Soban Singh Jeena University

Almora, Uttarakhand

(Faculty of Law)

LEGAL RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

(2021-2022)

ASSIGNMENT TOPIC

“Meaning, Advantages and Limitation of Doctrinal Legal Research”

Submitted to: Submitted by:

Dr. D. K. Bhatt Faculty of Law, Kshitij Pandey , LL.M.(II Semester)

SS.J University, Almora Roll No- 02

Email id- kshitijpandey17@gmail.com

 Table of Contents

CHAPTER I – INTRODUCTION...............................................................................................................3

 Definition
 Jurisprudential foundation

CHAPTER II - ADVANTAGES OF DOCTRINAL LEGAL RESEARCH................................................6

 Advantages
 Research Approach, Process and Steps
 Distinctive characteristics

CHAPTER III - LIMITATIONS OF DOCTRINAL LEGAL RESEARCH..............................................11

 Limitations
 Latest Trends: Worldwide Debate on Methodology

CONCLUSION.........................................................................................................................................14

BIBLIOGRAPHY......................................................................................................................15

2
 CHAPTER I – INTRODUCTION
Legal research involves systematic examination of problems relating to law within appropriate
methodological framework. It deals with study of different aspects of law such as principles, theories,
process, historical development, comparative status, functioning of judiciary, justice delivery, among
others.

The systematic investigation of problems and of matters concerned with law such as codes, acts etc. is
legal research.1 Judges, lawyers, Law Commissions and researchers constantly do research in law. 2
Moreover, legal researcher can even go beyond the pure legal issues to study practical problems of the
outer world in relation to law. Legal research can be broadly

classified as doctrinal and non-doctrinal legal research on the basis of focus of the study – whether it
examines theoretical and analytical aspects of 'law as it is' or it observes relevant social facts interrelated
with law.

Doctrinal legal research comprises in-depth analysis of the legal doctrine with its development process
and legal reasoning whereas non-doctrinal research seeks various social facts, relationship of law with
those facts, impact of law on society and such. Given that it has gained wider acceptance from all quarters
of legal professionals, namely the lawyers, the judges, legal scholars and jurists, doctrinal legal research
has remained as prominent research method in law.

Definition As the word ‘doctrinal’ is a derivative of 'doctrine', let's begin with defining the term
'doctrine'.

Dictionary Definition: Doctrine means “a principle, esp. a legal principle, that is widely adhered to.” 3

Terry Hutchinson and Nigel Duncan define, “The word ‘doctrine’ is derived from the Latin ‘doctrina’
which means ‘to instruct, a lesson, a precept’. The doctrine includes legal concepts and principles of all
types – cases, statutes, rules. Doctrine has been defined as ‘a synthesis of rules, principles, norms,
interpretive guidelines and values. It explains, makes coherent or justifies a segment of the law as part of
a larger system of law. Doctrines can be abstract, binding or non-binding’.” 4

1
S.R. MYNENI, LEGAL RESEARCH METHODOLOGY, Allahabad Law Agency, India, 16 (1st ed. 4th prtg.
2006).
2
Ibid.
3
BLACK'S LAW DICTIONARY 553 (9th ed. 2009).
4
Terry Hutchinson & Nigel Duncan, Defining and Describing What We Do: Doctrinal Legal Research, 17(1)
DEAKIN. L. REV. 84 (2012).

3
Based on the observation of these two definitions, we come to know that legal doctrine consists of body
of rules associated with legal concept or principle that could have long history of development. Hence,
doctrinal legal research is all about thorough enquiry in legal concepts, values, principles and existing
legal texts such as statutes, case laws etc.

In addition, eminent legal scholars have defined 'doctrinal legal research' in their own contexts to explain
various aspects of the research method including its purpose, sources, particular nature of study, process,
significance etc.

According to Prof. S. N. Jain, “Doctrinal research involves analysis of case law, arranging, ordering and
systematizing legal propositions and study of legal institutions through legal reasoning or rational
deduction.”5

Dr. S.R. Myneni has defined, “A doctrinal research means a research that has been carried out on a legal
proposition or propositions by way of analysing the existing statutory provisions and cases by applying
the reasoning power.6

Based on the definitions provided by the scholars, it is found that doctrinal legal research is analytical
study of existing laws, related cases and authoritative materials as a whole, on some specific matter. It can
be considered as relatively a theory-testing research which endeavours to seek whether theory involved
within subject is so far valid or not. Doctrinal legal research deals with verifying existing knowledge on
the legal issues. Since the society itself is of changing nature as per the human needs, technological
innovations and economic transformations, knowledge on some particular area of law is also required to
be replaced by newer findings. While people keep following same thing in the society for a long, many
issues, and above all, efficacy of knowledge in some particular area of law maybe below par at the
moment. While society is changing day by day, proper and systematic review of the existing knowledge
on law is essential. Therefore doctrinal legal research works as knowledge building research in the legal
field.

Doctrinal research usually begins with developing legal proposition and the entire analysis of the data
from primary and secondary authorities is focused on testing the proposition. Say, for example, while
initiating a doctrinal legal research on the issues of precedents, a legal researcher can construct a
proposition that more than two third of the precedents set by the Supreme Court lack convincing legal
reasoning behind them. The researcher needs to study bulk of data generated from primary and secondary
5
S.N.Jain, Doctrinal and Non-Doctrinal Legal Research, in LEGAL RESEARCH AND METHODOLOGY, Indian
Law Institute, India, 68 (S.K. Verma & M. Afzal Wani eds., 2006).
6
MYNENI, supra note 1, at 32.

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authorities related to case laws or the contents of the precedents set by Supreme Court within certain
timeframe, prior studies on such precedents, related authoritative books and academic writings etc.
Researcher must analyse the case laws and legal reasoning factor given in Supreme Court's judgments to
supplement something new knowledge.

As characterized by the study of legal texts, case laws, authoritative materials, researchers often used
the terms like ‘traditional legal research’, ‘theoretical legal research’, ‘library based legal
research’, ‘basic legal research’, ‘arm-chair legal research’ and even ‘black-letter law research’
interchangeably to denote doctrinal legal research.

Jurisprudential Foundation

Doctrinal legal research has its jurisprudential root on the positive or analytical school of law. As
doctrinal legal research pursues what is the law in specific issue, its approach is merely analytical, or
in other words, influenced jurisprudentially by the positive school of thought.

Doctrinal research is underpinned by positivism and a view of the world where the law is objective,
neutral and fixed.7 In the words of prominent jurist of positive school, H.L.A. Hart, doctrinal
research “takes an internal, participant-oriented epistemological approach to its object of study.” 8
Thus doctrinal legal research is knowledge based research in law rather than research about law. It
does not go through the relationship of law with other disciplines of society. Though law itself is of
the normative character, which prescribes what people ought to do or what ought not to do, doctrinal
research does not dig out the queries on human behavior, conducts and relationship of law with other
social ingredients.

As law is a normative science that regulates human conduct and relationship with backing of
sanction and at the same time, stability and certainty of law are social values to be pursued, this
posits doctrinal legal research at the primary concern to legal researcher. 9 Doctrinal legal research
attempts to preserve consistency in law on the basis of legal reasoning. Researcher conducting
doctrinal research usually analyses the existing laws for the sake of stability and certainty in law,
which could ultimately results in consistency in justice delivery.

7
HUTCHINSON & DUNCAN, supra note 4, at 116.
8
H.L.A. HART, THE CONCEPT OF LAW, Clarendon Press, Oxford, UK (1961) cited in CHYNOWETH, pg. 30.
9
S.N JAIN, supra note 5, at 68.

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 CHAPTER II - ADVANTAGES OF DOCTRINAL LEGAL RESEARCH
The following points respond to the query – why doctrinal research is important in law. The major
advantages of doctrinal legal research comprise, but are not limited to the following:

a. To construct new legal theories, principles and doctrines, to test them and add new
knowledge in the legal scholarship.

b. To help maintain continuity, consistency and certainty of law. 10

c. To resolve day-to-day client matters as it is more manageable and outcomes are

more predictable due to its focus on established sources. 11

d. To advise courts or clients about the application of legal doctrine

to specific cases, transactions, or other legal events. To critically
examine the judicial opinions and in case of conflicts between the
decisions of different court, to suggest the resolution to those
conflicts.12
e. To provide lawyers, judges and others with the tools needed to
reach decisions on an immense variety of problems, usually with
very limited time at disposal.13
f. To develop a theory that tries to explain how law or areas of law
fit together; to conduct comparative and historical inquiries
describing an earlier era or contrasting legal regime; to expose
tensions within a body of law, legal practices or institutions; and
to highlight these tensions and contradictions and attempt to link
them to larger psychological, social, or philosophic difficulties. 14

The main purpose of doctrinal legal research is to improve the substantial part of the law by means
of which could result in achieving the broader goal of law. The ultimate goal of law is justice rather

10
VIBHUTE & AYNALEM, supra note 10, at 71.
11
Ashish Kumar Singhal & Ikramuddin Malik, Doctrinal and Socio-legal Methods of Research: Merits and
Demerits, 2(7) EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH JOURNAL 253 (2012).
12
Adilah Abd Razak, Understanding Legal Research, 4 INTEGRATION & DISSEMINATION, Faculty of
Economics and Management, Universiti Putra Malaysia 19–20 (2009).
13
SOCIOLOGY OF LAW 9 (Vilhelm Aubert ed. 1969) cited in JAIN, supra note 5, at 79.
14
HUTCHINSON & DUNCAN, supra note 4, at 104.

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than mere legal procedures, texts and jargons. Thus doctrinal legal research is often employed in the
areas of enriching legal contents, coding and even interpretation of the legal statutes.

Doctrinal legal research is highly academic in nature and its purpose is to build new principles, add
some new knowledge and provide foundation for study on other various socio-legal issues.

Laws should be made in a right way and legal contents are required to be made strong. In the
legislation process, very often, lawmakers deliberately leave some sensitive part of law without
interpretation with the view that there are learned judges to interpret the issues if necessary. Thus
judges are responsible to carry out deep study in doctrinal manner in order to avoid miscarriage of
justice while giving judgment on particular issues. That sort of judgment may remain as case law for
many years or even for many decades governing the particular issue.

Doctrinal legal research boosts confidence of the judges, lawyers and the jurists. A lawyer can do a good
legal research in doctrinal approach even during the litigating stage for a particular client. This can give
input to the judge for valid reasoning while deciding the case.

Backed by the massive knowledge acquired from doctrinal legal research, judges can be full confident
upon what they are doing and such conscious rulings of the court could result in development of new
concept in law. Public Interest Litigation and Judicial Activism are the exemplary concepts thriving of
late which can be considered as the consequence of doctrinal legal research. Doctrinal Legal research, in
proactive manner, is much essential to introduce new concepts and positive changes in law practices,
judicial decisions, administration of justice and overall justice delivery mechanism.

Hence legal practitioners, judges and jurists are required to conduct doctrinal legal research
systematically based on the wide range of data deposited in the library in the forms of principles,
doctrines, statutory materials, treaties, relevant international cases, judicial writings, authoritative books
etc. Doctrinal research can yield a clear understanding of particular legal issue in the very limited span of
time.

Research Approach, Process and Steps

As a doctrinal legal researcher does not deal with merely counting the number of laws related to certain
fact, quantitative approach of research does not meet the purpose of this sort of research. Doctrinal
researcher thoroughly analyses the relevant legal texts to interpret what law exists regarding the particular
context and thus the approach of analysis in doctrinal legal research is always a qualitative one.

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The analytical, legal reasoning aspect of doctrinal research process is necessarily a qualitative one. The
outcome varies according to the expertise of the individual scholar and cannot be replicated exactly by
another researcher. When a researcher undertakes doctrinal work, it is totally dependent on the voice and
experience of the individual. Doctrinal research requires a specific language, extensive knowledge and a
specific set of skills involving precise judgment, detailed description, depth of thought and accuracy. 15

Doctrinal research involves ‘the search for the particular rather than the general’ and ‘the non-
probabilistic nature of statements of law’. 16

Critics of doctrinal research often attempt to dub it as ‘armchair’ or ‘handicapped’ type of research.
However, conducting doctrinal research is not such an easy task since it comprises the systematic process
of locating and analysing various authoritative legal texts, case laws and similar nature of prior studies as
well. Doctrinal researcher has to go through immense

Doctrinal method, as described by Hutchinson and Duncan 17 , is normally a two part process which
involves locating the sources of the law and then interpreting and analysing the text. The methodology
used by legal researchers may be the same at its basis but the process and the output differs among the
writing genres.18

There are obviously varying degrees of complexity within doctrinal legal research. The range lies from
practical problem-solving to ‘straightforward descriptions of (new) laws, with some incidental
interpretative comments’, to ‘innovative theory building (systematisation). There is firstly the problem-
based doctrinal research methodology used by practitioners and students.

This approach is predicated on solving a specific legal problem and normally includes
the following steps:19

a. Assembling relevant facts

b. Identifying the legal issues
c. Analysing the issues with a view to searching for the law
d. Reading background material (including legal dictionaries,
legal encyclopaedias, textbooks, law reform and policy
papers, journal articles)

15
Ibid, at 116.
16
Ibid, at 117.
17
HUTCHINSON & DUNCAN, supra note 4, at 110.
18
Ibid, at 100.
19
Ibid.

8
 e. Locating primary material including legislation, delegated legislation and case law
f. Synthesising all the issues in context
g. Coming to a tentative conclusion

Distinctive Characteristics

Doctrinal legal research is distinguished from other non-doctrinal legal researches on the basis of data
employed during the study. Doctrinal research is always based on secondary data that come from
authorities. Though data can be retrieved from both primary and secondary authorities, doctrinal research
never deals with the primary data of social facts collected first-hand from surveys, field study or any other
empirical means. Doctrinal researcher analyses available secondary data from authoritative sources which
have already been collected and processed by other else than the researcher. In doctrinal research, usually
researcher analyses secondary available data, which come from statutes, laws, judicial decisions and other
legal texts, to verify the legal proposition and reach to a conclusion. Doctrinal legal research gets its data
basically from authoritative sources, either from law itself or legal texts having some sense of sovereign
or authority in it. Most of the legal scholars consequently prefer doctrinal research due to its hassle free
nature – not required to wander various places to gather first-hand information from field studies.

As the place and source of data, namely, substantive legal rules, doctrines, or concepts and judicial
decisions thereon, required for doctrinal legal research is law library, doctrinal legal research is
nicknamed as ‘arm-chair research’, or ‘basic or fundamental research’. 20

Legal research is all about authorities. Primary and secondary authorities are always essential to test,
analyse and verify the legal propositions. Primary authorities include the actual rules or statements of law
created by authentic governmental bodies such as constitutions, statutes, legislations and codes which
come from the legislature, judgements and opinions from the Courts, and even regulations, rulings of the
administrative agencies. Secondary authorities include materials that explain or comment on areas of law
such as law review articles, treatises, books, restatements of the law, legal encyclopaedias and so on.
Primary authorities can be either mandatory (binding) or persuasive (non-binding). The legislations and
case laws of particular controlling jurisdiction are mandatory to that jurisdiction whereas Court decisions
of foreign jurisdictions that are operating under different statutory frameworks could not be mandatory in
the domestic context. Likewise, secondary authorities are also used as only the persuasive authorities.

20
HUTCHINSON & DUNCAN, supra note 4, at 99.

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To a large extent, it is the doctrinal aspect of law that makes legal research distinctive and provides an
often under-recognised parallel to ‘discovery’ in the physical sciences. 21 Thus doctrinal legal research is
itself distinct from literature review, content analysis and historical research methods.

21
Ibid.

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 CHAPTER III - LIMITATIONS OF DOCTRINAL LEGAL RESEARCH

Availability of the reliable data is the biggest challenge in conducting doctrinal research. Researcher must
be competent enough to identify the reliable data and make sure the data is of some kind of authority,
either primary or secondary.

Funding providers often criticize doctrinal legal researcher for being vague due to operating within the
arcane paradigm. At a time when competition for limited research funds is becoming more intense, and in
which interdisciplinary work is highly valued and non- lawyers are involved in the assessment of grant
applications, lawyer-applicants who engage in doctrinal research need to be more open and articulate
about their methods.22

Unless researcher is much acquainted with limitations of the doctrinal method, research outcomes could
possibly be ‘too theoretical, too technical, uncritical, conservative, trivial and without due consideration
of the social, economic and political significance of the legal process’. 23

In studying, the context which the law operates and how the law relates to and affects that context,
doctrinal methodology does not offer an adequate framework for addressing issues that arise because it
assumes that the law exists in an objective doctrinal vacuum rather than within a social framework or
context. The law does not operate in a vacuum. It operates within society and affects the society. There is,
therefore, scope for adopting and adapting other methodologies utilized in other subjects in order to have
more illuminated view of the law and its functions. Lawyers may need more than doctrinal or library

based research skills in order to make their research more relevant for the wider world. 24

Latest Trends: Worldwide Debate on Methodology

Lawyers, judges and jurists had widely used doctrinal research as a systematic means of legal reasoning
in nineteenth and twentieth century. Doctrinal research is therefore established as the traditional genre of
research in legal field. Though doctrinal researchers were much more concerned to add perfection to legal
contents and issues, law in reality was not functioning perfectly in various social contexts. This realisation
led to the advent of newer research approach in second half of the twentieth century – socio-legal research
– which had in its focus, the study about relationship of law with different aspects of society. Study of law
in isolation could not always contribute in making and institutionalising right kind of law for human
22
Ibid, at 85.
23
SINGHAL & MALIK, supra note 21.
24
Ibid.

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society. As a consequence, newer approach of studying law with socio-legal perspective was emerged in
the international legal research arena. Since then, debates on usage and prevalence of methodology in
legal research are ongoing as a common phenomenon among and between the academia worldwide.

Both in the U.S. and in Europe there is a debate on methodology in legal research. Doctrinalists and
multidisciplinarians appear to be in different camps fighting over the ‘true nature’ of legal scholarship. 25
Nevertheless, socio-legal research has its footing on the foundation of the outcomes of doctrinal legal
research. Socio-legal research complements doctrinal research in the part of pragmatic law development
process. Gestel and Miclitz has implied upon the interrelationship between doctrinal and non-doctrinal
empirical research in the given words,

It is just as impossible to undertake good multidisciplinary or empirical research without a proper

understanding of legal doctrine as it is to conduct solid doctrinal research with at least some knowledge of
facts and fact finding. One needs this understanding, not in the last place, in order to be able to raise the
right questions without making a mockery of law and legal theory. If the opposite were true, things would
be a lot easier and there would probably not have been such a long history of frictions between legal
formalism, naturalism and (new) legal realism in the U.S. and in Europe. 26

Society and various societal factors contribute in framing the law and ultimately the same law governs the
society. For this reason, relationship between the law and society should be studied well for proper
functioning of law along with the legal doctrines. Thus socio-legal research and doctrinal research are
equally important to press forward the development of law and justice delivery in prosperous society.

Doctrinalists, empiricists, comparatists, legal historians, law and economists and others co- exist in the
new legal world and the quality of their work should be judged according to the rules of the discipline and
not be determined by preferences for a particular type of research. 27

25
SINGHAL & MALIK, Doctrinal and Socio-legal Methods of Research: Merits and Demerits. Educational
Research Journal, 2(7)2012.
26
Ibid.
27
Ibid.

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 CONCLUSION

The objective and philosophy of doctrinal researcher has to be the same as that of sociological
jurisprudence, that is, social engineering through law. Law society research cannot thrive on a weak
infrastructure base of doctrinal type analyses of the authoritative legal materials.

Convergence rather than rivalry between the doctrinal and non-doctrinal socio legal research could only
be the best approach to tackle with burning problems in the legal field. Both of the legal research method
should complement each other's limitations where applicable.

Legal issues coupled with manifold of the social facts regarding economy, environment, culture,
psychology, information technology, religion and such are studied while conducting socio-legal research.
To conduct such studies, proper foundation of doctrinal analysis of statutes, legal principles and case laws
from authorities can only be supplied thorough the outcomes of doctrinal researches. Series of studies and
knowledge accumulation on the problems related to legal provisions, proceedings, justice delivery, among
others, through doctrinal and non-doctrinal approaches could be undertaken and if this led to similar
nature of outcomes generation for time and again, it may perhaps result in paradigm shift in the policies.

The socio-legal impact study of law on the basis of public opinion can bring practical world problem to
the policymaker's sight. But to make the public opinion mature, the foundation again could be doctrinal
research outcomes. Good opinion formation always depends on how one has acquired right information
about the subject matter. Doctrinal legal researches give inputs for public to reach at well-informed
decisions, resulting in mature and right public opinion. The depository knowledge generated from
doctrinal legal researches could be basis for public opinion formation on legal reforms, impact of
particular law and those public opinions can be brought as data through the empirical studies. To
conclude, lots of good things can be generated harmonizing doctrinal and non-doctrinal legal research
methods when it comes to taking the legal scholarship at new height or solving the legal problems in real
life situation.

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 BIBLIOGRAPHY

Black's Law Dictionary (9th ed.). (2009).

Myneni, S.R. (2006). Legal Research Methodology. India: Allahabad Law Agency.

Jain, S.N.(2006). Doctrinal and Non-Doctrinal Legal Research. In S.K. Verma & M. Afzal Wani (Eds.),
Legal Research and Methodology. New Delhi: Indian Law Institute.

Hutchinson, Terry & Duncan, Nigel (2012). Defining and Describing What We Do: Doctrinal Legal
Research. Deakin. L. Rev, 17 (1).

Singhal, Ashish Kumar & Malik, Ikramuddin (2012). Doctrinal and Socio-legal Methods of Research:
Merits and Demerits. Educational Research Journal, 2(7).

14