This dictionary was conceived to provide both the professional and the non-professional user with basic legal terminology in the forever changing pattern of world politics and the internationalisation, globalisation, of legal issues. Terms were selected from internationally accepted and used sources: basic documents (important treaties, conventions, agreements, protocols, model laws, uniform practices, recommendations, reports, rules etc.), relevant legal concepts, such as the "lex mercatoria" (principles of international trade law), and generally accepted legal terms in international trade (such as the Incoterms).

The following legal areas received special attention: accounting, administrative, banking, canon, civil, commercial, communication, contract, corporate, criminal, customs, disputes, economic, education, environment, European Union, family, financial, fiscal, history, industrial property, insurance, intermediaries in international trade (agent, distributor), international co-operation, international public, international trade, intellectual property, labour, legal professions, legislative, maritime, medical, military, penal, personal, private international, procedural, property, public, social, succession, tort, (international) trade, transport, and transfer of technology law.