The Dictionnaire encyclopédique de théorie et de sociologie du droit (Encyclopedic Dictionary of the Theory and Sociology of Law) was the first encyclopedia published in the field of law and society. André-Jean Arnaud, the editor in chief, worked with ten coeditors to produce the first edition in 1988 and a second expanded version in 1993. According to the bilingual French and English prefaces in the editions, the idea for the dictionary arose from the concern with the “disturbing explosion of terms” and their significance.

This situation had several dimensions. First, scientific knowledge had become vulgarized, balkanized, and “babelized” (with jargon and neologisms). Second, legal theory and legal sociology were developing fruitful concepts that, nevertheless, issued from other disciplines and for other purposes. Third, the intercultural exportation ...