COM]

Larry Solan's book is called THE LANGUAGE OF JUDGES. It was published by the
University of Chicago Press. It is terrific.

My own article on the phrase YOU SUCK! and its congeners will appear in
DICTIONARIES; it takes on some issues involving the reliability of dictionary
usage labels in a legal context (a free-speech trial). I'm also working on a
piece on the use of dictionaries in trademark cases, with particular
reference to issues of genericness.

And I believe that I have already posted a notice about the article in
DICTIONARIES several years ago called "The Dictionary as Witness."


In a message dated 5/21/2001 10:07:54 AM, slandau1755 at WORLDNET.ATT.NET writes:

<< In 1997 a law professor by the name of Ellen Aprill wrote to me for

assistance in preparing a paper on the use of dictionaries by the US Supreme

Court. We subsequently had some correspondence on the subject, and she used

the first edition of my book as one of her main sources. The paper was

published in the Arizona State Law Journal 30:2 (Summer 1998), pp. 275-336,

under the title, "The Law of the Word: Dictionary Shopping in the Supreme

Court." It analyzes a number of cases in which dictionaries were used,

particularly by Justice Scalia. You might find this of interest. There is

also a book I recall by a lawyer named Solan (I forget his first name) with

whom I had correspondence some years ago about this subject. I believe he

published a small book about it. Both were well aware of the limitations of

using dictionaries as authorities in judicial decision-making.


Sidney>>