LEGAL METHOD ASSIGNMENT

Techniques of Legal
Research

 What is research?
Research is a continuum
ALL RESEARCH is the gathering of evidence or information for ascertaining
an assumption or verifying some hypothesis. Research is, therefore, an
enquiry for the verification of a fresh theory or for supplementing prevailing
theories by new knowledge. No research can be purely new, as even original
discoveries are an extension of the search already undertaken, being shaped
generally as expressing agreement or refutation or plain addition. A
researcher is thus unavoidably burdened with the heritage of information
already collected in his area of work. Communicated information, i.e.,
knowledge is the universal property of mankind and its sharing is not
encumbered by any inherent limits in terms of time or number. Man-made
barriers and devices which obstruct the free flow and sharing of information
do exist in society. The motive for not sharing knowledge can be pure
selfishness or pure public spiritedness. In the former case, it is for the
preservation of some vested interest, whereas, in the latter case, it is to
safeguard the interest of the society, i.e., to protect its physical or mental
health. Non-disclosure of the scientific know-how of nuclear energy to many
nations today, and prescribing Socratic thought in 300 B.C. may both be
read as illustrations of the same protective process. However, the futility of
keeping knowledge secret is obvious. There cannot be a planned suppression
of knowledge, though its communication may, with some effort, be limited or
delayed. Resurrection of buried ideas is implicit in the development of
human society. Like rivers, acquired human knowledge does not flow
backwards. It is not open to any individual or generation to proclaim self-
disinheritance from already acquired knowledge. Research is thus a
continuum.

 Types Of Legal Research

Legal research is not essentially different from other types of research. This
too is search' for authority to verify some hypothesis and is a continuum. Its
issues of enquiry naturally relate to pure law or law in relation to society.
Under the broad theme of enquiry about law, an analysis is made of the
rules, concepts and institutions of the law and of the legal system itself
(inclusive of legal sub-systems). Such an enquiry tends to be:
(1) Evolutive: To find out how a legal fact (rule, concept, institution or the
legal system itself) came to be what it is. This can be done in two ways-by
preparing a calendar of the successive formal baptismal dates of the legal
fact in question, or by tracing the evolution of a legal fact by locating various
supportive and causal phenomena and events responsible for shaping the
growth of the legal fact under study. It needs no elaboration to make the
point that the second approach has more merit than the first. Any
significant history of law must admit the mutual dependence of law and
other societal events and phenomena. This method of enquiry naturally
takes the legal researcher into non-legal or extra-legal fields for gathering the
required information.

(2) Identificatory : To ascertain for whom (i.e. for whose benefit) a legal
fact is made and exists. It seeks to answer the question-which are the
parties expected, intended to be benefited by a given rule, concept,
institution or the system of law. Identification of the parties benefited by a
particular legal fact helps ascertain the object of that legal fact and clarifies
the justification for its existence. It further helps ascertain whether the
parties intended to be benefited are actually being benefited. It serves to
assess the utility of a legal fact.

(3) Collative : To collate legal facts pertaining to a given situation. It may

be by way of preparing a digest of statutory provisions, judicial decisions and
customary law or preparing bibliographies of legal materials including legal
writings. It would be a mistake to regard this type of research as inferior to
other types of legal research mentioned above. Properly collated legal
material which is reliable. reasonably exhaustive and classified logically, is
as much a contribution to legal writing as any other material. One of the
handicaps of legal research is the volume of legal material which. for all
practical purposes, is not accessible owing to inadequate collation and
indexing. Inaccessibility causes ignorance. confusion and doubt. Also, it
leads to waste of time as most of the researcher's time is consumed in trying
to locate the existing legal materials on his topic. The result is that even
when he draws a blank on a particular point, he cannot be sure whether he
should still pursue the matter. Well collated material will serve a useful
purpose by reducing the labour of researchers. It may be emphasised that
materials relevant: for legal research include non-legal materials also. For
instance materials belonging to the humanities and social sciences.
Information available in disciplines like history, sociology, political science,
public administration, economics and psychology and in the area of life
sciences may also be of great use to legal researchers.

(4) Interpretative : To interpret an existing formal legal fact. Normally, it

is done by combining the researcher's logic with corroborative evidence of
authoritative opinion on the point. This is the most common kind of legal
research so far undertaken. Fundamentally, it is collative in nature, though
highly annotated. Normally statutes, texts and judicial decisions are the
subject-matter of research in this category. Established tenets of
interpretation drawn from grammar, language and law, common sense and
public policy are the tools that aid this kind of research. It helps acquire
clarity, consistency and uniformity in the meaning of legal writing.

(5) Impact analysis : To analyse the impact of an established or a newly

conceived legal provision, rule or institution. Study of the impact of laws
becomes urgent when legislative action is used for planning. Law is an
integral part of the general social processes and such study is increasingly
resorted to for organising society in an orderly manner, and the legal system
is a very significant part of the larger social system. A legal fact sets into
motion action and inaction in various areas and, generally, in society; it also
affects other co-existing sub-systems and thereby the social system itself.
Similarly other social processes and sub-systems affect the law and the legal
system. Thus, impact analysis is the study of the effect of law in, and on, the
society. Its aim is primarily to assess the actual working of the legal order in
terms of the satisfaction of the expected object of a given legal provision. As a
constructive review, it helps monitor the success or failure of a given
provision, locate the bottlenecks, if any, and finally revise the provision. It is
a preliminary step to law reform.

(6) Interactive: To study the process ofinteraction between law and other
relevant forces, factors and institutions operative in society. These forces are
formal or non-formal, obvious or subtle, permanent or transitory; they are
spread over an unimaginably vast territory of subject matter and include
diverse items such as the form of government and eating or mating habits of
people. Not much can be gained by entering into an argument over the
extent of such interaction or by attempting to put law and other forces in an
order of priority with a view to explain which one comes first in creating an
impact. It would be an unending debate. It is sufficient for the legal
researcher to be sensitive to the fact that various aspects of society form an
interacting system and that change in one part of the system is liable to
bring about corresponding changes in other parts too. Some parts of society
can be more autonomous than others, but no part is wholly autonomous.
Law is a part of society; therefore, it too is covered by the order of mutual
interdependence.
Legal research in this category will be concerned with the problems of
(a) The relative autonomy of law vis-a-vis the other components of society
(b) The relationship between various components within the legal system;
(c) The interdependence of one or more components of law within the legal
system. The role effectiveness of law or a particular limb of law can thus be
better understood. In other words, interactive legal research is a method to
gauge limits of law. It can be successfully used to explain prospectively or
retrospectively success or failure of laws and to identify additional
supportive sources to provide extra inputs required to ensure/ maximise
success of laws.
 CONCLUSION

It is obvious to elucidate that ‘Legal Research’ plays very

vital role in the enactment of new statutes meant for
Socio-Legal development and enforcement and refining
the society from all the social evils. Legal research,
Infact, paves way for the students of law, the scholars,
who involve and dedicate their part in the development
of new ideas and concepts for their vital support to the
legislators to acquaint with and then to enact them as
new law for the betterment of the society and the Nation
as a whole. Through the intensive study made on the
subject, I am of the firm view that the instant
presentation would become a little source in enlighting
the study and frame work on legal research and the New
Generation to meet the new golden era in law.