LEGAL RESEARCH

1. The Purpose of Research

 To contribute to existing knowledge in a discipline (for example, law).

 To inform policy making (for example, crime, housing, education).
 To address a specific issue or question (for example, substance abuse in
campus).
1. Purpose of Legal Research
Law does not sit in a vacuum instead it operates in a complex social context. It reflects
attitudes and behavioral norms, and also control and mould them. However as these
norms are also temporo-spatial, that is changing with time and space, it is desirous that
law has to adapt and be dynamic in order to cope with the changes. Thereby, legal
research becomes essential for ascertainment of law, to point out ambiguities and
weaknesses of law, to critically examine the laws in order to ensure coherence,
consistency and stability of law and its underlying policy, to conduct a social audit of
the law, and to suggest reforms in the law. Taking them one by one:

 Ascertaining the law

In a complex mass of legal statues and coupled with allied legal material it is not
always easy to find the law on a particular point. They are scattered and a single issue
may involve application of various laws. Judicial pronouncements add to the
complexity. A researcher needs to locate, analyze and understand these
pronouncements. So the process involves an intensive analysis of legal instruments
and judicial pronouncements.

 Highlighting ambiguities and gaps A law is not designed to address every

contingency that might arise in future. Because it’s the nature of law that it is
reactive it answers to problems which had arisen and seldom is it that it is
proactive. Secondly even the phraseology of a provision may not fit with the
legislative intent or may not match with other provisions of the Act. Research
highlights these gaps and inbuilt ambiguities.
 Determining coherence, stability and consistency
Via a process of critical evaluation of the law a researcher can exhibit the
consistency, coherence and stability in the law. This helps in future designing and
development of law, legal provision or doctrine, as the case may be.

 Social auditing of law

It’s a pre-legislative step done in order to understand and appreciate the social factors
that had an impact on the making of the law. It enables one to know the stakes the
law intends to protect or change and reasons for the same. Such an audit helps to
 identify gap, if any between the legal ideal and the social reality and to know the
reasons responsible thereof. It also enables us to predict the future of law.

 Suggesting reforms
In the light of the research reforms can be proposed in precise terms. These outcomes
can be on the basis of an analytical, historical and comparative research.

2. Kinds of Legal Research

The basic types of research can be broadly classified in various subsets wherein they can be
understood in comparison with another kind of research. Those are:
 Descriptive and Analytical Legal Research
The former describes the state of affairs as it exists. It describes the phenomenon,
reporting what has happened or what is happening, without going into the reason
or cause for the same. The tools used are surveys, comparative and co-relational
methods and fact-finding enquiries. But it does not establish any relationship
between the variables. The analytical research however uses the facts and
information available to make a critical evaluation.
 Applied and Pure Legal Research
The aim of the former is to find a solution to a pressing practical problem at hand.
Research is putted in a practical context. The latter focuses on generalization and
formulation of a theory. Its aim is to broaden the understanding of a particular
field of investigation. The researcher does not focus upon the practical utility of
the results
 Quantitative and Qualitative Legal Research
 Conceptual and Empirical Legal Research-
The conceptual research is related with an abstract notion or an idea. Generally resorted to by
the philosophers and thinkers to develop new concepts or re- interpret the existing concepts. The
latter however relies upon experience and observation alone. It is data based, coming up with
results that can be verified by observations or experiments.
3. Other Major Methods of Legal Research.

The other major methods used in legal research are:

Doctrinal Legal Research
The central question of enquiry here is ‘what is the law?’ on a particular issue. It is
concerned with finding the law, rigorously analyzing it and coming up with a logical
reasoning behind it. Therefore it immensely contribute to the continuity, consistency and
certainty of law. The basic material can be found in the statutory material i.e. primary sources
as well in the secondary material. However, the research has it own limitations, it is
subjective, that is limited to the perception of the researcher, away from the actual working of
 the law, devoid of factors that lie outside the periphery of law, and fails to focus on the actual
practice of the courts.
Non-doctrinal Legal Research
Also known as socio-legal research, it looks into how the law and legal institutions moulds
and affect the society. It employs methods taken from other disciplines in order to generation
an empirical data to answer the questions. It can either be answering a problem, like to find
the gap between idealism and social reality, could be tracing the results legal decisions, also
can assess impact of non-legal factors upon legal processes or decisions, or may be a reform
based approach. It is about viewing law from the perspective of a different discipline to keep
it organic and growing, that is, to put things in a context. Being empirical it is vital and
valuable in revealing and explaining the legal practice and procedures and their impact on
range of social institutions, like family, businesses, citizens, consumers.
Comparative Legal Research
This involves a comparison of legal doctrines, legislations vis-a vis foreign laws. It highlights
the cultural and social character of law and how does it acts in different
settings. So it is useful in developing and amending, and modifying the law. But a cautious
approach has to be taken in blindly accepting the law of another social setting as an ideal because
it might not act in the same manner in a different setting.
Source of Information-The various sources of information can be classified into:

 Primary Sources
The sources that contain authoritative records of law made by law making
bodies is a primary source. They can be legislation, rules, regulations, orders,
bye-laws by delegated authorities, and the authoritative decisions of the courts.
 Secondary Sources
The secondary sources are the one that refer and relate to the law while not
being themselves primary sources, for example, legal commentaries, abstracts,
dictionaries, encyclopedia and index.

Process of Legal Research

Research is a process involving backward and forward movement between different
stages so they cannot be as neatly separated. Nevertheless, they can be divided into
the following for understanding the different stages:
 Choosing a focal point of Research
Identifying and formulating a research problem is the first step in the process. If ill-
defined and not properly formulated the researcher is bound to lose interest in the
research. The researcher has to have a precise goal in sight. For that purpose it is
necessary for the researcher to identify an area of general interest from that field an
 area of specific interest and within that area of specific interest a particular aspect that
he would like to inquire into. That would signify the focus and direction of his
inquiry. That has to based on study done from the secondary sources like a
commentary, a scholarly article, like Blackstone’s Commentaries on the Laws of

England. Secondary sources would point a researcher to the primary sources of the law namely,
legislative texts and judicial decisions.

 Review of literature
That is necessary because it would make the results to be both valued and valuable. It
is a survey of the existing related works in order to find out as to what has already
been discussed on the particular aspect; it will also give an understanding as to what
has not been discussed. The researcher’s aim is to contribute something new to the
existing state of knowledge so therefore he has to choose from the latter area. This
also justifies his research and makes it an original contribution. It also helps in
avoiding the possible pitfalls, and informs areas that might have been neglected in the
research questions.
 Formulation of Hypothesis
On the basis of an extensive literature survey, a researcher might re=phrase or
reformulate the problem. That can be depending upon the nature of research can be in
the form of a mere statement or a proposition indicating relationship between
variables, the validity of which is not known. Such propositions are known as
hypothesis. So it is a tentative statement the validity or invalidity of which has to be
tested on the basis of research. The manner in which it is formulated gives a hint of
methods required, kind of data needed and the method of analysis required for the
research.

 Research Design
It signifies the structure of the research. It is characterized by a logical systematic
planning of the research, a blue-print. Though it may be tentative, as the researcher
cannot foresee all the contingencies that might arise and thus he can adapt as required
which would increase the efficiency and reliability of his findings.
 Data Collection
It involves decision making as to the method to be employed to collect the data. That
determines the fate of the research. For determining the appropriate method a
researcher has to keep in mind the objectives of the research and the scope of the
inquiry. Data may be primary or secondary. Data collected by primary sources is
primary. While one collected from some other agency or available in some published
form is secondary. A data has to be relevant and authoritative that would primarily
 depend upon the scope and focus of the research question.

 Data Analysis

The next task after collection of data is its analysis. The raw data has to be putted to
analysis so as to reflect the direction and trend. Analysis happens before
interpretation. There is no clear cut demarcation between the two as analysis is not
complete without interpretation and interpretation cannot precede analysis. They are
thus interdependent. Analysis involves processes like classification and
categorization (arranging data in classes according to their resemblance or affinity),
coding (assigning symbols or numerical to every class so that it can be counted or
tabulated), and tabulation (arranging data in requisite rows and columns, this can
show relation between variables and also facilitate comparison). In a legal research
cases are also required to be analyzed, however, with a caution that two different set
of facts can lead to different outcomes, or may be for the reason that an earlier case
law can be distinguished on the basis of question of law raised.

 Interpretation of Data
It is drawing inferences from the collected data. That can be inductive or deductive.
Inductive is inference from particular propositions to general propositions, while
deductive is inferences from general proposition to particular propositions. The
interpretation gives the broader meaning to research findings and as well trigger new
researches. However, caution must be exercised in interpreting the data it needs to be
impartial and objective. A wrong interpretation can lead to inaccurate and misleading
conclusions.
 Report
The last phase is report writing. Though, this he communicates his work to the audience. Report
contains significant facts, those are the problem, method used and the findings arrived at by the
researcher. It has to be original and with precise clarity in communicating the results.

4. Major problems in Legal Research

The major problems while undertaking a legal research are as following:
1. Cultural problems
2. Structural and procedural problems (for example, unsympathetic attitude of
authorities.)

3. Lack of resources, (for example, Access, money etc.)

4. Incompetence (For example inadequate planning etc.)

5. Lack of networking and forums.
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