I NTRODUCTION

Research means to search or find out and examine again. This is the very essence
of the process of acquiring new knowledge. John W. Best commenting on the
“progress” has observed-

“The secret of our cultural development has been research, pushing back the areas
of ignorance by discovering new truth, which in turn, leads to better ways of doing
things and better products.”

Research means scientific and systematic re-examination of existing facts or

Knowledge to ascertain whether the existing conclusion can be varied or not. The
Dictionary meaning of research is “a careful investigation or inquiry especially
through search for new facts in any branch of knowledge.”

In the opinion of Redman and Mory, “It is a systematized effort to gain new
Knowledge.

The Encyclopedia of social sciences defines research “As the manipulation of

things, concepts or symbols for the purpose of generalizing, to extend or verify
knowledge whether that knowledge aids in construction of theory or in practice of
an art.”4

As per Grinnell, “The word research is composed of two syllables, re and search.
The dictionary defines the former as a prefix meaning again, a new or over again
and the latter as a verb meaning to examine closely and carefully, to test and try, or
to probe. Together they form a noun describing a careful, systematic, patient study
and investigation in some field of knowledge, undertaken to establish facts or
principles.” He further adds: Research is a structured inquiry that utilizes
acceptable
According to the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, research means ‘a
careful study of a subject, especially to find or discover new facts about it’ .
Research therefore involves gathering information for a purpose, and it is the
purpose that usually determines the type of research undertaken and how it is
conducted.
Legal research would, in a similar vein, involve the collection of legal materials
for the purpose of discovering new facts that would contribute to the body of
knowledge in a legal field or subject. Legal research is defined by legal studies
since it is the materials that are used in legal studies and the topics that are
taught and learnt that determine legal research. In a similar light, legal studies
are also defined by legal research as the discoveries of legal research shape
legal studies.
Research is usually a daunting task, and the style adopted may differ according
to the educational system, the supervisor, or even the researcher, as, like many
other tasks, developing a personal style is the most important factor to enjoying
the process and achieving desired results.

Research is an essential and powerful tool in leading man towards progress.

Without systematic research there would have been very little progress

John W. Best has rightly said, “The secret of our cultural development
has been research, pushing back the areas of ignorance by discovering new truths,
which, in turn, lead to better ways of doing things and better products.”

Scientific research leads to progress in some field of life. New products, new facts,
new concepts and new ways of doing things are being found due to ever-increasing
significant research in the physical, the biological, the social and the psychological
fields. Research today is no longer confined to the science laboratory.
 Research: What does it mean?
A term can be best understood with reference to the purpose it seeks to achieve.
The purpose of research is either to know about or to contribute something new to
the existing state of knowledge. The former can be described as the ‘disinterested
search for knowledge and understanding for its own sake’2, while the latter is an
application based approach to the problems in the real world. The prefix re before
research signifies a continuum which verifies or supplements existing knowledge.
It involves a systematic, careful, diligent and thorough investigation into a specific
question with a primary objective of contributing to the existing knowledge. A
directionless, unspecific, unsystematic and mere surface brushing would give us
results that cannot reveal realistic outcomes.

Meaning of Research:

Word ‘Research’ is comprises of two words = Re+Search. It means to search

again. So research means a systematic investigation or activity to gain new
knowledge of the already existing facts.

Research is an intellectual activity. It is responsible for bringing to light new

knowledge. It is also responsible for correcting the present mistakes, removing
existing misconceptions and adding new learning to the existing fund of
knowledge. Researches are considered as a combination of those activities which
are removed from day to day life and are pursued by those persons who are gifted
in intellect and sincere in pursuit of knowledge. But it is not correct to say that the
research is restricted to such type of persons, however, it is correct to say that
major contribution of research comes from highly gifted and committed workers.
Thus the research is not at all mysterious and is carried on by hundreds of
thousands of average individuals.

Research is also considered as the application of scientific method in solving the

problems. It is a systematic, formal and intensive process of carrying on the
scientific method of analysis. There are many ways of obtaining knowledge. They
are intuition, revelation, and authority, logical manipulation of basic assumptions,
informed guesses, observation, and reasoning by analogy. One of the branches of
research known as empirical research is highly goal-oriented technique.

Definitions of Research:

The following are the important definitions of research:

“Research is an endeavor / attempt to discover, develop and verify knowledge. It is

an intellectual process that has developed over hundreds of years ever changing in
purpose and form and always researching to truth.”

J. Francis Rummel

“Research is an honest, exhaustive, intelligent searching for facts and their

meanings or implications with reference to a given problem. The product or
findings of a given piece of research should be an authentic, verifiable contribution
to knowledge in the field studied.”

P.M. Cook

“Research may be defined as a method of studying problems whose solutions are

to be derived partly or wholly from facts.”

W.S. Monroes

“Research is considered to be the more formal, systematic intensive process of

carrying on the scientific method of analysis. It involves a more systematic
structure of investigation, usually resulting in some sort of formal record of
procedures and a report of results or conclusion.”

John W. Best
“Research comprises defining and redefining problems ,formulating hypothesis or
suggested solutions, collecting ,organizing and evaluating data, making deductions
and reaching conclusions and at last careful testing the conclusions to determine
whether they fit the formulated hypothesis.”

Clifford Woody

“Research is a systematic effort to gain new knowledge.”

Redman & Mori

“Social research may be defined as a scientific undertaking which by means of

logical and systematized techniques aims to discover new facts or verify and test
old facts , analyse their sequences , inter-relationships and casual explanation
which were derived within an appropriate theoretical frame of reference , develop
new scientific tools , concepts and theories which would facilitate reliable and
valid study of human behavior.”

P.V. Younge
 OBJECTIVE OF LEGAL RESEARCH

Law may be termed as a behavioral science as it regulates human behavior. It is

expressed in words which are used in a particular context. Whatever be the source
of law, it cannot provide remedy for all the situations and for all the time to come.
Changes in society demand that law should move with the time, if it has to remain
alive and active and it can remain alive, active and useful, if it is aware of its
lacunae and takes steps to overcome it with the passage of time. The object of legal
research therefore, is to find out lacunae or deficiencies in the existing laws and to
suggest suitable measures to eliminate them. If there is an area for which there is
no law at all the objective of legal research would be to suggest suitable legislation
for that area; but if there is a law for that area, but due to one reason or the other, it
did not work, its aim would be to suggest reform in the existing law so as to make
it workable. Thus the significance of legal research lies in the submission of
proposal for reform in the existing law, be it enacted, customary or judicial.
However, this would not be the end or the sole objective of the legal research.
When research is undertaken as a part of process of law reform, it is undertaken for
making suggestions for improvements in the law on concrete and easily
identifiable matters and the formulation of those proposals in precise terms.12 This
is very significant and governing factor in the area of legal research.

The following may be taken as objectives of legal research:

1. To discover new facts.

2. To test and verify old facts.

3. To analyze the facts in new theoretical framework.

4. To examine the consequences of new facts or new principles of law; or judicial

decisions.
5. To develop new legal research tools or apply tools of other disciplines in the
area of law.

6. To propound new legal concept.

7. To analyze law and legal institutions from the point of view of history.

8. To examine the nature and scope of new law or legal institution.

9. To ascertain the merits and demerits of old law or institution and to give
suggestions for a new law or institution in place of old one.

10. To ascertain the relationship between legislature and judiciary and to give
suggestions as to how one can assist the other in the discharge of one‟s duties and
responsibilities and

11. To develop the principles of interpretation for critical examination of statues.

SIGNIFICANCE OF LEGAL RESEARCH

In modern time, law has assumed much significance. It provides for and dominates
almost all activities of human beings, it has been accepted that law is perhaps most
important instrument of social change. When an individual deals with his property
or he enters into employment or he causes injury to some one, he fails to pay his
dues or he deals with his spouse and children or the government affects his
property or personal rights, he comes in contact with law and either he or his
opponent obtains remedy in accordance with existing law and where there is no
law, according to the discretion of the court. The significance of research may be
based on justice, equity and good conscience, thus this may be summed up as
follows.

1. It helps the government in formulating suitable laws to pursue its economic and
social policies.

2. It helps in solving various operational and planning problems pertaining to

business, industry and tax.

3. It helps the courts in solving the problems without much delay and in such a way
that the problem may not re-cure at all or at least in near future.

4. It helps the legal practitioner in taking a decision as to how he should tackle the
problem in hand.
KIND OF LEGAL RESEARCH
The basic types of research can be broadly classified in various subsets wherein
they can be understood in comparison with another kind of research. Those are:

Descriptive and Analytical Legal Research

The former describes the state of affairs as it exists. It describes the phenomenon,
reporting what has happened or what is happening, without going into the reason
or cause for the same. The tools used are surveys, comparative and co-relational
methods and fact-finding enquiries. But it does not establish any relationship
between the variables. The analytical research however uses the facts and

information available to make a critical evaluation.

Applied and Pure Legal Research

The aim of the former is to find a solution to a pressing practical problem at hand.
Research is putted in a practical context. The latter focuses on generalization and
formulation of a theory. Its aim is to broaden the understanding of a particular field
of investigation. The researcher does not focus upon the practical utility of the
results

Quantitative and Qualitative Legal Research

As mentioned the former is about quantity or amount, that is, what can be
expressed in numerical form of results. The latter however aims at garnishing
views and opinions to give outcomes. It relies on reasons behind a particular
behavioral aspect.

Conceptual and Empirical Legal Research

The conceptual research is related with an abstract notion or an idea. Generally

resorted to by the philosophers and thinkers to develop new concepts or reinterpret
the existing concepts. The latter however relies upon experience and observation
alone. It is data based, coming up with results that can be verified by observations
or experiments.
Legal research work may be mainly divided in two kinds:

1. Doctrinal or the Traditional research or

2. Non- doctrinal or Empirical research
3. Comparative Legal Research

Doctrinal Legal Research:

It can be defined as research into legal doctrines through analysis of statutory
provisions and cases by the application of reasoning. The emphasis is upon
analysis of legal rules, principles or doctrines. As compared to non-doctrinal legal
research which aims at research on relationship of law with society, groups and
people. It involves an empirical inquiry into the operation of law, how the doctrine
or principle which has been adopted in real world settings. Thus, the doctrinal legal
research emphasize upon research in law focusing on the black letter of the law,
the non-doctrinal research focuses on research about law, here the researcher is
interested in knowing about the law in action. The former can be understood as
armchair research or basic or fundamental research, the latter is empirical research.

The central question of enquiry here is ‘what is the law?’

on a particular issue. It is concerned with finding the law, rigorously analyzing it
and coming up with a logical reasoning behind it. Therefore it immensely
contribute to the continuity, consistency and certainty of law. The basic material
can be found in the statutory material i.e. primary sources as well in the secondary
material. However, the research has it own limitations, it is subjective, that is
limited to the perception of the researcher, away from the actual working of the
law, devoid of factors that lie outside the periphery of law, and fails to focus on the
actual practice of the courts.
Doctrinal Method:

It begins by taking up a proposition as a starting point or focus.

He then locates thelaw in statutes, judicial pronouncements, and discussions in
commentaries, textbooks, journals, and debates. Reads them in a holistic manner
analyze them and write his findings. For example, a research on proposition of
prevention against double jeopardy, under criminal law, would begin with locating
the law in constitution, and criminal law materials. On the basis of the analysis of
the same he may advance the set of formulations, or may also highlight the
objective behind the proposition and may propose what it ought to be.
 Non- doctrinal or Empirical research
Also known as socio-legal research, it looks into how the law
and legal institutions moulds and affect the society. It employs methods taken from
other disciplines in order to generation an empirical data to answer the questions. It
can either be answering a problem, like to find the gap between idealism and social
reality, could be tracing the results legal decisions, also can assess impact of non-
legal factors upon legal processes or decisions, or may be a reform based approach.
It is about viewing law from the perspective of a different discipline to keep it
organic and growing, that is, to put things in a context. Being empirical it is vital
and valuable in revealing and explaining the legal practice and procedures and
their impact on range of social institutions, like family, businesses, citizens,
consumers

Doctrinal research which is sometimes also referred to as armchair research, which

is essential for a library base study as the material needed by a researcher may be
available in libraries, archives and other data bases. Doctrinal research is a research
of legal preposition by way of analyzing of the existing statutory provision along
with the present case laws by applying the reasoning power of researcher. In
doctrinal research, researcher mainly uses different judgments, treaties, statutes
texts, legal journals, magazines etc., and from these he tries to collect all relevant
material on the topic and then with reasoning power, researcher tries to find out
gap, problem and draws out final conclusion. Dr. S.N. Jain observed that doctrinal
research involver’s analysis of case law is arranging, ordering and systematizing
legal preposition and study of legal institution through legal reasoning or rational
deduction.

Simply, empirical research means relying solely an observation and experiment,

not on theory. Empirical legal research is also termed as Non-Doctrinal legal
research; even empirical technique is also called as fact research. Empirical
research is nothing but a methodology of research, where researcher tries to collect
knowledge or information from first hand study or primary data related to his
particular matter or topic and after analysis and interpretation of those information
he draws out the conclusion of that research work. Laws or legal provisions are
nothing but the result of problem of the society to eradicate that particular one. A
researcher, through his research work tries to find out the actual relation between a
particular legal provision and its impact on society or any gap of those legal
principles in the society, etc. That means, there should be minimum two variables,
viz., any legal principle and society or any set of other field, e.g., economics,
technology, political etc., then that research methodology will be termed as socio-
legal research in wider sense and even when collection of data is in a manner of
empirical than it will be empirical legal research. Whether research is empirical or
doctrinal, it can be traced out only by pointing the method of collection of data or
information.

Doctrinal research is a theoretical study where mostly secondary source of data are
used to seek to answer one or two legal propositions or questions or doctrines. Its
scope is very narrow and there is no such need of field work. But non-doctrinal
research lays lesser emphasis upon doctrines and it is not solely dependent on the
traditional or conventional sources for data. Non-doctrinal or empirical research is
more concerned with social values and people and thus, primary data are used in
this type of research. Here field work is the most important part. Thus, scope is
wider. Empirical research tries to find out the effect of legal decisions.

Originally the term “empirical” was used by an ancient Greek practitioner of

medicine with his ethics that empiricism referred to a theory of knowledge in
philosophy which adheres to the principle that knowledge arises from experience
and evidence refers to the gathering specifically using the senses. In scientific use
the term empirical refers to the gathering of data using only evidence that is
observable by the senses. Early philosopher described as empirical research is the
process where a conclusion is totally depends on observable data to formulate and
test theories with reasonable sense.
Before the World War-II doctrinal research methodology was more familiar and
acceptable among the research scholars. But with the advent of realistic school of
jurisprudence, empirical methodology was accepted as basis of legal analysis,
because the theory behind the realistic school was that law should be mould always
on the basis of present society’s needs and circumstances. The main genesis of
doctrinal research was to study judgments or legal provisions or only concentrate
upon the existing principle or particular case study. But, empirical research could
take society in its preview to find out the actual drawback or originality. And thus,
slowly this methodology became more familiar and acceptable by the research
scholars. Government also started to encourage this research methodology by
aiding more funds for the research work which ultimately raise the income of
universities. And thus empirical research methodology became more popular.
When students of other subjects started their research with the variable of legal
principle along with their own area as a variable, which showed how the empirical
research started to gain its momentum. Due to this cross fertilization of research
world enhanced the ambit of the legal study at large. Law is nothing but of the
society, by the society and for the society.

Through empirical research, it is easy to study human behavior, their interactions,

and attitudes pertaining to any law under the research studies. As law is of prime
importance in the social life of the human beings whose activities are regulated and
controlled by law. Law includes Acts and Codes, Rules and Regulations, Orders
and Ordinances, by-laws, etc. It is well-known that law does not grow in a vacuum
and at the same time it cannot be static. It has to be dynamic and must change as
per the social needs and requirements. As such, social development including its
planning and progress will be affected. So a law has to keep pace with social
advancement and progress. Law helps to maintain law and order through the
process of social engineering. All our activities right from the stage of birth to
death and throughout our day and night, are regulated and controlled by laws. Law
is to maintain law and order and for the administration of justice, civil as well as
criminal.
Too many law students, legal research presents a challenge because it differs in
many ways from other types of research they have conducted earlier. As mentioned
earlier that the law and the society are very closely linked to each other, thus, it can
be stated that law is necessary for a society. An initial step in developing research
expertise is to develop an awareness of the types of materials that constitute “the
law”, and of the relationships between these materials. In the process of
researching a legal issue, it may be necessary to consult statutes, cases and/or
regulatory materials. A major challenge for a novice research is to gain a
prospective on how such sources may apply to a particular subject matter and how
they relate to each other. A major area in which legal research differs from other
research is in need for comprehensiveness in primary authority research. When
presented with a legal issue, the researcher must endeavor to locate any potentially
relevant authority which would be binding in the applicable jurisdiction. As law is
organic, the legal researcher must also learn to appreciate the need to update and
verify every source upon which he intends to rely in developing a legal argument. 11
The empirical study of law, legal systems and legal institutions is widely viewed as
one of the most exciting and important intellectual developments in the modern
history of legal research. Motivated by a conviction that legal phenomena can and
should be understood not only in normative terms but also as social practices of
political, economic, and ethical significance, empirical legal researchers have used
quantitative and qualitative methods to illuminate many aspects of laws meaning,
operation and impact.12 Empirical research helps us to understand how the law
works in the real world-the impact that law, legal institutions, legal personnel and
associated phenomena have on people, communities and societies, economic and
political factors have on law, legal phenomena and institutions. Empirical work on
law draws an a range of social research methodologies, and can be found within
academic groupings such as socio-legal studies, law in context, law and society,
empirical legal studies, criminology and criminal justice, as well as within more
mainstream departments in law and the social sciences. In some countries such
empirical scholarship is booming.13
ILLUSTRATION OF RESEARCH

 EXAMPLE OF EMPIRICAL RESEARCH

International journal on Social science and Law- SSN (Print) :
2347-5153; ISSN (Online) : 2454-2679