UNIT -1

General Principles of Legal

Research
 INTRODUCTION
• All societies from the primitive to the most modern sophisticated
societies have progressed only on the acquisition of knowledge and its
application, depending upon their capability to understand their
environments and control them through concerted efforts.
• Initially knowledge acquisition was more on the basis of observation,
experience, learning by trial and error, simple logics of deduction and
inference, etc. but with the increasing ability to conduct research and
getting positive results and the ability to apply them in solving problems,
although confined to a few individuals, human societies were slowly
advancing materially
• With science and technology opening up new directions of growth and
development from the 15th century in Western Europe and its influence
in other parts of the world, methods of research have become a mode of
acquiring knowledge through scientific methods
• It was largely an individual flair that pushed up the frontiers of knowledge albeit
with very limited facilities for research. With the advent of universities, research
became one of their important functions, besides their teaching, training, and
publications functions.
• Increasing pursuit of research has resulted in the growth of a body of literature
over the years on research methodology, which has now developed into a subject
in its own right.
• In the course of time, institutions, associations and cognate bodies, have been
established to deal with various development problems through research, with
financial aids from governments and industry.
• Today there are research institutions, which have been set up to deal exclusively
with research in different subjects, including library and information science.
• Formal definitions of research, need to pursue research to expand the horizons of
knowledge, contours of research processes with an understanding of the
conceptual framework model of research methodology, characteristics of
research, scientific research, research design and other related aspects
 DEFINITIONS OF RESEARCH
• Webster’s Third International Dictionary of the English Language defines research
as “studious inquiry or examination, especially critical and exhaustive
investigation or experimentation, having for its aim the discovery of new facts,
and their correct interpretation, the revision of accepted conclusions, theories, or
laws in the light of newly discovered facts, or practical applications of new or
revised conclusions, theories, or laws.”
• According to the Random House Dictionary of the English Language, “Research is
a systematic inquiry into a subject in order to discover or revise facts, theories,
etc.”
• In the Encyclopaedia of Social Sciences, Research is defined as “the manipulation
of things, concepts or symbols for the purpose of generalization to extend, correct
or verify knowledge whether that knowledge aids in the construction of a theory
or in practice of an art.”
• Best and Kahn, in their book Research in Education define research “as the
systematic and objective analysis and recording of controlled observations that
may lead to the development of generalization, principles or theories, resulting in
prediction and possibly ultimate control of events.”
• Busha in his publication Research Methods in Librarianship says that Research is “a
systematic quest for knowledge that is characterized by disciplined enquiry. Efficient and
effective approach to expand knowledge is the conduct of special, planned and structured
investigations.”
• Ranganathan describes research to represent a critical and exhaustive investigation to
discover new facts, to interpret them in the light of known ideas, theories and laws, to
revive the current laws and theories in the light of the newly discovered facts to apply
the conclusion to practical purpose. The substance of all these samples of definitions of
research can be broadly summed up. To restate, the substantive phrases that stand out in
all these definitions of research are that research is an activity as characterised below:
 An intellectual activity of a high order;
 An investigation of a phenomenon, event or activity;
 Aims to discover data and facts and their interpretations;
 To arrive at conclusions to formulate new theories and laws or revise the already
established theories and laws;
 To communicate the results for peer review; and
 To be accepted or rejected before adding this new knowledge to the already existing
general pool of knowledge.
 What is Research?
• The word research is composed of two syllables, re and search.
• “Re” means again, a new or over again and “Search” means to
examine closely and carefully, to test and try, or to probe.
• Together it would mean a careful, systematic, patient study and
investigation in some field of knowledge, undertaken to establish
facts or principles (Grinnell 1993).

• The simplest meaning of research is to search for

facts, answers to research questions and solutions for
problems.
• Scientific Research is a systematic and objective attempt to
provide answers to certain questions.
• The purpose of scientific research is to discover and develop
an organised body of knowledge.
• Therefore, scientific research may be defined as the systematic
and empirical analysis and recording of controlled
observation, which may lead to the development of theories,
concepts, generalisations and principles, resulting in the
prediction and control of those activities that may have some
cause-effect relationship.
 Characteristics of Research
• Research is a creative process.
• It is systematic.
• It is logical.
• It is purposeful.
• Research has to be accurate.
• It gathers new knowledge and sometimes could even
replace old knowledge.
• The human mind is always searching for answers and
thus making research universal.
 Criteria for Good Research
• The purpose of research should be clearly defined and common concepts that are
used should be operationally defined.
• The research procedure should be precisely planned, focused and appropriately
described in order to enable other researchers to do research for further
advancement.
• Research design should be carefully planned to generate results to maintain
objectivity.
• The research report should be as much as possible truthful enough to gauge the
effects of the findings.
• Data analysis in the research report should be adequate to reveal its
significance and the method of analysis employed be appropriate and
• The validity and reliability of data should be examined carefully.
 Legal Research
• Legal Research is one of the aspects of the study of human behavior,
interactions, and attitude pertaining to any law under the research studies.

• It is the study of the relationship between the world of the law and the
world that the law purports to govern.

• The systematic investigation of problems and of matters concerned with

the law such as Codes, Acts, Constitution, etc. is legal research. Judges,
Lawyers, Law Commissions and researchers constantly do research in
law.

• Legal Researchers do make systematic research into facts of social,

political and economic conditions which give rise to individual rules, acts
or codes. They also examine the socio-legal and other effects of those
acts or rules.
 Nature and Scope of Legal
Research
• It is not different from other types of research. The basic principles of
research apply to Legal Research as well.

• The issue of inquiry usually relates to pure law or law in relation to society.

• It is the process of identifying and retrieving information necessary to

support legal judgements. In a broader sense, legal research includes each
step of a course of action that begins with an analysis of facts of a problem
and concludes with the application and communication of the results of the
investigation.

• The nature of legal issues and the subject matter of law is different from
other scientific research.
• Legal phenomenon requires various methods
of research. Various law reform agencies use
various tools to reform law and research is one
of the tools.

• Legal Research leads to progress in various

fields of life.
 Characteristics of Legal
Research
• It deals with social and behavioural phenomena. It studies the behaviour of
human beings as members of society, and their feelings, responses, and
attitudes under different circumstances.

• Legal Research is carried out both for discovering new legal facts and
verification of old ones.

• Legal research tries to establish a connection between various human

activities. Close research discloses the truth that most human behaviour is
motivated by definite rules and universal laws.

• Legal research tries to give solutions to legal problems.

 Objectives of Legal Research
• Academic Objects
• Utilitarian Objects

The academic purpose of legal research is the

acquisition of knowledge.

The utilitarian purpose is to understand social

life and thereby gain a greater measure of
control over social behaviour.
• To test and verify old facts.
• To analyze facts into a new theoretical framework.
• To analyze the consequences of new facts.
• To develop new legal research tools.
• To develop new legal concepts.
• To evaluate law from a historical perspective.
• To explain the nature and scope of the law.
• To predict the consequences of a new Act.
• To interpret acts in a critical manner.
• To collect the legal facts of a particular area and to
test the hypothesis of a cause-effect relationship.
 Different 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.

For example: If a lawyer is trying to find out the crime trends in

Delhi. He would conduct surveys, ask people and collect
evidence through newspaper reports, interviews, etc. He is
potentially questioning what is the pattern of crime in Delhi
rather than why is it happening.
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 using
sampling methods like online surveys, online polls, questionnaires, etc.,
the results of which can be depicted in numerical form. After a 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.
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
analyzed with statistical techniques. Usually, narrative data is collected in
qualitative research.

For example, research on the history of the death penalty.

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 in 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 a contract, then the
practical approach to this would be by carefully evaluating the
company policies, finding company policies that were violated,
and suing the organization based on those arguments.
6. Fundamental Research
It is also known as Pure research. It is concerned with the generalization and
formulation of the theory. This research is done merely to increase knowledge in a
field of inquiry. It aims to find additional information and thereby to add to the
existing knowledge.

For Example, researchers might conduct basic research on how illiteracy can lead to
crime. 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 analyzing already present information on a given topic.
Conceptual research doesn’t involve conducting any practical experiments. It is
related to abstract concepts or ideas.
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.
 CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK OF RESEARCH AND
TERMINOLOGY
• Generally, a research topic is identified for study and research in a discipline, either
to add further to the existing knowledge by creating new ideas or modifying
existing knowledge by new findings.
• A research topic is always selected on the basis of the theoretical knowledge of a
subject possibly to bridge up a gap or reinterpret a known finding or find new ideas
to solve a new problem.
• To do this, a hypothesis is formulated, identifying variables to test the hypothesis.
• The process gets to the next step to find evidences by collecting appropriate data
or facts by a suitable method, analyse the collected data systematically, interpret
the results to arrive at conclusions and generalise the findings, possibly to be
applied to an appropriate or a typical situation to test the result and its validity and
finally add the validated findings to the already existing body of knowledge after
peer review.
• Each one of these words or phrases in italics in the sentence above can be deemed
to be a functional concept and can be considered as a step-by-step procedure for a
research activity. These concepts when integrated, serve as a general functional
model of a research process.
 Stages of Legal Research
• Every research begins with a question or a problem of
some sort.
• The aim of the research is to know ‘something more’ about
‘something’ or to discover answers to meaningful questions
through the application of scientific procedures.

• Legal research is not an exception to this general precept of

research. However, undertaking and executing legal research,
as a systematic inquiry, is a complex process. It involves a
three-stage process.
• The processes are research planning, research
implementation, and presenting of research findings.
• Research planning requires the necessary sub-skills for:
fact collection, legal analysis, legal knowledge, problem
identification, fact analysis, and further fact collection.

• Research implementation, as the second-stage process, involves

the skills pertaining to:
Identification of problems for resolution, identification of relevant
research source materials, location of the source materials,
effective use of the source materials, analysis of research
findings, and application of findings to the identified
problem(s).

• While the third-stage process, i.e. presentation of research

findings, requires the skills necessary for: the selection of an
appropriate format or framework, and the use of clear and
succinct language.
• Identification and formulation of a research problem constitute the starting
phase of research. It is the first and foremost step in any research undertaking.
In fact, the success of research depends upon the selection of an apt research
problem and its proper formulation.

• An ill-identified formulated research problem invariably makes the researcher

subsequently lose his ‘interest’ in the problem. It also lands him in a number
of unanticipated difficulties at the latter stages that may even compel him to
abdicate his research halfway.

• A researcher, therefore, has to constantly remind himself that he needs to put

his research problem or research question in a precise way and phrase it in
such a way that it becomes viable and allows the discovery of new knowledge.
• Before formulating a research problem, it is, however,
necessary for the researcher, in sequence, to identify an area of
his general interest, an area or subject matter of his special
interest from the area of his general interest that he would like
to inquire into, Then he has to do a lot of reading on the
subject-matter identified for further inquiry.

• Review of literature: Once the research problem is formulated,

the researcher needs to undertake an extensive survey of
literature related to his research problem. This is the process
whereby the researcher locates and selects the references that
are relevant to his inquiry.
• A scholar of law, at this stage, is expected to carefully trace
and lay his hands on standard textbooks, reference books
dealing with the research problem, legal periodicals (to locate
research articles, or authoritative comments made, on the
subject or its allied subjects).
• The researcher has also to take special care to locate earlier studies done
on the problem and to have a quick reading thereof.
• Literature review, thus, helps the researcher to know and to have his
preliminary impressions about:

1. The explored and unexplored aspects/dimensions of the problem and the

explanations offered or issues raised without offering solutions there for.
2. The gaps, if any, in the explanations of the problem/its dimensions.
3. Theoretical and conceptual issues raised, with or without suggesting
solutions therefor.
4. The research techniques used in the previous research, and their
propriety.
• A hypothesis is merely a tentative assumption made in order to
draw and test its logical or empirical consequences. A
statement to be a hypothesis must be capable of being tested.
If its validity cannot be put to empirical confirmation may
cease to be a hypothesis.

• However, it is important to note that a hypothesis is not

required in all types of legal research. A researcher, for
example, indulged in descriptive legal research is not required
to formulate a hypothesis. Statement of problem in the form of
a hypothesis, invariably, is required in socio-legal research or
empirical legal research, wherein the researcher is interested in
finding a ‘link’ between a ‘legal fact’ and a ‘social fact’ or is
interested in assessing ‘impact of law’.