Giles Jacob

Not to be confused with Gilles Jacob.

Giles Jacob (1686 – 8 May 1744) was a British legal writer whose works include a well-received law dictionary that became the most popular and widespread law dictionary in the newly independent United States.[1][2] Jacob was the leading legal writer of his era, according to the Yale Law Library.[3]

The literary works of Giles Jacob did not fare as well as his legal ones, and he feuded with the poet Alexander Pope both publicly and in literary form. Pope named Jacob as one of the dunces in his 1728 Dunciad, referring to Jacob as "the blunderbuss of the law". Jacob is remembered well for his legal writing, though not so much for his poetry and plays.[2]

  1. ^ Levy, Leonard. "Origins of the Fifth Amendment and its Critics", Cardozo Law Review, Vol. 19, p. 854 (1997).
  2. ^ a b McDowell, Gary. The Language of Law and the Foundations of American Constitutionalism, p. 172 (2010).
  3. ^ Greenwood, Ryan. "The Taussig Collection: Giles Jacob" (8 January 2014).