Law book

{{Short description|Book regarding law}}

File:Hampshire County Law Books.jpg.]]

A law book is a book about law. It is possible to make a distinction between "law books" on the one hand, and "books about law" on the other.{{cite journal |last=Abel |first=Richard L. |author-link=Richard Abel (lawyer) |title=Law Books and Books about Law |date=November 1973 |journal=Stanford Law Review |volume=26 |issue=1 |pages=175–228 |doi=10.2307/1227916 |jstor=1227916}} This distinction is "useful".{{cite book |last1=Twining |first1=William |author-link1=William Twining |last2=Miers |first2=David |title=How to do Things with Rules |edition=4th |publisher=Butterworths |location=London, Edinburgh, Dublin |year=1999 |isbn=0-406-90408-1 |page=422}} A law book is "a work of legal doctrine". It consists of "law talk", that is to say, propositions of law.

"The first duty of a law book is to state the law as it is, truly and accurately, and then the reason or principle for it as far as it is known".{{cite book |last=Kent |first=James |title=Commentaries on American Law |volume=3 |location=New York |publisher=O. Halsted |year=1828 |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=1cxCAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA88 88] |via=Google Books}} The "first requisite in a law-book is perfect accuracy".Scotsman, quoted in {{cite book |editor1=James Campbell Irons |editor2=Robert Dundonald Melville |title=Treatise on the Law of Arbitration in Scotland |location=Edinburgh |publisher=William Green & Sons |date=1903 |page=622 |isbn=9780414008205 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oEEwAQAAMAAJ |via=Google Books}} A "law book is supposed to state what the law is rather than what it is not".{{cite book |title=Law Book News |location=St. Paul, Minnesota |publisher=West Publishing Company |year=1896 |volume=2 |page=84 |isbn=9780837708799 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HzEOAQAAMAAJ |via=Google Books}} "One great desideratum in a law book is facility of reference".{{cite journal |title=Review of New Books: A Practical Treatise on the Law of Trusts and Trustees |journal=The Literary Gazette; and Journal of Belles Lettres, Arts, Sciences, &c. |location=London |date=1837 |issue=1042 |at=p. 348, col 2 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9r9LAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA348 |via=Google Books}} A "list of law books and related materials" is a legal bibliography.{{cite book |editor-last=Pagel |editor-first=Scott B |title=The Legal Bibliography: Tradition, Transitions and Trends |publisher=The Haworth Press |year=1989 |isbn=0-86656-932-4 |page=1 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zAaV3j1eqWUC&pg=PA1 |via=Google Books}}