Where can you find out about legal terms? Here are some of my preferred references. Please keep in mind that this list is not intended to be an exhaustive list but a place to get started.
United States
A good general reference work is Black’s Law Dictionary. You can buy a new one at any major bookstore or minor ones that sell new books. Since this book is so widely used, you may be able to find a secondhand copy in places that sell used books. Upon checking eBay, I found 27 copies of various editions for sale by multiple people at prices ranging from $1.00 to $60.00. You don’t necessarily need the latest edition. If you need the latest case law on, say, estoppel, you should probably be consulting a lawyer. (See the Note/Disclaimer section about how to find one.) Two or three editions back is quite okay.
FindLaw will get you a lot of general legal information. I recommend setting up an account for yourself on the "legal professional" part of the site. "Legal professional" includes some categories for non-lawyers, so you don’t have to worry about using it. It contains links to codes and case law (on the "legal professional" side), which can be helpful if your source text says, "as this term in used in [some provision of law]."
The Court Statistics Project provides the various court structures in several states. Names of courts are not necessarily intuitive. For example, New York has multiple Supreme Courts, and their verdicts can be appealed within New York.
The World Legal Information Institute takes you to many places. You can locate the relevant country and go from there. You can also use their search engine and find material on the subject of interest to you.
The European Union translates lots of material into the official languages of its various member countries. Here, you can find an index to the different things it writes about and, once there, find documents about the subject in question.
Some specific languages:
For any of these dictionaries (or for any bilingual dictionary in any field), if you don’t understand a certain term, you should at least run it through a search engine to see if it’s used the same way. I’ve often seen references to "resolution of a contract" as a translation of "resolución de un contrato" in translations done by people who don’t realize that "resolution" isn’t used this way in English. A more usual translation is rescission or revocation.
FindLaw will get you a lot of general legal information. I recommend setting up an account for yourself on the "legal professional" part of the site. "Legal professional" includes some categories for non-lawyers, so you don’t have to worry about using it. It contains links to codes and case law (on the "legal professional" side), which can be helpful if your source text says, "as this term in used in [some provision of law]."
The Court Statistics Project provides the various court structures in several states. Names of courts are not necessarily intuitive. For example, New York has multiple Supreme Courts, and their verdicts can be appealed within New York.
The World Legal Information Institute takes you to many places. You can locate the relevant country and go from there. You can also use their search engine and find material on the subject of interest to you.
The European Union translates lots of material into the official languages of its various member countries. Here, you can find an index to the different things it writes about and, once there, find documents about the subject in question.
Some specific languages:
For any of these dictionaries (or for any bilingual dictionary in any field), if you don’t understand a certain term, you should at least run it through a search engine to see if it’s used the same way. I’ve often seen references to "resolution of a contract" as a translation of "resolución de un contrato" in translations done by people who don’t realize that "resolution" isn’t used this way in English. A more usual translation is rescission or revocation.
German
Creifelds, Carl: Rechtswörterbuch. This dictionary is a good monolingual German dictionary on the law.
Dietl, Clara-Erika and Lorenz, Egon: Wörterbuch für Recht, Wirtschaft und Politik, is probably the best-known English-German and German-English legal dictionary around. You can get it in a print version or a CD-ROM.
Dietl, Clara-Erika and Lorenz, Egon: Wörterbuch für Recht, Wirtschaft und Politik, is probably the best-known English-German and German-English legal dictionary around. You can get it in a print version or a CD-ROM.
Polish
Kalina-Prasznic, Urszula: Encyklopedia Prawa is a good monolingual Polish legal dictionary.
Russian
DeBeer, Shane: Dictionary of Business & Legal Terms has a lot of terms without much explanation.
Sokr.ru is an abbreviations site. It gets updated often by users, and one of the first things one sees upon visiting is a list of new abbreviations added.
Buhgalteria.ru is a dictionary (Russian to Russian) of accounting terms.
Sokr.ru is an abbreviations site. It gets updated often by users, and one of the first things one sees upon visiting is a list of new abbreviations added.
Buhgalteria.ru is a dictionary (Russian to Russian) of accounting terms.
Spanish
Varó, Enrique Alcaraz: Diccionario de términos jurídicos is a good general legal dictionary.
Becerra, Javier: Diccionario de términología jurídica mexicana is very strong on Mexican terms and probably the best if you deal with Mexico often.
Cabanellas de las Cuevas, Guillermo and Hoague, Eleanor: Diccionario jurídico, a two-volume set (often sold as Butterworth’s). It is well-researched, although many of the entries are explanations that can be difficult to plug into a translation. For example, the entry for "cancelling date" is "fecha en que se procede a resolver un contrato o hasta la cual tal resolución es posible". That’s a bit longer than the English counterpart, though it describes the concept well.
Mazzucco, Patricia Olga and Maranghello, Alejandra Hebe: Diccionario bilingüe de terminología jurídica. It comes with a CD-ROM and is useful if your material comes from Argentina (or even if it doesn’t). One of the authors, Patricia Olga Mazzucco, is probably one of the best-known legal translators.
West, Thomas L., III: Spanish-English Dictionary of Law and Business. This dictionary is well-regarded and well-researched.
Becerra, Javier: Diccionario de términología jurídica mexicana is very strong on Mexican terms and probably the best if you deal with Mexico often.
Cabanellas de las Cuevas, Guillermo and Hoague, Eleanor: Diccionario jurídico, a two-volume set (often sold as Butterworth’s). It is well-researched, although many of the entries are explanations that can be difficult to plug into a translation. For example, the entry for "cancelling date" is "fecha en que se procede a resolver un contrato o hasta la cual tal resolución es posible". That’s a bit longer than the English counterpart, though it describes the concept well.
Mazzucco, Patricia Olga and Maranghello, Alejandra Hebe: Diccionario bilingüe de terminología jurídica. It comes with a CD-ROM and is useful if your material comes from Argentina (or even if it doesn’t). One of the authors, Patricia Olga Mazzucco, is probably one of the best-known legal translators.
West, Thomas L., III: Spanish-English Dictionary of Law and Business. This dictionary is well-regarded and well-researched.
Other Reference Sites
XE is a currency converter.
Radio-Locator can hook you up to radio stations all over the world. It’s a nice distraction if you have an unstimulating source text and the right equipment.
The Online Newspaper Directory for the World has newspapers available for reading so you can find out what's going on in the location being discussed in your text (or some other place of interest). If you don't feel like reading newspapers in the local language, this website has news from around the world in English.
Radio-Locator can hook you up to radio stations all over the world. It’s a nice distraction if you have an unstimulating source text and the right equipment.
The Online Newspaper Directory for the World has newspapers available for reading so you can find out what's going on in the location being discussed in your text (or some other place of interest). If you don't feel like reading newspapers in the local language, this website has news from around the world in English.