Legal research examines subject matter enshrouded in social circumstances in order to conceptualize theories and prepare a future course of action. This dynamic, inter-disciplinary, and labyrinthine character of legal research requires researchers to be fluid, eclectic, and analytical in their approach. Idea and Methods of Legal Research unearths how the thinking process is to be streamlined in research, how a theme is built on the basis of comprehensive and intensive study, and the paths through which notions of objectivity, feminism, ethics, and purposive character of knowledge are to be understood. The book first explains the meaning, evolution, and scope of legal research, and discusses objectivity and ethics in legal research. It engages with the requirements, advantages, and limits of various doctrinal and non-doctrinal methods and tools, and the points to be considered in selecting a suitable method or combination of methods. It highlights analytical, historical, philosophical, comparative, qualitative, and quantitative methods of legal research. The book then goes on to discuss the use of multi-method legal research, policy research, action research, and feminist legal research and finally, reflects on research-based critical legal writing, as opposed to client-related legal writing. This book, thus, is a comprehensive answer to key questions one faces in legal research.

The book unearths the way in which thinking process is to be streamlined in research; the manner in which a theme is to be built, and the paths through which notions of objectivity, feminism, ethics and purposive character of knowledge are to be internalized in legal research. The proposed book has five components. The first part deals with general matters such as meaning, evolution, and scope of legal research; systematization of thinking process; objectivity and ethics in legal research; and building a theme through an appropriate research plan. The second part engages with various ways through which doctrinal legal research can be conducted. This includes doctrinal, analytical, historical, comparative, and philosophical methods of conducting legal research. Part Three unravels discussion on non-doctrinal legal research by highlighting empirical, qualitative, and quantitative methods of legal research. It also catalogues the tools employed for non-doctrinal legal research and explains the method of using them. Part four takes to the fields where combination of doctrinal and non-doctrinal legal research can be attempted. Multi-method legal research, policy research, action research, and feminist legal research occupy this field. A point emphasized in various chapters is that legal research cannot afford to have compartmentalization of methods, and that the researcher has to be eclectic and inter-disciplinary in his approach. The final part reflects over the steps involved in research-based critical legal writing, as distinct from client-related or norm-creating legal writing.

The work deals with both the idea and methods of legal research in a systematic and comprehensive manner. In view of the fact that analytical, comparative, historical, philosophical, policy, action, and feminist legal researches are daily carried on by a large number of researchers as essential methods of legal research, the text provides valuable insights into all these aspects.

Empirical Legal Research describes how to investigate the roles of legislation, regulation, legal policies and other legal arrangements at play in society. It is invaluable as a guide to legal scholars, practitioners and students on how to do empirical legal research, covering history, methods, evidence, growth of knowledge and links with normativity. This multidisciplinary approach combines insights and approaches from different social sciences, evaluation studies, Big Data analytics and empirically informed ethics. The authors present an overview of the roots of this blossoming interdisciplinary domain, going back to legal realism, the fields of law, economics and the social sciences, and also to civilology and evaluation studies. The book addresses not only data analysis and statistics, but also how to formulate adequate research problems, to use (and test) different types of theories (explanatory and intervention theories) and to apply new forms of literature research to the field of law such as the systematic, rapid and realist reviews and synthesis studies. The choice and architecture of research designs, the collection of data, including Big Data, and how to analyze and visualize data are also covered. The book discusses the tensions between the normative character of law and legal issues and the descriptive and causal character of empirical legal research, and suggests ways to help handle this seeming disconnect. This comprehensive guide is vital reading for law practitioners as well as for students and researchers dealing with regulation, legislation and other legal arrangements.

Explaining in clear terms some of the main methodological approaches to legal research, the chapters in this edited collection are written by specialists in their fields, researching in a variety of jurisdictions. Covering a range of topics from Feminist Approaches to Law and Economics, each contributor addresses the topic of ‘lay decision makers in the legal system’ from their particular methodological perspective, explaining how they would approach the issue and discussing the suitability of their particular method. This focus on one main topic allows the reader to draw comparisons between methods with relative ease. The broad range of contributors makes Research Methods in Law well suited to an international audience, and it is ideal reading for PhD students in law, undergraduate dissertation students in law, LL.M Research students and early year researchers.

Introduces students to legalistic, theoretical, empirical, comparative and cross-disciplinary research methods, grounded in working examplesNew for this editionNew chapter on inter- and cross-disciplinary research essential reading for international students and students with a non-law first degree undertaking research in the areas of law, criminology, psychology and sociologyResearch ethics has been expanded to a full chapter that includes current plagiarism and imperfect disclosureBrings existing chapters up to date with the newest thinking in legal researchDrawing on actual research projects, Research Methods for Law discusses how legal research as process impacts on research as product. The author team has a broad range of teaching and research experience in law, criminal justice and socio-legal studies, and give examples from real-life research products to illustrate the theory.