BLACK N’ WHITE JOURNAL

Research Internship (Oct-Nov, 2021)

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 WHO ARE WE?
BLACK N WHITE JOURNAL LEGAL TECHNOLOGIES (OPC) PVT. LTD.
LEGAL RESEARCH AND
WRITING
 MEANING OF RESEARCH

 According to the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, research means “a careful

study of a subject, especially to find or discover new facts about it”.
 The Department of Education and Training, Western Sydney University defines
research as “the creation of new knowledge and/or the use of existing knowledge in
a new and creative way so as to generate new concepts, methodologies and
understandings. This could include synthesis and analysis of previous research to
the extent that it leads to new and creative outcomes.”
 Research therefore involves gathering information for a purpose, and it is the
purpose that usually determines the type of research undertaken and how it is
conducted.
 MEANING OF LEGAL RESEARCH

 Legal research, involves the collection of legal materials for the purpose of
discovering new facts that would contribute to the body of knowledge in a legal
field or subject.
 Legal research is generally the process of finding an answer to a legal question or
checking for legal precedent that can be cited in a brief or at trial.
 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.
 OBJECTIVES OF LEGAL RESEARCH
1. To discover new facts.
2. To test and verify old facts.
3. To analyze 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 analyze 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.
11. To develop the principles of interpretation for critical examination of statues.
 SIGNIFICANCE OF LEGAL RESEARCH

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.
 KINDS OF LEGAL RESEARCH

 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.
 KINDS OF LEGAL RESEARCH (CONT.)

 Quantitative and Qualitative Legal Research: As mentioned the former is about

quantity or amount, that is, what can be expressed in numerical form of results. The
latter however aims at garnishing views and opinions to give outcomes. It relies on
reasons behind a particular behavioral aspect.
 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 reinterpret 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.
 MAJOR METHODS OF LEGAL
RESEARCH
 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.
 MAJOR METHODS OF LEGAL
RESEARCH (CONT.)
 Non-doctrinal Legal Research: Also known as socio-legal research, it
looks into how the law and legal institutions molds 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.
 MAJOR METHODS OF LEGAL
RESEARCH (CONT.)
 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

 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.
 PRIMARY SOURCES

 Constitution of India &  Australia-Commonwealth o Australian Law Reports,

Other Nations Consolidated Acts etc
 Canada Consolidated  Academic Journals
 Legislation of India Statutes o Indian Journals
 India Code o Foreign Journals
 Gazette of India  Case Laws
 Acts of Parliaments  Indian Case Laws
o Supreme Court (SCC, AIR,
 Bills of Parliaments
SCR, etc.)
 Local Laws of all States o High Courts (All High
Courts Reports since their
 Foreign Legislation inception)
 U.S. Code  Foreign Case Laws
 United Kingdom Statutes o All England Law Reports
 SECONDARY SOURCES

 Legal Encyclopaedias  Aiyar’s Advanced Law  Digest of Labour Law

 Halsbury’s Laws of Lexicon Cases
England  Digest of Tax Cases
 Digests
 Halsbury’s Laws of India  Service Law Reporter
 Supreme Court Yearly
 American Jurisprudence Digest
Digest (SCC)
 Forms & Precedents  Index to Indian Legal
 A.I.R. Yearly Digest
Periodicals
 Words & Phrases  Supreme Court of India
 Index to Legal Periodicals
Nominal Index and
 Legal Dictionaries comparative tables & Books (1926 onwards)
 Black’s Legal Dictionary  High Courts Cases Digests
 Stroud’s Legal Dictionary 
Supreme Court Labour
 Wharton’s Law Lexicon Digest
 HOW TO START LEGAL RESEARCH?

 Legal Research is an art and requires proper guidance to explore legal information
resources. At primary stage researcher has to choose a subject area of research.
 Legal fraternity may require different types of information for different purposes. One’s
search strategy for retrieving the desired information has to be formulated on the basis of
the “information requirement” at hand. The most common types of information sought by
the legal fraternity are:
 Any particular case law
 Case laws on a specific topic
 Legislative intent of any act
 Material for speeches to be delivered
 Legislative history of any particular enactment
 Corresponding foreign law to any statutory provision in India
 Meaning of any particular “word” or “phrase”
 PROCESS OF LEGAL RESEARCH

1. Choosing a focal point of Research

2. Review of Literature
3. Formulation of Hypothesis
4. Research Design
5. Data Collection
6. Data Analysis
7. Interpretation of Data
8. Report
 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.
 This 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

 This 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

 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.
 It signifies the structure of the research. It is characterized by a logical
systematic planning of the research, a blue-print.
 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.

 Inferences 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.

 Through, this researcher 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.
 FOR NON-DOCTRINAL COMPARATIVE
RESEARCH
Answer the following questions:

1. What is the problem?

2. How is it a problem?
3. What is the solution to the problem?
4. How others have solved this problem?
5. What will happen if we donot adapt the solution?
6. What would be the challenges in implementation of the solution?
 HOW TO FIND LEGISLATIVE INTENT?

In case of any ambiguity while interpreting the provision of any statute, judges have
to examine the “legislative intent” of the legislature for enacting a particular
legislation. The legislative intent of any provision can be ascertained with the help of
the following tools:
 Objects and Reasons of the Act (published in the bill)
 Parliamentary debates
 Law Commission Reports (if the bill has been introduced on the recommendation of the
Law Commission)
 Standing Committee/Joint/Select Committee Reports
 Reports of the Committee appointed by the ministries for enacting/reviewing any existing
enactments
 Exercising the Right to Information (RTI)
 CITATIONS

 A reference to a book, article, web page, or other published item.

 A "citation" is the way you tell your readers that certain material in your work came
from another source.
 It gives your readers the information necessary to find that source again.

Citations are credit to other's view point and hence acknowledging the hardwork
done by them. Citations are foundation of your work. They provide authenticity to
your content.
 WHAT INFORMATION DOES CITATIONS
GIVES TO ITS READER?
 Information about the author
 The title of the work
 The name and location of the company that published your copy of the source
 The date your copy was published
 The page numbers of the material you are borrowing

Citations helps other researchers find the sources on which you have referred and
hence helping other peers to continue your work. Citations provide a method of
tracing back the original source and which helps the members of legal fraternity to
conduct further research on that particular piece of information.
WHY SHOULD YOU USE CITATIONS?

 Giving credit to the original author by citing sources is the only way to use other
people's work without plagiarizing.
 Citations are extremely helpful to anyone who wants to find out more about your
ideas and where they came from.
 Citing sources strengthens your work by lending outside support to your ideas.
 Citing sources shows the amount of research you've done.
 Proper citation will keep you from taking the rap for someone else's bad ideas.

Citations make your work look trustworthy.

 WHEN DO YOU NEED TO CITE?

 Whenever you use quotes.

 Whenever you paraphrase.
 Whenever you use an idea that someone else has already expressed.
 Whenever you make specific reference to the work of another.
 Whenever someone else's work has been critical in developing your own ideas.

Due credits should be given to the person or organization, whose literature has
helped you to write your work.
 HOW DO YOU INSERT A CITATION?

In MS Office:
1. Click where you want to reference to the footnote or endnote.
2. On the References tab, select Insert Footnote or Insert Endnote.
3. Enter what you want in the footnote or endnote.
4. Return to your place in the document by double-clicking the number or symbol at
the beginning of the note.

Keyboard Shortcut: Alt+Ctrl+F (Windows) & Alt+Cmd+F (MAC)

 IS THERE A WAY I COULD GENERATE A
CITATION WITHOUT MUCH EFFORT?
Refer following sites:
 https://www.citethisforme.com/citation-generator/bluebook-citation-generator
(Bluebook)
 https://www.citationmachine.net/apa (APA)
 https://www.scribbr.com/apa-citation-generator/ (APA)
 https://www.scribbr.com/mla-citation-generator/ (MLA)
 GENERAL GUIDELINES

Authors must abide by the below mentioned guidelines strictly and must go through the
process of self-assessment before mailing the article/blog/report failing to which will lead to
rejection of the Manuscript summarily.

1. The submission must be an original work of the author and has not been submitted,
accepted, under consideration, published on any other platform.

2. Plagiarized content will not be given due consideration and will lead to disqualification of
the submission summarily.

3. Citations should be written as footnotes and not endnote.

 GENERAL GUIDELINES (CONT.)

4. The content of the submission should be in:

 Font Style: Times New Roman

 Font Size: 12

 Line Spacing: 1.5

 Text Alignment: Justified

5. Minimum Words: 1500

6. Appropriate title to be attached at the beginning of the Manuscript based upon the specified theme by the journal.

7. No page borders, headers or footers shall be used.

8. Submission must be made in .doc/.docx formats only.

DOUBT SESSION
THANK YOU!

Good Luck!!