The growing economic and cultural integration of Spanish-speaking and English-speaking countries makes it even more important for a dictionary to be a clear and precise instrument for passing from one language to another, especially with technical terminology as complex and subtle as that used in law. For this reason we have tried to avoid translations based on the mere sound of the words, a particularly dangerous practice in the field of law, where differences between legal systems make translations of this type especially misleading.

The legal system originating from English common law is fundamentally different from that of Spain and the Franco Napoleonic code. This makes it particularly advisable to avoid mechanical translations, and underscores the intellectual and interpretive work of the translator. This dictionary is designed to assist in this endeavor, rather than to create a misleading list of equivalences. Hence we have emphasized the plurality of possible meanings of the words that we have translated and the importance of understanding these terms within the legal system in which they occur. To maintain this approach, we have tried as much as possible to provide standard equivalents of the defined terms, supplementing them with an explanation that helps to pinpoint the exact terminology to be used in a given context.