A joint project in Australia between the Attorney General’s Department and Macquarie University’s TermFinder group in the Centre for Language Sciences has led to the production of LawTermFinder – an online termbank of words and phrases frequently used in Australian family law.

Legal consultants to the project are from Macquarie Law School, the ANU College of Law, and a specialist family law practice in Sydney, Dettmann Longworth Lawyers.

There are examples of each term in use, taken from recognised sources. Where possible, diagrams are shown of clusters of terms whose meanings are interconnected. There are linked audio recordings of the definitions, and links to legal documents for those seeking more information.

You can see a screenshot below. My only criticism so far is that the diagrams could be a bit bigger – however, if you click on them, an enlarged version appears (see the second screenshot).

There is a tantalizing roll-down menu of “Translation Options” which at the moment is limited to “English only”, 😦 but I’ll keep you posted on developments.