LEGAL RESEARCH

What is Legal Research?

Legal research is "the process of identifying and retrieving information necessary to
support legal decision-making. In its broadest sense, legal research includes each
step of a course of action that begins with an analysis of the facts of a problem and
concludes with the application and communication of the results of the
investigation. Legal Research is the process of locating an answer to an unknown
legal problem, verifying the law, and reading cases or statutes.

Objective of Legal Research-:

The object of legal research therefore, is to find out lacunae or deficiencies in
the existing laws and to suggest suitable measures to eliminate them. If there is an
area for which there is no law at all the objective of legal research would be
to suggest suitable legislation for that area; but if there is a law for that area, but due
to one reason or the other, it did not work, its aim would be to suggest
reform in the existing law so as to make it workable. However, this would not be
the end or the sole objective of the legal research. When research is undertaken
as a part of process of law reform, it is undertaken for making suggestions for
improvements in the law on concrete and easily identifiable matters and the
formulation of those proposals in precise terms.12 This is very significant and
governing factor in the area of legal research. The following may be taken as
objectives of legal research:
1. To discover new facts.
2. To test and verify old facts.
3. To analyse the facts in new theoretical framework.
4. To examine the consequences of new facts or new principles of law; or judicial
decisions.
5. To develop new legal research tools or apply tools of other disciplines in
the area of law.
6. To propound new legal concept.
7. To analyse law and legal institutions from the point of view of history.
8. To examine the nature and scope of new law or legal institution.
9. To ascertain the merits and demerits of old law or institution and to give
suggestions for a new law or institution in place of old one.
10. To ascertain the relationship between legislature and judiciary and to give
suggestions as to how one can assist the other in the discharge of one’s duties
and responsibilities and
11. To develop the principles of interpretation for critical examination of statues.

Significance/Importance/Purpose-
1. It helps the government in formulating suitable laws to pursue its economic
and social policies.
2. It helps in solving various operational and planning problems pertaining to
business, industry and tax.
3. It helps the courts in solving the problems without much delay and in such a
way that the problem may not re-cure at all or at least in near future.
4. It helps the legal practitioner in taking a decision as to how he should tackle
the problem in hand.
5. To examine the law by reducing, breaking, and separating the law into separate
elements: It can be as simple as exploring and explicating new statutes and statutory
strategy and outline, rendering, and criticizing particular affairs or statutes.
6. To combine the specific elements of cases and statutes into logical or practical legal
measures or general principles: We must go through the issues and conclude based
on legal standards and rules. While we are doing legal research in the legal industry,
we should keep some general rules and legal standards in mind. For perfect
material, a legal researcher has to look at different cases and statutes; only then can
he conclude a conclusion after comparing other issues.
7. To look at doctrinal or theoretical issues: The research finding helps advise and
suggest courts or clients about the diligence of the legitimate philosophy to
particular cases, affairs, or other legal activities. It might also knock judicial opinions
and thoughts and, in case of difference arises between the adjudication of different
courts, indicates the answers to those disputes.
8. To provide teaching material for students: The end articles include books and
modules. It is to understand and realize the legal doctrine, principles of law. Legal
analysis is beneficial for students as well as for advocates and law firms. By doing
research, a law student can explore their studies and be more involved in them.
9. To acquire knowledge of the legal subject while arguing for a better way of doing
things: A researcher who performs research has to face critics and remarks on legal
principles and assignments from the view of different types of sciences like
economics, politics, etc. Therefore, legal research is very helpful in questioning and
doing things better to tackle the situation very efficiently. Based on facts, a person
can win arguments very quickly.

Types of Legal Research

1) Descriptive Legal Research- Descriptive Legal research is defined as a research
method that describes the characteristics of the population or phenomenon that is
being studied. This methodology focuses more on the “what” of the research subject
rather than the “why” of the research subject. In other words, descriptive legal
research primarily focuses on the nature of a demographic segment, without
focusing on “why” something happens. In other words, it is a description based
which does not cover the “why” aspect of the research subject. For example, a
lawyer that wants to understand the crime trends among Mumbai will conduct a
demographic survey of this region, gather population data and then conduct
descriptive research on this demographic segment. The research will then give us the
details on “what is the crime pattern of Mumbai?”, but not cover any investigative
details on “why” the patterns exits. Because for the lawyer trying to understand
these crimes patterns, for them, understanding the nature of their crimes is the
objective of the study.

2) Quantitative research- Quantitative Legal Research is a characteristic of

Descriptive Legal Research Methodology that attempts to collect quantifiable
information to be used for statistical analysis of the population sample. It is a
popular research tool that allows us to collect and describe the nature of the
demographic segment. Quantitative Legal Research collects information from
existing and potential data using sampling methods like online surveys, online polls,
questionnaires, etc., the results of which can be depicted in numerical form. After
careful understanding of these numbers, it is possible to predict the future and make
changes to manage the situation.
An example of quantitative research is the survey conducted to understand the
turnaround time of cases in the high court and how much time it takes from the time
the case is filed until the judgment is passed. A complainant’s satisfaction survey
template can be administered to ask questions like how much time did the process
take, how often were they called to court, and other such questions.

3) Qualitative Legal Research- Qualitative Legal Research is a subjective form of

research that relies on the analysis of controlled observations of the legal researcher.
In qualitative research, data is obtained from a relatively small group of subjects.
Data is not analysed with statistical techniques. Usually, narrative data is collected in
qualitative research. Qualitative research can be adopted as a method to study
people or systems by interacting with and observing the subjects regularly. The
various methods used for collecting data in qualitative research are grounded theory
practice, narratology, storytelling, and ethnography.
 Grounded theory practice: It is research grounded in the observations or data
from which it was developed. Various data sources used in grounded theory are
quantitative data, review of records, interviews, observation, and surveys.
 Narratology: It refers to the theory and study of narrative and narrative structure.
It also shows the way in which the result affects the researcher’s perception.
 Storytelling: This is a method by which events are recounted in the form of a
story. The method is generally used in the field of organization and management
studies.
 Ethnography- Ethnography is used for investigating cultures by collecting and
describing data intend to help the development of a theory.

4) Analytical Legal Research

Analytical Legal Research is a style of qualitative inquiry. It is a specific type of
research that involves critical thinking skills and the evaluation of facts and
information relative to the research being conducted. Lawyers often use an analytical
approach to their legal research to find the most relevant information. From
analytical research, a person finds out critical details to add new ideas to the material
being produced.
For example, examining the fluctuations of Crime Rates of India between 2010-2020
is an example of descriptive research; while explaining why and how the Crime rates
spiked over time is an example of analytical research.

5) Applied Legal Research- Applied Legal Research is a methodology used to find a

solution to a pressing practical problem at hand. It is a straightforward practical
approach to the case you are handling. It involves doing full-fledged research on a
specific area of law followed by gathering information on all technical legal rules
and principles applied and forming an opinion on the prospects for the client in the
scenario.
For Example, if your client is an employee of an organization and is fighting against
wrongful termination of contract then the practical approach to this would be by
carefully evaluating the company policies and finding company policies that were
violated and to suing the organization based on those arguments.

6) Pure Legal Research- Pure legal research is also known as basic Legal Research
usually focuses on generalization and formulation of a theory. The aim of this type
of research methodology is to broaden the understanding of a particular field of
investigation. It is a more general form of approach to the case you are handling.
The researcher does not focus on the practical utility
For Example, researchers might conduct basic research on illiteracy leads to
unemployment. The results of these theoretical explorations might lead to further
studies designed to solve specific problems of unemployment.
7) Conceptual Legal Research- Conceptual Legal Research is defined as a
methodology wherein research is conducted by observing and analysing already
present information on a given topic. Conceptual research doesn’t involve
conducting any practical experiments. It is related to abstract concepts or ideas. They
are generally resorted to by the philosophers and thinkers to develop new concepts
or reinterpret the existing concepts but has also proven to be a useful methodology
for legal purposes.
For example, many of our ancient laws were influenced by the British Rule. Only
later did we improve upon many laws and created new and simplified laws after
our Independence. So another way to think of this type of research would be to
observe, come up with a concept or theories aligned with previous theories to
hopefully derive new theories.

8) Empirical Legal Research- Empirical Legal Research describes how to investigate

the roles of legislation, regulation, legal policies, and other legal arrangements at
play in society. It acts as a guide to paralegals, lawyers, and law students on how to
do empirical legal research, covering history, methods, evidence, growth of
knowledge, and links with normativity. This multidisciplinary approach combines
insights and approaches from different social sciences, evaluation studies, Big Data
analytics, and empirically informed ethics.
For example, Pharmaceutical companies use empirical research to try out a specific
drug on controlled groups or random groups to study the effect and cause.

Other Major Methods of Legal Research.

1) Doctrinal Legal Research- The central question of inquiry here is ‘what is the law?’
on a particular issue. It is concerned with finding the law, rigorously analysing it
and coming up with logical reasoning behind it. Therefore, it immensely contributes
to the continuity, consistency, and certainty of law. The basic information can be
found in the statutory material i.e. primary sources as well in the secondary sources.
However, the research has its 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 boundaries of the law, and fails to focus on the actual
practice of the courts.
2) Non-doctrinal Legal Research- It is also known as socio-legal research and it looks
into how the law and legal institutions mould and affects society. It employs
methods taken from other disciplines in order to generate empirical data to answer
the questions.

3) Comparative Legal Research- This involves a comparison of legal doctrines,

legislations, and foreign laws. It highlights the cultural and social character of law
and how does it act in different settings. So it is useful in developing and amending,
and modifying the law. But a the cautious approach has to be taken in blindly
accepting the law of another social setting as a base because it might not act in the
same manner in a different setting.

Collaborative Research
Most critically important scientific issues or innovative technologies can often be
solved by working together of team of researchers from different backgrounds. The
merging of different fields can make possible achieving of incredible goals.
Collaborative research, therefore, can be defined as research involving coordination
between the researchers, institutions, organizations, and/or communities. This
cooperation can bring distinct expertise to a project. Collaboration can be classified
as voluntary, consortia, federation, affiliation, and merger and can occur at five
different levels: within disciplinary, interdisciplinary, multi-disciplinary, trans-
disciplinary or national vs international. Collaborative research has the capabilities
for exchanging ideas across disciplines, learning new skills, access to funding, higher
quality of results, radical benefits, and personal factors such as fun and pleasure.

Need of Collaborative Research- Collaboration encourages the establishment of

effective communication and partnerships and also offers equal opportunities
among the team members. It honours and respects each member's individual and
organizational style. Collaboration also increases the ethical conduct maintaining
honesty, integrity, justice, transparency, and confidentiality.

Why Collaboration Required- Increased collaborations can save considerable time

and money, and most often, breakthrough research comes through collaborative
research rather than by adhering to tried and true methods. Further legislation,
industry, and academia encouraged the collaboration between private sector and
academia (e.g., the Bayh–Dole Patent Reform Act of 1980 is the United States
legislation which allowed universities to negotiate patent rights with industrial
partners).

Challenges of Collaborative Research in India

1) Individual challenges- There is a scarcity of competent researchers in India. Most
of the researches going on in our country are not methodologically sound. As far as
scholarship is considered, it is an individualized endeavours, and academic
frameworks for recognition, rewards, and promotions are supposed at individual
level. For the promotion and tenure process, single-authored publications are given
more credit as compared to collaborative work. Intellectual property rights are the
central issue and occur in various categories of members in collaborative research.
2) Institutional challenges- This is because of differences in different approaches
among the collaborating partners. For example, if a collaboration occurs between
industry and institutional level, discrepancies do occur between objectives, different
hypothesis, cultural differences, and issues with technology.
3) Challenges regarding funds- The most important challenge is less funds granted
for research to universities as compared to small elite research institutions. This
leads to less focus on research and more on teaching by the universities resulting in
separation of education and research. Due to funding restrictions, most of the
significant work of Indian research is in theoretical domain. For example, a
collaborative project was undertaken by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and
the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), in which a developmental study
was conducted taking 30 HIV-positive patients and 18 HIV-related service providers
for understanding of sexual risk-taking HIV-related disclosure and other
behavioural patterns among HIV-positive individuals in Baroda, Gujarat. Patel
shared that it took roughly 1½ years by the Institutional Review Board at Medical
College of Baroda which was already reviewed by NIH, University of North
Carolina, and ICMR, and as per the guidelines of ICMR, the compensation was also
reduced to 500/day from 1000.

4) Systematic challenges- In India, the success of the scientists is prioritized by

becoming an administrative head in research institutions rather than advancing
research. Furthermore, the prevalence of ineptitude among the spectrum has made
incompetent scientists to strengthen their weakness. There is a culture of elitism in
our Indian laboratories, where the manual work is done by laboratory assistants and
scientists mostly just command orders.

A legal doctrine is a framework, set of rules, procedural steps, or test, often

established through precedent in the common law, through which judgments can be
determined in a given legal case.

Doctrinal and Non-Doctrinal Legal Research

What is the meaning of the word “Non-Doctrine” under Non-Doctrinal Research?
The word Non-Doctrine under Non-Doctrinal Research deals with the Socio-legal
aspect of the research. Here, fieldwork is the most important part of the research.
Thus scope is wider. It is more concerned with social values. It can be a problem,
policy or law reform based. Non Doctrinal research can be qualitative or quantitative
or could be part of a large scale project.

What is Doctrinal Legal Research?

The central question of inquiry here is ‘what is the law?’ on a particular issue. It is
concerned with finding the law, rigorously analysing it and coming up with logical
reasoning behind it. Therefore, it immensely contributes to the continuity,
consistency, and certainty of law. The basic information can be found in the statutory
material i.e. primary sources as well in the secondary sources. However, the research
has its 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 boundaries of the law, and fails to focus on the actual practice of the
courts.

Methodology of Doctrinal Research

Doctrinal or library-based research is the most common methodology employed by
those undertaking research in law. Doctrinal research asks, what is the law in a
particular case. It is concerned with the analysis of the legal doctrine and how it was
developed and applied. As it is well known, this is purely theoretical research that
consists of either simple research aimed at finding a specific statement of the law, or
it is legal analysis with more complex logic and depth. In short, it is library-based
research that seeks to find the “one right answer” to certain legal issues or questions.
Thus, the aim of this type of methodology is to make specific inquiries in order to
identify specific pieces of information.
For example, an investigation can be conducted to find specific legislation that
monitors occurrences of child abuse in a particular jurisdiction. All inquiries will
have specific answers to specific questions that can be easily found and verified, and
these are the keys to is doctrinal or library-based research. These steps include
analysis of legal issues in order to determine the need for further research. This stage
often involves a great deal of background reading on a subject using sources such as
dictionaries, encyclopaedias, major textbooks, treatises, and journals that are
accompanied by footnotes. These sources provide Definitions of Terms that help the
researcher understand and summarize the legal principles involved in the field of
law understudy.

Normative Character of Doctrinal Research

The normative character of doctrinal research in particular contexts, is concerned
with the discovery and development of legal doctrines and research, for publication
in textbooks and journals that take the form of asking the question, “What is the
law?”
Legal rules are normative in character because they dictate how we should behave as
individuals. They make no attempt to either explain, predict, or even understand
human behaviour, just to describe it. In short, doctrinal research is not therefore
research about law at all. In asking “What is the law?” it takes the internal cognitive
approach oriented to the aim of the study. For this reason, it is sometimes described
as research in the field of law.

What is Non-Doctrinal Legal Research?

Non-doctrinal research, also known as social-legal research, is research that employs
methods taken from other disciplines to generate empirical data that answers
research questions. It can be a problem, policy, or a reform of the existing law. A
legal non-doctrinal finding can be qualitative or quantitative, and a dogmatic non-
doctrinal finding can be part of a large-scale project. The non-doctrinal approach
allows the researcher to conduct research that analyses the law from the perspective
of other scientific disciplines, and to employ those disciplines in drafting the law. For
example, in the behavioural sciences, there is a standard form of a consumer contract
that contributes to the study of psychological phenomena:

The tendency of consumers not to read the standard form contract,

The inability of consumers to evaluate the terms of the contract correctly once they
do read. And
The ability of sellers to deal with consumers. Because it uses non-sectarian legal
experimental data, it provides vital insights about the law in context, i.e. how the
law works out in the real world. Legal research is experimental and valuable in
detecting and explaining practices and procedures in legal and regulatory systems. It
is also valuable in settling disputes and impacts the legal phenomena of social
institutions and businesses. Similarly, experimental legal research in economics
applies legal analysis, statistical inference, and economic modelling, to the core areas
of national and international law, such as tort, property, contracts, criminal law, law
enforcement, and litigation. Earlier research can be used to analyse the economics of
legal negligence theory.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
What is Legal Research Methodology?
Legal research methodologies serve three main functions, exploring a legal problem,
critically describing facts and legislation, and explaining or interpreting legal issues
and concepts.
 Legal research methodology is simply a way of addressing and exploring
unsettled legal questions or issues.
 Legal research methodologies are techniques by which one acquires legally
relevant information, analyses, interprets, and applies them to resolve issues
and present the findings.
 Thus, legal research methodology is a scientific and systematic way to solve
any legal question.
 Legal research methodology also refers to rules of interpretation of legal
problems and issues. It is a systematic effort to make an argument to arrive at
a true or accurate account of the subject matter under consideration.
Research is an effort to seek answers to questions confronting the researcher. It seeks
answers to questions, which have not yet been answered. Research helps in the
development of generalizations, principles or theories, which open either new vistas
of understanding in the relevant field of knowledge, or helps in verifying the
existing knowledge. Research is a gateway to new knowledge that obviously depends on
how meaningfully the problem has been identified and research questions have been
answered. In the beginning, a researcher has problem blindness and perceives a very
diffused, vague and a general view of a problem. Hence, the identification of a problem is
the most important and difficult step in the research process. It is a most thoughtful effort,
even a little carelessness on the part of the researcher spoils the spirit of research. It is a
systematic attempt to obtain answers to meaningful questions about a phenomenon
through the application of scientific procedures. Problem identification and its formulation
is inventive and individualistic rather than routine and mechanical. The identification of a
research problem requires a great deal of patience and logical thinking on the part of the
researcher.

Identification of a Research Problem- Clear and concise identification of the

problem is not an easy matter. Some research studies are pursued in such a way that
it is difficult to determine what the researcher is trying to investigate. A most
challenging situation for a researcher occurs when s/ he feels bewildered and suffers
with diffused perceptions of the situations amenable to research. Identification of a
research situation is an important phase of the entire research process. It demands a
great deal of thinking, searching and speculating on the part of a researcher. It
consumes a lot of energy, time and effort. A beginning researcher finds it very
difficult as to how to locate the problem situation. This may happen because she has
limited knowledge of the research process. S/he may be unfamiliar with the areas in
which research is needed and the procedures that he has to follow to identify a
suitable area of research. Novice investigators have an unrealistic, glamorized
conception of research problem. An investigator should follow the following major
tasks in analysing a problematic situation.
(i) Accumulating the facts that might be related to the problem,
(ii) Settling by observation whether the facts are relevant,
(iii) Tracing any relationship between facts that might reveal the key difficulty,
(iv) Proposing various explanations for the cause of the difficulty,
(v) Ascertaining through observation and analysis whether these explanations are
relevant to the problem,
(vi) Tracing the relationship between explanations that may give an insight into the
problem solution,
(vii) Tracing the relationship between facts and explanations, and
(viii) Questioning assumptions underlying the analysis of the problem.

The researcher must first decide the area of his/ her interest and the purpose of his
research endeavours. It must be the area of research where the researcher is capable
of demonstrating necessary initiative, insight, critical analysis and judgemental
capacities. The identification of a problem situation follows the following procedural
efforts on the part of a researcher.
 The understanding of the known theories, facts and ideas in the field of
researcher's interest structures his/ her problem searching domain. The research
focus is sharpened by what he already knows, what researches in his field have
been conducted and what needs to be discovered.
 A problem situation of research may emerge from the researcher's curiosity
about something shared, seen, felt or wondered about or through the natural
interest of a researcher.
 Life situations, relationships established by related researchers and implications
advanced by technological advancements constitute the problem situation.
 New knowledge in the field of researcher's interest coming through the new
&rivals of books, journal and researches extend a situation for research.
 A survey of suggestions for further research given at the end of research reports
and reviews of research projects, the gaps which are there in a particular field of
educational research are helpful in keeping the researcher informed about what
researches are going on in the field in which he has the competence and deeper
understanding.

(Formulation and some more about this topic in ppt)