# Legal Lexicon

> Legal Lexicon is the legal-language and sources-of-authority surface of the SoapBox civic ecosystem, published at lexicon.soapbox.community. Its full title is Legal Lexicon & Sources of Authority. It…

Canonical: https://wiki.soapbox.community/wiki/Legal_Lexicon
Section: Law and your rights
Last updated: 2026-10-20
Publisher: Library of Ashurbanipal (Van Kush Family Research Institute), https://wiki.soapbox.community

**Legal Lexicon** is the legal-language and sources-of-authority surface of the SoapBox civic ecosystem, published at lexicon.soapbox.community. Its full title is *Legal Lexicon & Sources of Authority*. It explains the words the law uses and, separately, which texts actually carry legal weight — as reference, not as legal advice.

## What it covers

- **Legal dictionaries vs. the law** — why a dictionary definition and a controlling legal definition are not the same thing.
- **Founding-era meaning** — how the original public meaning of a term is recovered and used.
- **American vs. British common law** — where the two diverge and why it matters to a U.S. reader.
- **Sources of authority** — the distinction between binding and merely persuasive authority.
- **An American legal lexicon** — a glossary of terms with a plain gloss and a source.

## Editorial rule

Consistent with the rest of the SoapBox Law surface, the material is sourced and descriptive — *facts, not verdicts* — and is not legal advice.

## See also

- SoapBox Law
- Legal Doctrines
- The Case Law of Us

## Sources

- [lexicon.soapbox.community](https://lexicon.soapbox.community)

## Coverage

Describes the surface's sections and its editorial rule as published.