Author of Treatises on Judgments, Tax Titles, Intoxicating Liquors,Bankruptcy, Mortgages, Constitutional Law, Interpretationof Laws, Rescission and Cancellation of Contracts, Etc.REVISED FOURTH EDITIONBYTHE PUBLISHER'S EDITORIAL STAFFST. PAUL, MINN.WEST PUBLISHING CO.1968PREFACEREVISED FOURTH EDITIONTHE sustained and growing popularity of BLACK'S LAW DICTIONARY since its appearance more than seventy five years ago is a strikiig tribute to the scholarship and learning of Henry Campbell Black,and to the essential soundness of the plan adopted by him for thecompilation of a legal lexicon.In accordance with the original plan of this work, consistentlyadhered to in all subsequent editions, the law student, confronted inhis casebooks with reports from the Year Books, or with extractsfrom Glanvil, Bracton, Littleton, or Coke, will find in this dictionaryan unusually complete collection of definitions of terms used in oldEnglish, European, and feudal law. The student will also find in thisvolume, on page 1795, a useful Table of British Regnal Years, listingthe sovereigns of England for more than 900 years, together with thedate of accession to the throne, and the length of reign.BLACK'S LAW DICTIONARY has proven its value through theyears to the busy practitioner, judge and law student who requiresquick and convenient access to the meanings of legal terms and phrases found in statutes or judicial opinions, as well as to the special legalmeanings of standard English words—meanings which frequently cannot be found in the ordinary English language dictionaries.In the period of more than thirty five years since the publicationof the Third Edition, the law has undergone substantial changes anddevelopments. The vocabulary of the law has shown correspondingchange and growth. A word, in the often quoted dictum of Mr. JusticeHolmes, is \'the skin of a living thought,\' and the words of statutesand judicial opinions reflect the contemporary thinking of legislatorsand jurists. In order adequately to represent this thinking in thefourth edition, a patient examination was made of the thousands ofopinions handed down by the appellate courts each year. Some revisions and additions have been included in this Revised Fourth EditionAbbreviations of common words and phrases likely to be encountered by the user are explained in appropriate places throughoutthe main body of the work. A Table of Abbreviations of the titles oflaw reports, textbooks, and other legal literature is contained in theback of the volume and a Guide to Pronunciation is included in thefront of the volume.New features in this Revised Fourth Edition include the following:Code of Professional ResponsibilityCanons of Judicial EthicsAn Outline of the Minimum Requirements forAdmission to Legal Practice in the United StatesIIIPREFACE—REVISED FOURTH EDITIONIn order that BLACK'S LAW DICTIONARY should continue tobe a handy one-volume work of ready reference, the enlarged contentsof the Fourth Edition necessitated an improved typographical style.The type for the Fourth Edition was accordingly completely reset andarranged in wider columns, in a more attractive and readable manner.The Publisher has drawn freely on its wide experience to makethe present edition of BLACK'S LAW DICTIONARY superior to anyof the earlier editions. It is confidently believed that this edition, bothin content and format, sets new standards of excellence among lawdictionaries.THE PUBLISHERST. PAUL, MINN.June, 1968