Bouvier's Law Dictionary (Paperback)

Bouvier's Law Dictionary is a book with a long tradition in the United States legal community. The first edition was written by John Bouvier. John Bouvier (1787-1851) was born in Codogno, France, but came to the United States at an early age. He became a U.S. citizen in 1812 and was admitted to the bar in 1818 and began practicing law in Philadelphia. During his years of practice and study, he noticed the lack of a solid American law dictionary. Like any good entrepreneur, he decided to fill this need, and worked on a new law dictionary incessantly for 10 years. One of his main goals was to distinguish American law from its English antecedent. He finally presented it for publication in 1839. Like many of his generation, Bouvier used his preface to justify his work, stating the irrelevance of English legal dictionaries to the American legal system of the United States