1.
Legal Research Techniques
Legal Research — Legal research is a systematic inquiry into laws, statutes or regulations
to discover and interpret their status. This process is assist in analyzing interpretation over
legal frameworks and provide solutions to the legal issues.
Purpose: The purpose behind legal research is basically to open new horizons in the field
of law, how laws work and interact with society can be critically understood then after a
detailed examination reforms suggested.
2. Types of Legal Research
Doctrinal Research : This refers to what is often called "black-letter" law, or research
focusing on the analysis of legal principles and other statements that are binding in nature.
That breaks down the laws systematically.
Non-Doctrinal Research: This is the use of empirical methods to collect data from
experience in an attempt to understand how laws impact on individuals, institutions and
society. EX: Surveys, interviews + case studies
Historical Research: Examining the history and changes of legal doctrines to find out how
law is used today.
One way to do that is with comparative research, in which researchers compare a law
across jurisdictions or over time so as to see what effect one legal system has versus
another>manualicommenter
3. Research Methodology
Research questions: Questions that are clear and specific guide the process of inquiry.
These questions must be appropriate, as well as it should have a great scope and accurate
to get good analysis.
Hypothesis: A hypothesis is a proposed assumption or statement to be tested in the
research. It directs the path of investigation and helps to summarize.
In Doctrine Research, the researcher collects data by analyzing such material as statutes,
case law decisions or scholarly articles. For research that is non-doctrinal, it may involve
the collection of empirical data in surveys, interviews or observations.
Analysis of the Data: This includes an examination of legal rules, data and their
interpretations to come out with some suggestions or recommendations.
4. Multi-Method Legal Research
The Use of Multi-Method Research: Doctrinal and empirical methods complement each
other to offer a comprehensive analysis of legal issues. It is particularly crucial for critical
fields like policy research and sociol-legal studies.
Multi-method: It allows for a more comprehensive approach to understanding legal issues
through the utilization of multiple perspectives and methodologies, which results in
deeper and wider analysis.
5. Ethics, Objectivity and Legal Research
Ethics: There should be a high ethical standard to ensure honesty, accuracy and
transparency of what one is doing. Credibility is everything and you need to avoid
plagiarism and misrepresenting data.
Objectivity– Legal researchers need to ensure their analysis is rooted in fact and evidence
as opposed to bias.
6. Legal Research Method:ỊQuantitative and Qualitative
Quantitative Research — This is founded on numerical data and statistical analysis
concerning legal problems. Its most common applications are in policy analysis and crime
mapping, but it can also be used for measuring the impact of laws.
Qualitative Research: A more in-depth, interpretive style of research that uses techniques
such as interviews, case studies or ethnography to help understand legal phenomena from
the viewpoint of individuals subject to these rules.
7. Empirical Legal Research
Empirical research: Research that gathers and analyzes information from experiences,
observations or experiments to better understand the application of laws within society.
Methods: Research using this type of approach uses surveys, case studies, fieldwork and
interviews together with statistical analysis to determine how legal principles work in
practice.
8. One of the main solutions to effective legal writing and presentation.
Significance of Legal Writing: legal writing is the end products associated with a law
research. It is organizing and displaying the outcome of research in a systematic, logical
manner. Legal writing directions such as research papers, case comments; policy paper
and dissertation.
How to Write: For a start, legal writing requires the application of suitable citation styles (ie
OSCOLA or Harvard) uniformly throughout work as this is crucial in properly
acknowledging the sources from which one has drawn. It should be written in an
outspoken, direct and objective manner.
9. Action Research
Action research is a participatory research approach designed for tackling real-world legal
problems. It engages stakeholders in identifying problem and solution.
Where applied: policy formation, law changes, social justice efforts (those driven by
people affected) It marries theory and practices with results.
10. Policy Research
Scope: Policy research looks at the effects of laws on public policy and, a little less
obviously, about how policies influence law. It combines research, fieldwork and advocacy
to determine how laws work in practice and then recommends reforms based on those
findings.
Methods: Policy research uses a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods for
examining laws including cost-benefit analysis, case studies or impact assessments.
11. Interdisciplinary Research
Since Legal research was interdisciplinary and connects to other social sciences
(sociology, economics, political science or even psychology…) you never really had the
feeling it was a dead end. It looks at law from other disciplines and hence provides with the
concrete view of how legal systems work.
Advantages: Due to the use of multiple sources in varied legal fields entangled into
environmental law or human rights or technology laws, this research method holds
significantly more advantages.
12. Comparative Legal Research
Objectives: Comparative research relates to the scrutiny of laws in various traditions and
legal systems with a view toward identifying any strengths, weaknesses or opportunities
for reform.
Background: This provides researchers with the ability to observe regulatory behaviors,
similarities among jurisdictions or themes and then ultimately adopt best practices in their
own jurisdiction to upgrade domestic law.
13. Feminist Legal Research
Area: An area in feminist legal research what laws mean to and create for women, as well
as how different marginalised groups are subordinated. She works to expose and help
correct gender biases in the law.
Then, as we showcase the most significant changes in terms of law and public policy
adopted by India during that time to combat gender discrimination this paper employs a
mix-methods research with both doctrinal analysis on the issue along with empirical data
on impact from feminist legal theories.
14. Historical Legal Research
Purpose: Historical research shows the history of legal doctrines and in this way it can
provide insights for application and changes to the law.
Uses: This model is used to trace the genesis and mutations of law, enabling philosophers,
jurists sociologists etc...to explain current legal principles as well as infer potential future
directions in which a body or corpus may evolve.
15. Tools of Data Collection
Primary Sources:This consists of legislation, case law (judicial decisions), constitutions,
treaties and government reports etc. which are original/ raw legal materials that form the
basis of Doctrinal Research.
Secondary Sources: Commentaries, Scholarly Articles, Textbooks and Legal Journals
which analyse or interpret the primary legal sources.
The best example is: And, Empirical Data — non-doctrinal research that gathers data from
the fieldwork/surveys/interviews/statistical databases to see how laws impact society on
ground.
16. Legal Research Design
Steps in Research:
Step 1: Choose Your Research Topic You want an interesting and current topic in the legal
realm.
Literature Review to see how much existing research there is on the chosen field
Design : Identify the questions being addressed in this piece of research.
Choose Research Method: select doctrinal; Non-Doctrinal or Multi-Method research
according to the point of selection.
Data collection: Collect legal texts and empirical data according to the chosen method.
Data Analysis: Use legal analysis or statistical processes to mine data for insights.
Results: Compile the results into an organized research paper, dissertation or even post.
17. Why Are Theoretical Frameworks Important?
It is important to have a good theoretical basis which helps in analysing the data and
conclusion of legal research. Theories, on the other hand give us a framework to
understand what these legal principles are and their practical implications.
