Today I am delighted to tell you about two Spanish-English and English-Spanish dictionaries of Mexican and US legal terminology. They were kindly brought to my attention by their author, Javier F. Becerra.

It is important to stress that the dictionaries not only provide translations of legal concepts, but also include explanations of such concepts in the target language and in some cases examples of use.

Javier studied law at the Escuela Libre de Derecho in Mexico City and after graduating in 1967, undertook postgraduate studies in England, in the field of comparative law at Cambridge University, as a member of Trinity College. He worked for more than 40 years with a leading Mexico City law firm, first as an associate and then as partner and managing partner.

Here are some extracts from the publisher’s website:

His interaction with foreign lawyers, especially from the U.S., as well as his teaching at a Mexico City law school, have allowed him to identify and study a large number of Mexican law concepts, theories and institutions and compare them with their counterparts under U.S. law, in order to transfer them to legal English or explain them, when no equivalents are to be found. 

The Dictionary of Mexican Legal Terminology (Spanish – English) and the Dictionary of U.S. Legal Terminology (English – Spanish) are products of a lifetime dedicated to the legal profession. They are the result of more than 40 years experience of their author at international level and of his dedication, goodwill to share what he has learned, expertise with words and the curiosity of someone who loves knowledge.

They include an explanation of each term, taking into account the Mexican as well as the U.S. legal context. In a non-legal world, it would be like having an internet translator that knows how to select the correct meaning of each term, conjugate verbs and not confuse pronouns; they help us find the ideas behind each phrase, and give not only the isolated meanings of each word. Our greatest satisfaction is to see that these dictionaries are useful to the readers.