This electronic dictionary of law in English could be useful to both non-native lawyers and translators. Don’t be fooled by the clear and simply written definitions – it contains plenty to content even those with a high level of English – as an example have a look at the screenshot below showing collocating words and phrases for “proximate cause” in context.

Moreover, the explanatory notes and suggestions of common mistakes include tips that everyone might find helpful – see “proxy” below.

Translegal was founded in Stockholm, Sweden in 1989. An in-house staff of lawyer-linguists provides a wide range of products and services to the international legal community, including Legal English testing, online Legal English courses and resources, live seminars and training, translation of legal documents, and the publication of Legal English materials. The app is jointly published with Paragon, the company that developed the mobile versions of Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary of Law.

The app contains more than 3,000 legal terms, and as well as audio recordings for pronunciation, synonyms and alternative spellings are also included. You can adjust the font size for entries and for the word list simply by using the “Settings” menu. You can also add “Favourites”. Wildcards can be used to make searching easier (“*” for any number of characters, and “?” for one character).

Now I’m hoping they will produce versions in other languages too. 🙂