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RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

“TYPES OF LEGAL RESEARCH:

COMPARATIVE, DESCRIPTIVE,
EVALUATIVE, EXPERIMENTAL AND
INTERDISCIPLINARY”

(A Project submitted as a part of curriculum of subject Research Methodology

in the course of B. Com LLB Hons.)
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The detailed project on “Types of Legal Research” would not have been possible without the
kind support and help of many individuals. I would like to extend my gratitude to all of them.
I am highly indebted to Prof. (Dr.) Gulshan Kumar for his guidance and constant help as well
as for providing necessary information regarding the project and also for his support in
completing the project.
I would also like to express my gratitude to my parents and friends for their kind
cooperation and encouragement which helped me in completion of this project.
A sincere thanks to all of them.

-MANSI THAKUR
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INTRODUCTION….........................................................................................................4
MEANING AND CONCEPT…........................................................................................4
ASSUMPTIONS................................................................................................................4

NATURE & SCOPE…......................................................................................................5

Significance of legal research…....................................................................................5

TYPES OF LEGAL RSEARCH….................................................................................6-20

 Descriptive Legal Research…........................................................................(6-8)

 Experimental Legal Research….....................................................................(8-10)
 Comparative Legal Research…....................................................................(10-13)
 Evaluative Legal Research…........................................................................(13-15)
 Interdisciplinary Legal Research….............................................................(16-19)

IMPORTANCE OF LEGAL RESEARCH…..................................................................20

PROBLEMS OF LEGAL RESEARCH…......................................................................21

SOURCES OF LEGAL RESEARCH….....................................................................22-27

 Printed Sources…..........................................................................................(22-25)
 Online Sources…..........................................................................................(25-27)

CONCLUSION…............................................................................................................27

BIBLIOGRAPHY & WEBLIOGRAPHY…...................................................................28

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Legal Research is the process of identifying and retrieving information necessary to support
legal decision-making. It begins with an analysis of the facts of a problem and it concludes
with the results of the investigation. Legal research skills are of great importance for
lawyers to solve any legal case, regardless of area or type of practice. It is the study of
relationship between the world of law and the world that the law purports to govern.
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. Sometimes, legal research can
help determine whether a legal issue is a "case of first impression" that is unregulated or
lacks legal precedent. Virtually every lawsuit, appeal, criminal case, and legal process in
general requires some amount of legal research.

According to the Webster’s International Dictionary, ‘research’ is ‘a careful, critical

inquiry or explanation in seeking facts or principles; diligent investigation in order to
ascertain something’. A combined reading of all the above-mentioned ‘explanations’ of the
term ‘research’ reveals that ‘research’ is the ‘careful, diligent and exhaustive investigation of
a specific subject matter’ with a view to knowing the truth and making original contribution
in the existing stock of knowledge. The term ‘legal research’ takes into its ambit ‘a
systematic finding’ or ‘ascertaining’ law’ on the identified topic or in the given area as well
as ‘an inquiry’ into ‘law’ with a view to making advancement in the science of law. Legal
research is, thus, the process of identifying and retrieving information necessary to support
legal decision-making.
Definition: Research is defined as careful consideration of study regarding a particular
concern or problem using scientific methods. According to the American sociologist Earl
Robert Babbie, “research is a systematic inquiry to describe, explain, predict, and control
the observed phenomenon. It involves inductive and deductive methods.”

A legal research is based upon certain assumptions which may

are:
Existence of
cause and effect
relationship Possibility of a
Existence of 'ideal
representative
groups'
sample

Assumptions
Possibility of Existence of
detached study sequence
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Law is the most important instrument of social change the significance of the research is
based on Justice equity good conscience.
 It helps the government in formulating suitable laws to pursue its economic and
social policies
 It helps the courts in solving issues
 It brings legal awareness in society
 It helps the legal practitioner in taking a decision as to how he should tackle the
problem in hand.
 It helps in solving the various operational and planning problem related to the
business industry and tax.

NATURE: Legal Research is not essentially different from other types of researches. This
too is search for authority to verify some hypothesis and is a continuum. Its issues of inquiry
naturally relate to pure law or law in relation to society.1
 Legal Research is the process of identifying and retrieving information necessary to
support legal judgements. In 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
another scientific research. Legal phenomenon requires various methods of
research.
 Legal Research can be performed by anyone with a need for legal knowledge and
information.
 It deals with social & behavioural phenomena.

SCOPE: It helps the government in formulating suitable laws to pursue its economic and
social policies. It helps in solving the various operational and planning problem related to the
business industry and tax. It helps the courts in solving issues. It helps the legal practitioner in
taking a decision as to how he should tackle the problem in hand. It brings legal awareness in
society. Thus, its scope extends to:
 Socio-legal Research
 Administrative Research
 Judicial Research

1
ttps://www.slideshare.net/RashmiDubey21/legal-research-78808730
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Legal research can be classified in various ways. It can be divided on the basis of the
nature of data, tools of data collection, interpretation of already available data, purpose and
other such criteria. The types of research we will be covering in our project is:

 Comparative Research
 Descriptive Research
 Evaluative Research
 Experimental Research
 Inter-disciplinary Research

Descriptive research, as its name suggests, describes the state of affairs as it exists at present.
It merely describes the phenomenon or situation under study and its characteristics. It reports
only what has happened or what is happening. It can be said that this methodology focuses
more on the “what” of the research subject rather than the “why” of the research subject. In
other words, it is description based and does not cover the “why” aspect of the research
subject.
For example, a legal professional that wants to understand the crime trends in Chandigarh
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 Chandigarh?”, but not cover any investigative details on
“why” the patterns exits.

Some distinctive characteristics of Descriptive Research are:

a. Quantitative research: Descriptive research is a quantitative research method that
attempts to collect quantifiable information for statistical analysis of the population
sample.

b. Uncontrolled variables: In descriptive research, none of the variables are influenced in

any way. Hence, the nature of the variables or their behaviour is not in the hands of
the researcher.

There are three distinctive methods to conduct descriptive research. They are:
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 Observational method
The observational method is the most effective method to conduct this research, and
researchers make use of both quantitative and qualitative observations. A quantitative
observation is the objective collection of data, which is primarily focused on numbers
and values. Results of quantitative observation are derived using statistical and
numerical analysis methods. It implies observation of any entity associated with a
numeric value such as age, shape, weight, volume, scale, etc.

Qualitative observation doesn’t involve measurements or numbers but instead just

monitoring characteristics. In this case, the researcher observes the respondents from
a distance. Since the respondents are in a comfortable environment, the
characteristics observed are natural and effective.

 Case study method

Case studies involve in-depth research and study of individuals or groups. Case
studies lead to a hypothesis and widen a further scope of studying a phenomenon.
However, case studies should not be used to determine cause and effect as they can’t
make accurate predictions because there could be a bias on the researcher’s part. The
other reason why case studies are not a reliable way of conducting descriptive
research is that there could be an atypical respondent in the survey. Describing them
leads to weak generalizations and moving away from external validity.

 Survey research
In survey research, respondents answer through surveys or questionnaires or polls.
They are a popular market research tool to collect feedback from respondents. A study
to gather useful data should have the right survey questions. It should be a balanced
mix of open-ended questions and close ended-questions. The survey method can be
conducted online or offline, making it the go-to option for descriptive research where
the sample size is enormous.

Descriptive research has the following advantages:

a. Data collection: A researcher can conduct descriptive research using specific
methods like observational method, case study method, and survey method.
Between these three, all primary data collection methods are covered, which
provides a lot of information. This can be used for future research or even
developing a hypothesis of your research object.
b. Varied: Since the data collected is qualitative and quantitative, it gives a holistic
understanding of a research topic. The information is varied, diverse, and
thorough.
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c. Natural environment: Descriptive research allows for the research to be

conducted in the respondent’s natural environment, which ensures that high-quality
and honest data is collected.
d. Quick to perform and cheap: As the sample size is generally large in descriptive
research, the data collection is quick to conduct and is inexpensive.
e. Non-quantified: Descriptive research is effective to analyse non-quantified topics
and issues.

Descriptive research has the following disadvantages:

a. Statistical verification: Descriptive studies cannot test or verify the research
problem statistically.
b. Biasness: Research results may reflect certain level of bias due to the absence
of statistical tests.
c. Repetition: The majority of descriptive studies are not ‘repeatable’ due to their
observational nature.
d. Causal relationship: Descriptive studies are not helpful in identifying cause behind
described phenomenon.

The empirical research is carried on by collecting or gathering information by first hand study
of the subject, it relies on experience or observation without due regard to any theory or
system and, hence, it is also called as experimental type of research. In this type of research,
the researcher attempts to investigate effect or impact by actual examination or observation of
the functioning of law and legal institutions in the society.
According to late Prof. S.N. Jain, it seeks to answer such questions as are law and legal
institutions serving the needs of society? Are they suited to the society in which they are
operating? What factors influence the decisions of adjudicators (courts of administrative
agencies)? It is also concerned with the identification and creating an awareness of the new
problems which need to be tackled through law conducting empirical research.
This kind of research is not very popular among the researchers especially lawyers and
judges.

Some distinctive characteristics of Experimental Research are:

The following are the features of non-doctrinal research:
a. Non-doctrinal: It lays a different and lesser emphasis upon doctrine.
b. Broader: It seeks to answer broader and more numerous questions.
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c. Dependent: It is not anchored exclusively to appellate reports and other

traditional legal resource for its data.
d. Research Methodology: t may involve the use of research perspectives,
research designs, conceptual frameworks, skills, and training not peculiar to
law trained personnel.

Empirical legal research seeks answers to a variety of questions that have bearing on the socialdimension
or social-performance of law and its ‘impact’ on the social behaviour. In fact, it concerns with ‘social-
auditing of law’. Hence, socio-legal research is significant and has a number of advantages.
According to Prof (Dr) Khushal Vibhute & Filipos Aynalem, prominent advantages of Empirical legal
research are as follows:
a. FIRSTLY, socio-legal research highlights the ‘gap’ between ‘legislative goals’ and
‘social reality’ and thereby ‘depicts’ a ‘true picture’ of ‘law-in-action’.
For example, the regulatory body, existing or created under the law, vested with the
power to monitor and enforce the law, may, due to some prejudices be professionally
‘inactive’ in enforcing the law. It may, for certain reasons, purposefully fail to enforce it
effectively. Non-doctrinal legal research, in this context, highlights the ‘reasons’ behind
making the law ‘symbolic’, less-effective or ineffective.
b. SECONDLY, experimental legal research carries significance in the modern welfare
state, which envisages socio-economic transformation through law and, thereby,
perceives law as a means of achieving socio-economic justice and parity.
Through empiricism, socio-legal research assesses ‘role and contribution of law’ in
bringing the intended social consequences. It also helps us in assessing ‘impact of law’ on
the social values, outlook, and attitude towards the ‘change(s)’ contemplated by law
under inquiry. It highlights the ‘factors’ that have been creating ‘impediments’ or posing
‘problems’ for the law in attaining its ‘goal(s)’.
c. THIRDLY, in continuity of what has been said in firstly and secondly above,
experimental legal research provides an ‘expert advice’ and gives significant feedback
to the policy-makers, Legislature, and Judges for better formulation, enforcement and
interpretation of the law.

a. Costly: experimental legal research is extremely time consuming and costly as it

requires a lot of time for collecting the required information from field. Further, it
calls for additional training in designing and employing tools of data collection and
entails greater commitments of time and energy to produce meaningful results.
b. Doctrinal base: socio-legal research, as explained earlier, needs a strong base
of doctrinal legal research. A legal scholar who is weak in doctrinal legal
research
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cannot handle non-doctrinal legal research in a meaningful way. It may turn out to be
a futile exercise leading to no significant results.
c. Complex data collection: the tools of data collection are not simple to employ. They
require specialized knowledge and skill from the stage of planning to execution. Each
one of them is bridled with a number of difficulties.
d. Requires training: A researcher has to have a sound skill-oriented training in social
science research techniques. Similarly, a scholar of law, though having a strong base
in legal principles, concepts or doctrines as well as in doctrinal legal research,
cannot venture into experimental legal research unless he has adequate training in
social science research techniques. In either case, experimental legal research
becomes a mere nightmare for both of them.
e. Difficulty in predicting: It is extremely weak in solving a problem in hand, and it
cannot give a direction as to what course the law should follow to be useful because
invariably public opinion, as mentioned earlier, influences contents and framework of
law. Law, most of the times, also seeks to mould and/or change the public opinion,
social value and attitude. In such a situation, sometimes it becomes difficult for a
experimental legal researcher to, on the basis of sociological data, predict with
certainty the ‘course’ or ‘direction’ the law needs to take or follow. Such a prediction
involves the maturity of judgment, intuition, and experience of the researcher. He may
fall back to doctrinal legal research. Nevertheless, sociological research may be of
some informal value to the decision-makers.
f. Biasness: sometimes, because of complicated social, political and economical
settings and varied multiple factors a socio-legal researcher may again be thrown back
to his own ideas, prejudices and feelings in furnishing solutions to certain problems.
g. Difficulty in case of certain laws: Socio-legal research becomes inadequate and
inapt where the problems are to be solved and the law is to be developed from case to
case (like in administrative law and law of torts).

“The [comparative] method is not complicated. In fact, it is so simple that I have for long
hesitated to dignify it with the term ‘method’.”2 COMPARISON is a logical and inductive
method of reasoning that enables objective identification of merits and demerits of any
norm, practice, system, procedure or institution as compared to that of others.
MEANING: Comparative Legal research (CLR) is the application of the comparative
technique to the field of law. Comparison is a process in which two things are measured by
each other.
CLR is a systematic exposition of the rules, institutions and procedures or their application
prevalent in one or more legal systems or their sub-systems with a comparative evaluation
after objective estimation of their similarities and differences and their implications. CLR

2
JC Reitz, ‘How to Do Comparative Law?’ (1996) 46 American Journal of Comparative Law 617, 635
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may be doctrinal or non-doctrinal, theoretical or fundamental, historical or contemporary,

qualitative or quantitative. CLR is also known as Comparative Law.

1. Method or Science- In the Formative Stage CLR was considered as Science. In the early
20th century scholars would argue that the object of comparative law was the ‘discovery of
concepts and principles common to all “civilised” systems of law, that is to say, universal
concepts and principles which constitute what [could be] called droit ‘ideal relatif’ or an ideal
relative law.
However, this has long been questioned, with one of the main reasons being that comparative
law has no defined subject matter and does not produce any rules or principles of law—even
if it is correct to assume that using comparative law may assist in drafting or changing rules
in national, European or international law. Comparative law is not a legal system or a set of
norms applicable in a particular field or territory. Today, it is generally agreed that
comparative law is actually a method.
2. Method and knowledge progression-Comparative law is an ambitious intellectual
activity which has law as its object and comparison as its process. . As ‘a method of looking
at law’, comparative law aims at reaching ‘higher grounds’ in the sense that it is not limited
to the understanding of another legal system, and the better understanding of the researcher’s
own legal system. It also aims at understanding the discipline of law, not just in its
technicalities, but also in its epistemological and ontological dimensions by critically
reflecting on the origin, nature and limits of the law itself.

Legal education becomes more robust--enriches supply of solution

Critical understanding of one’s own legal system: solve problem by providing alternate models

Enables promotion of understating between different communities and nations

CLR facilitates choice between legal systems Harmonizes law and bring uniformity

The researcher has to make decision of opting for comparative legal research very cautiously.
The following are the steps and method which a researcher should follow however there is
no rigid sequential order: -
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1. Statement of the problem- In the background of felt difficulties and unsatisfactory

position relating to law, fact or solution, the researcher has to state the problem. As
Geoffrey Samuel writes, “the researcher who is embarking on comparative work
must first be very clear about his or her research question, for it is this question that
will
largely determine what might be called the model and programme to be adopted.”
2. Emphasis in comparison: Similarity or difference- Comparatist aims at drawing
lessons from the approaches of different jurisdictions to the same or similar
problem. There is a general belief that the problems of life are met with same or
similar solutions of law as law is regulator of social factors in any of jurisdictions
and legal issues are similar.
3. Selection of comparative elements- The selection of laws, countries or legal systems
for comparison is a crucial step for CLR. While presence of minimum similarity
avoids absurdity in comparison, prevalence of differences avoids monotony and
repetition. Hence, the choice should accommodate diversity of features amidst
systems having at least some common traits or dealing with same or similar problem.
The purpose of comparative study guides the selection of jurisdictions for
comparison. If the purpose is unification or harmonization, all the components
coming within the scheme shall be included. For example, harmonization of
international trade law shall be on the basis of comparative study of all the
participating legal systems. When the purpose is to know the comparative advantages
and disadvantages of different systems and bring reforms in home law in their light,
the choice of comparative elements shall reflect relevant diversities.
4. Cultural immersion- As law is embedded in culture, understanding of it will be
effective only if the scholar has a kind of ‘immersion’ in culture.81 Roger Cotterrell
views culture as fundamental - “a kind of lens through which all aspects of law must
be perceived, or a gateway of understanding through which every comparatist must
pass so as to have any genuine access to the meaning of foreign law.”3
5. Macro comparison - This involves the study of legal families or engagement in
grand systems debate. The examples of legal family are: civil law, common law,
religion-based laws (Hindu Law, Islamic Law, Talmudic law), regional laws
(Japanese law, African law and Chinese Law). Differences prevail amidst legal
families whereas similarities prevail amidst member legal systems of each legal
family. Hence, macro comparison may bring out differences or similarities
depending upon affinity or non-affinity of the systems to legal family. Study of non-
legal materials - geography, history, sociology, economy, politics and culture -
provides valuable input for macro comparison.
6. Micro comparison- Comparison of specific rules to resolve a particular problem
can be called micro-comparison. The focus is on smaller units for manageable
comparison. The focus may be on positive laws; on specific legal doctrine or
precedent; on legal institution; or on description. Its task is analysis and explanation
rather than evaluation. It is concerned with identification of similarities and
differences and working on them.

3
Roger Cotterrell, “Comparative Law and Legal Culture” in Reimann and Zimmerman
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7. Analytical Analysis- in the analytical analysis, it is suggested to organise the material

‘in accordance with headings reflecting the legal philosophy and the ideology of the
legal system being investigated’, and contrasting it with the home legal system in
order to identify a set of similarities and differences between the two (or more) legal
systems.4 This is done by the mapping out of possible answers to address the legal
issue by ‘comparing carefully the different approaches, bearing in mind possible
cultural differences or socio-economic factors, where relevant, and exploring any
other non-legal factors’,5 as well as critically analysing the legal principles in terms of
their intrinsic meaning. The research question can be refined at this stage.
8. Production of findings- The final step is the end of the analytical comparison with
the production of findings, that is the researcher’s conclusions. These should be
exposed in ‘a comparative framework with caveats, if necessary, and a critical
commentary, wherever relevant, and [related] to the original purpose of [the
enquiry]’.6 These conclusions should also be justified ‘so that future researchers will
be able to see the approach […] adopted, and why [it was adopted]’.7

MEANING: Evaluative model of legal research aims at expounding the logical coherence of
concepts, elements, facts and interests of legal phenomenon individually, of their relationship
inter se and their relationship with the concepts, elements, facts and interests outside the legal
system for determining and defining the terms and presuppositions used in law.
Evaluations at the intersection of law and social science can yield meaningful insights into
how broadly, deeply, and effectively policy makers’ efforts translate into public policy that
achieves its objectives.

The process depicted in Figure 1 traces the development and use of appropriate measures
from their origins in the refinement of research questions through their eventual use in data
analyses. The process is generally iterative, with one or more steps being repeated as
discoveries at one stage expose inadequacies of constructs developed at a previous stage.
Such iterations should be anticipated not only at the points specified in Figure 1 but

4
De Cruz (n 47) 237.
5
ibid
6
De Cruz (n 47) 238. This five-step action plan is not meant to appear as such in the research itself. It is,
however, important to phrase it as such, since such an action plan might be useful, for example, in funding
applications’ narratives which often require detailed ‘work plans’ of one’s research project.
7
ibid
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throughout the process because legal research often produces unanticipated results. This is
especially true with research across jurisdictions or over time, because determining what the
law is can be complex due to the interaction of diverse statutes, regulations, and court cases
along with traditions of interpretation that vary across jurisdictions and across time.

8
Figure 1
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1. Ex-ante evaluations: A first objective of evaluative legal research is to predict

what the consequences of policies, rules, legislation and other ‘tools of
governments’ will be once they are implemented. This is often referred to as ‘ex
ante’ evaluations or ‘prospective evaluations.9 Evaluators do this by unravelling the
behavioural, social and institutional assumptions that underlie the policy, law or
programme to be
implemented. To put it a little differently: by articulating the ‘theory’ underlying the
intervention, they try to get hold of what is to be expected when it is implemented.
2. Process evaluations: Evaluation helps to find out to what extent policies,
programmes, regulations and other types of measures have been implemented as
agreed. This type of work is usually called ‘process evaluations’ and is descriptive in
nature. Here evaluators investigate the execution of (court) orders, including
sanctions, behaviour modification programmes and financial penalties. The central
question is the following: are the policies and laws and other (legal) arrangements
executed as intended, respectively as was formally agreed upon.
3. Impact (‘effectiveness’) evaluations: A third type of work which evaluators carry
out is to find out to what extent the goals of a policy, intervention, law, subsidy, levy
and other ‘tools’ have been attained and to what extent this has been caused by the
intervention under investigation. This type of work is called impact evaluations or
effectiveness evaluations.

The first is to what extent the different legal fields like penal law, constitutional and administrative law and
civil law are confronted with enough substantive and empirical challenges to make the application of
methods and theories from evaluation studies, relevant and acceptable in the academic training of lawyers
and their scholarly practice.
For penal law, the relationship with evaluation has existed for quite some time. Criminologists,
sociologists and to a lesser extent economist are involved in evaluating penal laws and sanctions,
programmes and interventions.10 This tradition goes back many decades. For the field of constitutional and
administrative law, the relationship is more recent and probably less intense. However, over the years
lawyers have been confronted with questions of an empirical nature. Examples are why laws do not always
realize their goals, how the existence of unintended side-effects of regulations and inspections is to be
explained, why the trust in and the acceptance of state interventions varies over years and countries and
how civil society ‘uses’ state organizations such as the National Ombudsman and others for their goals.
Civil law and evaluation is probably the most recent combination. What has come to be known as
civilology has increased the relevance of this combination.

9
US GAO, Prospective evaluations methods, 1995; J.M. Verschuuren (ed.) The impact of legislation: A critical
analysis of ex ante evaluation, 2009, pp. 3‐10
10
H. Nelen, Evidence maze; het doolhof van het evaluatieonderzoek, 2008
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Over the past few decades, academic legal research has become more and more
interdisciplinary. Abandoned the old, traditional notion of law as a self-contained discipline,
legal academics have identified in economics, social sciences, and politics, among other
things, some of the subjects “outside” of the law that are most commonly intertwined with
legal issues. They have also started to use methodologies and schemes distinctive of these
fields to analyse legal matters. In particular, two different, interdisciplinary legal
approaches have become rather popular in academia: law and economics (hereinafter also
referred to as “L&E”) and critical legal studies (or “CLS”).
Inter-disciplinary legal research, is the research done by a legal scholar in close association
with scholars from other disciplines related with law, such as sociology, anthropology,
political science, history, philosophy, psychology, and economics. It is a sort of concerted or
cooperative effort by several scholars belonging to different disciplines to integrate their
disciplinary insights, and to apply integrated insight to the study of legal problems. An inter-
disciplinary legal research, compared to mono-disciplinary and quasi-disciplinary legal
research, leads to better insight into the legal fact under investigation. It also results into
offering more sound and sophisticated solutions to problems than can be suggested with the
aid of mono-disciplinary and quasi-disciplinary legal research. However, inter-disciplinary
legal research suffers from some operational difficulties.

Some prominent features of Interdisciplinary Legal Research:

 An interdisciplinary legal study becomes a choice where a study would require
expansive sources of data beyond traditional legal sources to allow for contextual
analysis of the dynamics involved. In inter- disciplinary legal studies, all the processes
involved in legal research methodology apply.
 The term interdisciplinary is used in this contribution in relation to legal
research which incorporates insights from non-legal disciplines.
 In the legal world interdisciplinary research would, for example, be undertaken by
someone qualified in both medicine and law; or versed in both law and literary
theory and criticism. Unfortunately, law researchers think that if they can read
novels, they can do law and literature, but that is not the case.
 The term interdisciplinary means “relating to more than one branch of knowledge.”
Interdisciplinary study allows for synthesis of ideas and the synthesis of
characteristics from many disciplines”. At the same time, it addresses students’
individual differences and helps to develop important, transferable skills. The new
cannot be expected to emerge phoenix-like from the old and it evolves on the basis of
the old. The interdisciplinary approach plays important role in field of law.
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 Internal or external effectiveness of law: A distinction has to be drawn between

different types of effectiveness of the legal system. Legal systems ultimately
regulate and order people’s behaviour. Whether a specific legal provision
successfully contributes to this aim is dependent on two distinct sets of
effectiveness: the internal and the external effectiveness. Firstly, the internal
effectiveness of a legal system refers to the consistency and coherency of the legal
norms and their definitions. Internal consistency is essential for any legal system. In
order to achieve the goals of legislation, legal norms should for example not
contradict each other and should be clear.
Secondly, the external effectiveness measures whether a legal norm is effective in
real life, so it concerns the law in action. A typical question is whether a legal
solution achieves its goals in its operation in society. Both types of effectiveness
can be evaluated separately from each other. The distinction between those two
types of effectiveness has a number of implications, to start with the appropriate
research method.

 Type of research question determines method: When the aim of a certain

research project is to find legal answers on the basis of legal data an external non-
legal perspective is not required. When the research questions are related to the
effectiveness of the law in external consistency terms, so to external effectiveness,
another perspective is required. External effectiveness evaluates the difference
between the legal reality and the real reality.

 Method matters: Method is relevant and to ignore methodological standards may

result in unreliable research. In relation to the different types of effectiveness of a
legal system, this implies the following. When results are presented on the
effectiveness of a certain legal instrument, it should be clear what type of evaluation it
concerns: external or internal. It is methodologically unsound to draw conclusions as
to whether a legal approach functions in the real world12 on research which does not
include empirical data about the real world. On the basis of legal norms and standards
(how things should be) no reliable deductions can be drawn as to how things are. For
instance, if legal research on non-marital cohabitation would analyse some aspects of
the external effectiveness of the law, for instance whether the presumptions in the
legal system concerning people’s behaviour with respect to relationships reflect the
actual behaviour of partners, this can only be analysed by means of non-legal such as
empirical sociological, demographical and economic data.
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All the different aspects and interests involved have to be balanced against each other
and the single fact of a divergence between the legal and real reality is not decisive.
Further, socio-empirical data are essential in order to provide the legal debate and the
legislature with the relevant arguments.
Process of interdisciplinary legal research can be described as follows:

11

11
Figure 2
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 It helps in the acquiring different perspectives. This leads to a broader

understanding of the issue under investigation. It develops structural knowledge i.e.,
both declarative knowledge (factual information) and procedural knowledge (process-
based information). Each of these forms of knowledge are needed to solve complex
problems.
 Amalgamating your methodology usually will to help you appreciate the human
world’s institutional and psychological complexity. It certainly will help you explain
the world more accurately.
 Putting your work in front of an audience which does not specialize in your discipline
or field can help provide you with perspectives those within your field of study don’t
emphasize. The wider audience can, of course, benefit from exposure to your
insights as well.
 It helps to integrate conflicting insights from alternative disciplines. A host of
disciplines attempt to understand the same or related problems, but each discipline
adopts different mechanisms of analysis and approaches to evaluating the viability of
their insights.

In principle, there are two different routes to interdisciplinary research: unilateral and
multilateral. The unilateral method implies that a legal researcher aims at carrying out the
research, starting from a research question based in the legal arena, but making use of the
data from another discipline. Multilateral research is interdisciplinary research where
from the start at least two experts from different disciplines work together. Depending on
the type of research, different pitfalls might occur.
The following problems might play a role in relation to unilateral research:
 The issue of how to find your way in and understand another discipline.
 The risk of picking and choosing and of an incorrect understanding of the other
discipline.
 The dependency on the availability of data from the sociological discipline.
 The difficulties in translating the legal concepts into socio-empirical
equivalents.
 The question how to integrate empirical results within the legal discipline.
 Page 20

Law does not sit in a vacuum instead it operates in a complex social context. It reflects
attitudes and behavioural norms, and also control and bound 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.

 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, analyse 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.
 Page 21 of

These problems are clustered in, and discussed under, the five major self-evident categories.
And they are as follows:

 Cultural problems: (i) lack of research, reading, and writing culture, (ii) lack of
institutional commitment, (iii) lack of team spirit for research and publication, (iv)
lack of innovation in diversification of publications, and problems regarding spheres
of focus in research, (v) weak consumption of research products in the legal
professional community, and poor state of constructive feedback, and (vi)
inadequate attention to relevance research to the real life or actual problems of the
society.
 Problems related to structure and procedure: (i) lack of faculty-based, department-
based, or institution-based research organization, (ii) lack of transparent, efficient,
accessible, and predictable research procedure, (iii) repetitive and useless assessment
and approval proceedings in law schools, (iv) lack of guidelines in directing and
monitoring relevance, expedience and problem solving effectiveness of research and
publications, (v) lack of clear standard for publishability and vague policies that tend
to be more prohibitive than facilitative, and (vi) no publishers specializing in
publishing law books and heavy cost of publication.
 Problems related to resources: (i) lack of research fund allocated at national, state,
university, faculty, department, or institution levels, (ii) lack of books, journals,
internet access and network, database, libraries, book allowance, conference fees,
etc, that create conducive research environment, and (iii) lack of incentives-financial
and non-financial such as acknowledgment, and research leave.
 Problems relate to competence: (i) problem of research capacity which is
manifested by: (a) most lawyers are ill-prepared for research, (b) poor research
methodology training at the under-graduate level, and (c) lack of staff development
schemes in the area of research and publications, (ii) lack of knowledge about
writing and editing, (iii) language limitations-why should publishable research be in
English only? Why not in Amharic, oromipha? or any of the local and working
languages?
(iii) most of the junior staff at the law faculties and/or departments lack [or feel
that they lack] the capacity to formulate a research project, conduct it, and
supervise it properly.
 Problems of lack of networking and forums: (i) lack of connections with potential
stakeholders with each other (policy makers, legislature, judiciary, universities, fund
generating agencies, etc.), (ii) lack of forums ( such as public lecture, seminars, and
symposia) and other mechanisms of publicizing research products, (iii) lack of link
with private publishers or companies, (iv) lack of access to minutes of debates on
bills, and projects of the legislature, and (v) lack of, or inadequate freedom of
information from various institutions.
 Page 22

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.”
There can be two types of resources for legal research:

PRINTED SOURCES:
A variety of literature is available in the form of books, journals or encyclopedias
which may enlighten a person about general problems and issues in a specific branch
of law. The initial search for a topic should be focussed on recently published books
and journals, as they deal with current sources and questions.

 CONSTITUTION OF INDIA & OTHER NATIONS

Constitutional law is a body of law which defines the role, powers, and
structure of different entities within a state, namely, the executive, the
parliament or legislature, and the judiciary; as well as the basic rights of
citizens and, in federal countries such as the United States and Canada, the
relationship between the central government and state, provincial, or territorial
governments.

 LEGISLATION-INDIA
Legislation is the prime source of law. and consists in the declaration of legal
rules by a competent authority. Legislation can have many purposes: to
regulate, to authorize, to enable, to proscribe, to provide funds, to sanction, to
grant, to declare or to restrict. A parliamentary legislature frames new laws,
such as Acts of Parliament, and amends or repeals old laws. The legislature
may delegate law-making powers to lower bodies. In the UK, such delegated
legislation includes Statutory Instruments, Orders in Council, & Bye-laws.
Delegated legislation may be open to challenge for irregularity of process; and
the legislature usually has the right to withdraw delegated powers if it sees fit.

 Gazette of India: An important source of current federal legislative

material is the Gazette of India published regularly by the
government of India and which includes acts, ordinances and
statutory rules, regulations, notifications etc.
 Acts of Parliaments: This official publication, which began in
1951, contains all the Acts passed by the parliament in a particular
year.
 Bills of Parliaments
 Local Laws of all States: The acts passed by the various states are
published in their respective gazettes.

 LEGISLATION-FOREIGN
 U.S. Code
 Page 23 of

 United Kingdom Statutes

 Australia-Commonwealth Consolidated Acts
 Canada Consolidated Statutes

 CASE LAW INDIAN REPORTS

Cases decided by courts and tribunals are an important source material in
many types of legal research and writing. Courts and tribunals interpret and
construe legal provisions and find and declare what the law or applicable
principle on a particular point in question is.

i. SUPREME COURT
 Pre- 1950 Reports
o Law reports: Moor’s Indian appeals (1836-1872)
o Law reports Indian appeals(1872-1950)
o Indian cases (1909-1947)
o Federal court reports(1939-1950)

 Current Reports: Supreme Court

o All India Reporter: this publication is one of the best
known and widely used series, brought out monthly. It
contains all the important cases decided by the Supreme
Court and also reports selected cases decided by the
various high courts and courts of union territories.
o Supreme Court Reports (1950 onwards): this is a
monthly publication which reports cases decided by
the Supreme Court
o Judgment Today (1980 onwards).
o SCALE (1970 onwards)
o Supreme Court Cases (1969 onwards) : this report
published by Eastern Book co. luckhnow is, exclusively
devoted to cases decide by the SC.

ii. INDIAN HIGHER COURTS

 Indian law reports: these reports contain case decided by
various High Courts. These are monthly publications and are
cited as, for example, as ILR Allahabad.

 FOREIGN REPORTS
 U.S. Supreme Court Reports
 Supreme Court Reports-Canada
 Australian Law Reports Reports on Patents & Trademark Cases
 Law Reports of the Commonwealth
 All England Law Reports
 Weekly Law Reports
 Dominion Law Reports
 Federal Law Reporter
 Page 24

 ACADEMIC JOURNALS

Journals also called periodicals are published at regular intervals and are an important source
of legal material. Legal periodicals contain articles, notes and comments on recent cases
information on recent legal developments, book reviews, and may also contain other
information. For example- Modern law review (UK), Journal of the Indian law institute, law
quarterly review etc.

 Indian Journals
 Foreign Journals

 LEGAL ENCYCLOPAEDIAS
 Halsbury’s Laws of England: This is a best known encyclopedia of
English law available in a set of volumes. The work provides an
authoritative account of almost every legal subject.
 Halsbury’s Laws of India: The Indian version of encyclopedia called The
Halsbury’s Laws of India is a new multivolume encyclopedia. Each
volume discusses selected topics in detail making it convenient to use
and enabling quick and easy search into any area of law.
 American Jurisprudence
 Forms & Precedents
 Words & Phrases

 LEGAL DICTIONARIES
The law, like many other academic disciplines, has its own technical words
and phrases which are either not used in ordinary language or they are used in
a specific sense. The language of the law often seems to be strange and
unfamiliar. a useful dictionary which explains how words and phrases are used
in statutory or judicial context is word and phrases legally defined. • Black’s
Legal Dictionary
 Stroud’s Legal Dictionary
 Wharton’s Law Lexicon
 Aiyar’s Advanced Law Lexicon

 DIGESTS
A digest of cases is in the nature of an index to reported decisions. Each case
is presented in the form of summary, which is often a copy of the material that
appears in the headnote of the case. Some digests also provide information as
to whether a particular case has been followed, distinguished, overruled,
explained, or merely considered in subsequent cases.
 Supreme Court Yearly Digest (SCC).: The digest covering cases since
1977 digests Supreme court cases arranged under various topics and
statute titles.
 Page 25 of

 A.I.R. Yearly Digest: This publication covers the cases the decided but
the SC since 1950. It follows the format of the digest mentioned
above, and is now in several volumes.
 Supreme Court of India Nominal Index and comparative tables. •
High Courts Cases Digests
 Supreme Court Labour Digest
 Digest of Labour Law Cases Digest of Tax Cases
 Service Law Reporter Digest
 Index to Indian Legal Periodicals Index to Legal Periodicals & Books
(1926 onwards).

ONLINE SOURCES:
Many large libraries subscribe to various online databases. These databases are made
available to library members without additional fees. Most online resources
subscribed by the library are linked to the library homepage. Online databases are
provided by commercial service providers, which costs money. Due to the
involvement of cost, only large libraries, especially those maintained by universities
and institutes, can obtain such services for their uses by paying annual subscription:

Some major online legal service providers are as listed below:

 Lexis-nexis: Lexis-nexis is one of the most comprehensive online sources of

full-text legal information retrieval system. It covers information regarding
case law and legislation from UK and Ireland, Canada, Australia and
European community.
 Lexis Academic universe: academic universe is a simplified version of lexis
that covers other general resources including legal news, company news and
financial information, full text and general reference sources.
 Westlaw: westlaw is one of the leading online legal search services, providing
one of the broadcast collections of legal resources, news, business and public
records information, cases and statutes, administrative materials, law reviews
and treaties, attorney profiles, news and business information, and forms.
 Butterworths: Butterworths makes available a variety of legal databases
through the butterworths lexis direct service. These include All England
Direct, which provides access to the full text of All England Law Reports from
1936.

SOME INDIAN WEBSITES

Access to information can also be obtained via many law related websites as
more and more information is made available on the internet. They provide
links to many other resources that can lead readers to relevant sites.
 Supreme Court Cases: 1950 onwards www.supremecourtofindia.nic.in
 JUDIS

JUDIS is a service that provides information regarding judgements of the Supreme

Court and various High Courts of India. JUDIS of Supreme Court is available in two
 Page 26

parts. The service is maintained by the national information centre and ministry of law
and justice.

 MANUPATRA- Manupatra.com is India’s most comprehensive online legal &

business policy database. Manupatra revolutionized the way in which people
do legal researches in India. Since its beginning in 2001, has come an online
research tool for legal research in India. Manupatra is the only legal publishing
database with presence in all three segments of Print, CD Rom publishing &
online publishing. It covers the following legal information. 1. Judgments
Includes Supreme Court of India, High Courts, Tribunals etc. 2. Commission
& Committee Reports 3. Gazette Notifications & Circulars 4. Bare Acts, Rules
& Regulations 5. Ordinance & Pending Bills.
 INDLAW is a business-to-business Internet provider of research modules
relating to Indian legal, tax, business and regulatory issues. Indlaw is part of
the Indian law online project which was launched in April 1997 as a
collaborative exercise between professionals and academicians based in U.K.
and in India to build an electronic legal library to enable solicitors, advocates,
students and clients to have access to information on various primary and
secondary legal documents like the constitutional texts, parliamentary debates,
case law, Parliamentary and State enactments and delegated legislation in both
India and the U.K.
 AIR Supreme Court Software containing data covering a period from 1950
till 2008. The Software has the Full text from both the AIR Supreme Court as
well as from AIR SCW. This adds upto 38000 judgments. More than 173
Hon’ble Supreme Court Judges have rendered valuable Judgments which
cover more than 700 designated Topics and 4300 Subjects/Statutes of Central
and State Legislation.
 Criminal Law Journal Software contains data of various High Court and
Supreme Court decisions besides decisions of Foreign Courts from 1960 till
2009.
 SCCOnline The Law Library may provide Supreme Court Cases online with
the help of SCC Online commercial software. A case may be searched by
General Search, Topical Search (subject based), Case Index (Nominal
Search) and Find by Citation. The latest judgments may be downloaded
though internet with the help of SCC Online Search Engine.
 Page 27 of

Legal research is a systematic understanding of the law with a view of its advancement. The
purposes of the same are very important to the people and society because law acts within the
society and they both had an impact on each other. Every kind of research method had its
own value. Therefore, it becomes really important for the researcher to understand the
subject on which the research needs to be done and the methods of legal research. He should
have an understanding about the suitability and pitfalls of the methods, so that he can opt for
the best possible method. That is, while undertaking a research a researcher might face some
hurdles but they can be avoiding by proper planning of the research process.
 Page 28

BOOKS:
 Myneni, S.R. “Legal Research Methodology” (2012), Faridabad Law Agency.
 Marie-Luce Paris “Legal Research Methods: Principles and Practicalities”
(2016), Clarus Press.
 Aynalem, Filipos, Vibhute, Prof (Dr) Khushal “Legal Research Method”
(2009), Universal Publishers.

RESEARCH PAPERS:
 Frans L. Leeuw “Can legal research benefit from evaluation studies”, Utrecht
Law Review.
 P. Ishwara Bhat “Comparative Method of Legal Research: Nature, Process and
Potentiality”, Article in Journal of the Indian Law Institute, Volume 57, April-June
2015, Number 2.
 Sanjeyvignesh J. “Types of Legal Research needed for Law Reform”
Erika Arban “Interdisciplinary Approaches to Legal Research: Law and Economics and Critical Legal
Studies from a North American Perspective”

INTERNET:
 https://allindialegalforum.in/2020/06/27/importance-of-interdisciplinary-approach-
and-skill-for-a-law-student/
 http://www.bjutijdschriften.nl/tijdschrift/lawandmethod/2015/12/RENM-D-14-00001
 http://www.commonlii.org/in/journals/NLUDLRS/2010/1.pdf
 https://www.questionpro.com/blog/descriptive-research/
 https://www.academia.edu/40453465/Meaning_and_Objective_of_Legal_Research_K
inds_of_Resear
 https://www.mylawman.co.in/2021/05/law-notes-introduction-to-legal.html
 https://www.questionpro.com/blog/what-is-research/
 http://epgp.inflibnet.ac.in/epgpdata/uploads/epgp_content/law/09._research_methodol
ogy/02._legal_research/et/8149_et_et.pdf
 https://legodesk.com/legopedia/types-of-legal-research/
 https://www.elevenjournals.com/tijdschrift/ELR/2015/2/ELR-D-15-004_001
 https://www.memopundits.com/legal-research/writingresearchpapers/
 https://www.questionpro.com/blog/descriptive-research/