It is no longer kept current. Finally, there is a publication which is not strictly a dictionary or an encyclopedia. Legal dictionaries, as their name implies, define terms found in law. This includes not only defining words unique to law, but also focusing on the legal meanings of terms that may have meanings outside of the law as well. Moreover, dictionaries are useful for translating the many Latin phrases used in the legal profession.
Legal encyclopedias provide an excellent beginning point for learning about a legal topic.
They provide a broad-based, general explanation of legal matters. Thus, a researcher can get a foothold into the primary authority for what he or she is looking up by using these sources. The researcher merely looks up the word to be defined. Legal encyclopedias, by contrast, contain a limited number of headings. The researcher should use the index volumes of the encyclopedia to find which section of which heading his or her topic is located under.