A Glimpse into the Facets of Legal Research in India

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A GLIMPSE INTO THE FACETS OF LEGAL RESEARCH IN INDIA
Yatish Pachauri, LLM (2017-18), UPES

Editorial Note: In this blog post, the author focuses on the state of legal research in India. The author seeks to highlight certain key issues which plague legal research in the context of India.

Introduction

Legal research seeks to utilise systematic methods in order to get answers to various legal questions. While it is often used as a means to identify the lacuna in existing laws, it may also be used as a means to increase knowledge about an area of law. The primary focus of legal research, as the name suggests, is the law. However, this does not mean that only those issues which have a law governing them can be the subject of legal research. Law in this context is much broader and such research can delve into questions not directly addressed by statutory law such as honor killing or active euthanasia. Thus, the purpose of conducting legal research also extends to finding out areas still unaddressed by the law as well as studying the implementation of existing laws.

According to Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, the term ‘research’ means “a careful investigation or inquiry especially through research for new facts in any branch of knowledge”. Redman and Mori define research as “a systematized effort to gain new knowledge”. Evidently, legal research is an initiative which is undertaken scholars of law for the purpose of defining and redefining legal problems.

It begins by identifying the issues in a legal problem and then formulating a hypothesis. After formulating a hypothesis, the scholar can then begin collecting data using different methods. These methods may include doctrinal research, observation method, interview method and questionnaire method. Once the data is collected, the researcher becomes involved in compiling all the information, analysing the results of the research and then arriving at a conclusion as to whether the hypothesis which was formulated at the initial stage of research is proved or disproved.

Importance of Legal Research

The saying “All progress is born of inquiry, doubt is often better than overconfidence, for it leads to inquiry, and inquiry leads to invention” is indicative of the importance of research. Like every other field, research in law enriches the knowledge of scholars and can be used for myriad purposes. Legal research in particular may contribute to the incorporation of various aspects within the law based on a detailed perusal of public opinion in that field.

Types of Legal Research
Legal research can primarily be of two types—doctrinal research and empirical research.
Doctrinal research is based on the study of legal propositions and seeks to logically analyse the existing literature on a legal topic. There can be multiple sources of data for doctrinal research, including but not limited to statutes, reports of Committees, case laws, legal commentaries, and conventional legal theory. Therefore, doctrinal research is mainly theoretical in nature.

On the other hand, empirical research involves reliance on observation and experiment, not purely on theory. Empirical research is carried out by researchers through field surveys involving collecting and gathering data relating to a selected sample. Since it is a first-hand study of an issue, it shall be seen as the original work of the researcher, yielding primary data.

Problems encountered faced by researchers in India

Although, reading about legal research may give rise to the impression that it is quite simple, that is far from the truth. In India, legal research suffers from a number of problems. Some of these issues are discussed below.

Unskilled empirical legal researchers in India: In many cases, legal scholars are trained only in doctrinal research in the course of their professional education. As a result, they are unable to give optimum results in case they are required to conduct empirical research in the course of their work. Law students, who wish to be involved in policy research, often find it difficult to cope with the empirical research components of the job profiles and have to relearn from the basics.

Lack of creative thinking: Many legal educational institutions create a fear of plagiarism in the mind of legal scholars. Due to this, these scholars become apprehensive about not citing propositions in their publications and often end up simply paraphrasing from multiple articles which they can cite. In an effort to encourage creative thinking, these institutions end up discouraging innovative legal thinking which ultimately reduces the standard of academic research which takes place.

Absence of mentorship: In order to produce quality research, a legal researcher must be properly guided. It is unfortunate that in many institutions, research guides become too engrossed in adding to their own list of publications and do not make sufficient effort to assist scholars in doing the same. Scholars are generally left to themselves to figure out the nuances of academic writing without much supervision. Further, researchers are often given access to only one research guide who is a field expert. Consequently, the researcher’s scope of learning becomes very narrow which reduces the potential of him or her utilising a multidisciplinary approach while conducting his or her research project.

Funding crunch: In addition to structural barriers for legal research in India, there is also a serious lack of funding. There is a dearth of independent research grants available to legal researchers which can be utilised for in-depth study of various legal issues. In many cases, scholars are compelled to seek private funding for their research initiatives. Although they receive monetary amounts through such grants, they often have to compromise on the objectivity of their research and are required to promote partisan views through their research results.

Conclusion

It appears that in India, there is a lack of systematic legal research in most institutions. Additionally, there is an acute shortage of funding for qualitative legal research. Furthermore, there is also a recurring tendency among legal students to recreate existing literature in different forms. Many students view the research components of legal curricula as mere formalities and do not utilise the available opportunities to improve their research credentials. In order to remedy the poor state of affairs, it is recommended that Indian legal institutions should learn from US and UK based institutes regarding the manner in which legal scholars are mentored and attempt to emulate these methods, both in terms of providing resources and professional guidance. In fact, legal institutes in India can even turn to Indian mind the hurdles to research that exist within the Indian context.

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