Appy Birthday Lord Halsbury

Monday 3 September 2012
 
One of the most famous names in the legal world, most of us began our dependency on Halsbury's Laws as young students and today marks the anniversary of Lord Halsbury's birthday - he would have been 189.

Hardinge Giffard, the 1st Earl of Halsbury (1823-1921), was a leading Barrister and Politician, educated at Merton College, Oxford and called to the bar at Inner Temple in 1850. His famous trials include the Tichborne Case and the Overend and Gurney case. 

Stanley Bond, was Head of the Butterworths publishing company during Lord Halsbury's time. He wanted to have an Editor-in-Chief with the authority and expertise to make it ‘the’ encyclopaedia and he asked the Lord Chancellor, Lord Halsbury, to take up the role.  When he received no reply to his invitation, Lord Halsbury was chased down to where he was on holiday in Nice and through sheer doggedness the Butterworths Head eventually secured Lord Halsbury’s agreement. 

So Lord Halsbury lent his expertise to what would become the world-famous brand that now bears his name. Since the first edition, the reigning monarch has accepted the dedication of each successive edition. It is now a global brand with Halsbury’s Laws in Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, India and Malaysia.

To celebrate this occasion LexisNexis has renamed one of their smartphone apps Halsbury’s Legal Terms. Formerly known as LexisNexis Legal Terms, the app provides LexisLibrary subscribers with on-the-go access to key points of law.  Covering a wide range of legal topics, customers can find the meaning of a legal term, the legislation where that term was defined and read the key cases about that definition.  It also provides links to related terms.