This is the step-by-step guide to legal research and writing for law students in Tanzania.
This guide will help you in the process of conducting legal research and report writing.
Here I will cover everything you need to know about how to conduct legal research, including;
- what is the legal research
- Importance of legal research
- How to conduct legal research
- legal research tools, and methodology
- legal research proposal, and report writing
- etc,
Let’s get started
Table of Contents
What is Legal Research?
Legal research is a scientific process for searching for specific legal information on a specific legal issue.
It may involve doing a critical assessment of a certain provision of the law which in its application is termed to negatively affect individuals or to evaluate certainly the subject of the law like human rights, divorce, and criminal justice and to compare the certain position of the law regarding a certain legal issue in different countries.
Importance of legal research
The following are the importance of legal research
- research reports are used in law and policy formation and reformation
- Legal research helps in the establishment of some legal and non-legal programs
- It fills the existing legal gaps (LACUNA)
- legal research can be conducted to verify the existence of certain facts.
- etc.
Things to consider when doing legal research
When conducting legal research, there are several important factors to consider to ensure thoroughness, accuracy, and efficiency.
Here are some key things to keep in mind:
- Define the Research Question: Clearly articulate the specific legal issue or question you are investigating. This will help focus your research efforts and guide your search for relevant information.
- Choose Relevant Legal Sources: Select the appropriate legal sources based on your research question and jurisdiction. These may include statutes, regulations, case law, treaties, administrative decisions, legal commentary, and scholarly articles.
- Utilize Primary and Secondary Sources: Primary sources are authoritative legal materials that establish the law, such as statutes and case law. Secondary sources provide analysis, commentary, and interpretation of legal issues and can help contextualize primary sources.
- Use Reliable Research Tools: Utilize reputable legal research tools and databases to access legal materials efficiently. These may include online legal research platforms, library databases, and legal research guides provided by your school.
- Evaluate the Credibility of Sources: Assess the credibility, authority, and reliability of legal sources to ensure the accuracy and validity of the information obtained. Consider factors such as the source’s reputation, expertise, objectivity, and publication date.
- Analyze and Synthesize Information: Analyze the legal materials you’ve gathered to identify relevant principles, precedents, arguments, and counterarguments. Synthesize the information to develop a coherent understanding of the legal issues and potential solutions.
- Keep Track of Citations and References: Maintain accurate records of the legal sources you consult, including citation information, to facilitate proper citation and attribution in your research paper, memorandum, or legal brief.
- Stay Updated: Stay abreast of recent developments, changes in the law, and new legal scholarship related to your research topic. Legal research is an ongoing process, and it’s essential to remain informed of relevant developments that may impact your analysis.
How to Conduct Legal Research
The following are the basic steps in conducting legal research;
Step 1: Identifying the Legal Problem
This is the first thing to consider before conducting legal research. Basically, legal problems trigger legal research.
How to Identify a Legal Research Problem
Identifying legal problems might not be simple.
Others may start to look at books, articles, case laws, or past conducted research to identify a legal problem.
This is not the proper approach.
The proper approach one may use to identify a legal problem is to look directly at the society where the problem affects.
For example, in country A people frequently suffer epidemic diseases like typhoid and cholera.
The problem identified here is epidemic diseases, however, it is not seen to be a legal problem at first instance.
But after identifying it, the legal researcher may take a legal view of this problem by finding whether there are any relevant laws regarding epidemic diseases in Country A, if yes are they properly enforced?.
Are there any bylaws addressing the problem in the specific locality?
What is the extent of the implementation of those laws?
The legal researcher must focus on the legal challenges surrounding the problem identified like LACUNA, enforcement mechanism, the efficacy of the law, etc.
N.B. The problem identified must be researchable.
Step 2: Choose a Research Title
You cannot choose a title if you have not properly identified a legal problem.
After identifying the research problem the second step is formulating the title of your research.
Your title must be specific. It must be well structured to avoid ambiguity and cover the subject effectively.
A person who reads your title must get a clear picture of what is your research all about.
From the example above the following titles may be extracted
- EFFECTIVENESS OF ENVIRONMENTAL LAWS IN COMBATING EPIDEMIC DISEASES IN COUNTRY A.
COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF LAWS GOVERNING EPIDEMIC DISEASES BETWEEN COUNTRY A AND COUNTRY B. - CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF ‘EPIDEMIC DISEASES COMMISSION’ IN COMBATING EPIDEMIC DISEASES IN COUNTY A.
Therefore from a single legal problem, several titles may be formulated depending on the focus of the researcher.
Qualities of a good legal research title
A good legal research title should be concise, clear, and informative, providing readers with a glimpse of the research topic and its significance.
Here are some qualities that contribute to a quality legal research title:
- Specificity: The title should clearly convey the focus and scope of the research. It should avoid vague or overly broad language and instead provide a precise indication of the legal issue or topic being examined.
- Relevance: The title should be relevant to the legal field and address a current or important legal issue. It should capture the interest of readers and demonstrate the significance of the research topic within the legal context.
- Accuracy: The title should accurately reflect the content of the research and avoid any misleading or exaggerated claims. It should give readers a realistic expectation of what the research entails and what they can expect to learn from it.
- Clarity: The title should be easy to understand and free from jargon or technical language that may confuse readers. It should convey the main idea of the research in a straightforward manner, making it accessible to a wide audience.
- Engaging: A good title should be engaging and compelling, sparking the reader’s interest and encouraging them to delve deeper into the research. It may incorporate intriguing or thought-provoking language that grabs the reader’s attention.
- Conciseness: While the title should be informative, it should also be concise and to the point. Ideally, it should be no more than a few words or a short phrase, conveying the essence of the research succinctly.
- Originality: The title should be unique and distinctive, distinguishing the research from others in the field. It should avoid generic or clichéd language and instead offer a fresh perspective or approach to the legal issue being addressed.
By incorporating these qualities into a legal research title, you can effectively communicate the essence of your research and attract the interest of readers, peers, and stakeholders in the legal community.
Step 3: Prepare a Research Proposal
After the problem identification and Title of your research what follows is the Research Proposal.
A research proposal is the roadmap of your research. It contains the framework of why and how you’re going to conduct your research.
This is a must document. Its preparation requires both art and science.
Things to consider when writing a research proposal
- Use clear and concise language to communicate complex ideas and arguments. Avoid unnecessary jargon, acronyms, or technical terms that may obscure the meaning of the proposal.
- Emphasize the originality and novelty of the proposed research project. Highlight how your research builds upon existing scholarship, introduces new perspectives, or addresses emerging issues in the field
- Discuss any ethical considerations or potential risks associated with the research project, such as confidentiality, privacy, or conflicts of interest. Provide assurances that the research will adhere to ethical principles and standards.
- Include a list of references cited in the proposal, following a consistent citation style (e.g., APA, MLA, Chicago).
- Before finalizing the proposal, carefully review and revise the document to ensure clarity, coherence, and adherence to any formatting or submission guidelines.
How to write a legal research proposal
The following is how you can write your research proposal properly
NB: Contents of your research proposal may vary depending on your school guidelines.
Introduction
This is a very important part of the research proposal.
It highlights important things about your research, like what is your research dealing with, why are you conducting the research, and what is the focus of the research.
it may also contain definitions of important keywords/concepts, it may describe the area where the research will be conducted, and highlight methods that will be used in data collection.
It may show a summary of chapters of your research report. etc. Your introduction must be detailed enough to allow a reader to clearly understand your study.
A good introduction takes 3-4 pages.
Background to the Problem
This part shows the chronological flow of the problem.
It may be from a local or international perspective or both.
It must show different strategies and efforts used to solve the problem; success and challenges emerged during combating the problem.
It must clearly state that, despite those attempts, the problem still exists. Good background to the problem takes 4-6 pages.
Statement of the Problem
This is an important part of the research proposal.
It may be one of the parts that, one may find hard to draft.
Here the researcher is required to clearly state how the problem is manifest in society.
This party must be molded in a way that convinces the reader that the problem really exists and that research is required in response to the problem.
It must be backed up by the current data/statistics from reliable sources concerning the problem. It must show the magnitude of the problem.
It must be concluded by expressing the aim of the research toward the problem and how the research will be useful to society. 1-2 pages are enough to state the problem.
Hypotheses/ Research Questions
Hypotheses are the assumptions that the researcher makes regarding the problem.
Hypotheses provide a guide during data collection. In other words, the researcher will collect data to prove or disapprove his hypotheses.
While research questions are questions raised by the researcher for the purpose of finding answers in the course of conducting his research.
Research questions are used in lieu of hypotheses. You cannot use both in a single study.
Example of Hypotheses: The emergence of epidemic disease in Country A is due to the ineffectiveness of environmental laws.
Example of Research question: Is the Emergence of epidemic disease in Country A caused by the ineffectiveness of environmental laws?
There is no limited number of research hypotheses/questions it solely depends on the nature of your research, however, 2-4 hypotheses are enough.
The Objective of the Research
This party shows the objective of your research. It may be general or specific objectives or both.
For example; the general objective of this study is to explore legal challenges in combating epidemic diseases.
Specific objective: 1. to examine the effectiveness of environmental laws in combating epidemic diseases.
Significance of the Research
Every research must have significance.
This part shows the usefulness of your research to different stakeholders like judicial bodies, parliament, executive bodies, and the general public.
You must clearly show the impact of your research.
Literature Review
This part shows how the problem identified has been covered in different books, articles, papers, etc.
In preparing your literature review you must summarize the idea in the literature, analyze it, and show the significance of the literature to your research, state what the literature covers regarding your research and how you will use the literature in relation to your study.
NB: works of literature should be ranked by years in ascending chronological order eg. (1991, 2000, 2002, 2019) and properly formatted (start with the name of the author, initials of a first and second name followed by the year of publication in brackets.)
The full citation of literature shall be in the footnotes.
Example of literature review writing in legal research:
Isack, G.K. (2010) in his book points out that…………………………………………………………………. In his book specifically addresses the issue of……………………………………………………………. but he does not cover……………………………………. This research will use this literature to ………………………………………………………………..
Makendi, A. (2011) in his paper highlights that…………………………………………………………….
This paper reveals……………………………………………………………………… However, the literature does not cover…………………………………………………………………………….. The researcher intends to use this literature since it shows……………………………………………………………………..
Research Design and Methodology
Research design entails the plan on how data will be collected and analyzed and research methodology refers to methods of data collection.
In research design, the researcher is required to state which kind of research the design will employ and the reason for employing that design.
For example, this research will employ a Case Study Design, because it is a fairly exhaustive method, thus it will enable the researcher to focus his study deeply and thoroughly on different aspects of a research phenomenon. This design will enable a researcher to board on different relevant methods of collecting data from a specific area………
Library Research
This segment will be included if the researcher intends to collect data from the library. The researcher must show why he/she will use the library research and specifically state the libraries he/she wishes to visit and why those libraries.
Field Research
Here the researcher must state that he/she will employ field research and why.
Area of the Study
This refers to the area in which research is going to be conducted. The researcher shows where the research will be conducted it may be one or more geographical locations.
Also, the researcher must state why he/she chose to conduct his research in those areas.
Sample Population
The sample population refers to the group of people from whom a researcher targets to collect data. Here the researcher must specifically state the people he prefers to collect data from and why he targets that population.
The sample population may include victims of the problem, judicial officers, and enforcement machinery, executive bodies or laws, and policymakers.
Sample Size
Sample size refers to the exact number of people from whom data will be collected.
In this segment, the researcher must state the exact number of individuals, why that number, and the factors he considered when selecting that size e.g. time, financial factors, and population size.
Sample Technique
The sampling technique refers to the method of selecting a sample size. Here the researcher must show a type of sample technique he/she will use when selecting sample size and why that technique.
Method of Data Collection
Here the researcher must show methods that will be used to collect data.
The most commonly used methods of collecting data in legal research are observation, interview, questionnaire, and Focus group discussions.
The researcher must state the reasons for using a certain method(s) of data collection in his study.
Data Presentation and Analysis Techniques
This part reveals how the data collected will be presented and analyzed.
The researcher must show whether the presentation will be by graphs, charts, or descriptive (words only) and how he/she analyzes the data.
NB: The language of the research proposal should be in the future tense
Remember the proposal will be used as the first chapter of your research report. Once is used as the first chapter, the language must be changed from future tense to past tense.
Sample research proposal pdf
Step 4: Data Collection
This is the actual act of conducting research.
After the research proposal, the researcher must go to the library or field with his method of collecting data and collecting data from the sample population.
The researcher must be very careful so he can get authentic data and avoid biased data. During data collection in the field, the researcher must observe all moral and ethical issues of the society, profession, or institution.
Step 5: Analysis and Interpretation of Findings
After collecting data, the researcher is required to analyze and interpret data collected in the manner explained in the Data presentation and analysis techniques in the research proposal.
After that, the researcher must present his data in the research report.
Step 6: Summary of findings, Observation, Conclusion, and Recommendation
The summary of findings shows the general overview of the findings, observations reflect what was found in the course of the study, the conclusion reveals how the study was conducted, and recommendations address the inadequacy observed in the course of the study to remedy the situation
Research report
The research report is the final document of the research conducted.
Depending on the nature of the research, school guidelines it may have 4-6 Chapters.
Chapter One is the research proposal titled Background and Theoretical Information, Chapter Two is the legal and institutional framework of the study, Chapter Three is the analysis and interpretation of findings, and Chapter Four consists of a summary of findings, observations conclusion, and recommendations.
In report writing, each Chapter must start with an introduction and end with a conclusion.
The language of a research report should be in the past tense. Avoid the use of I, we, us, etc. let the research speak for itself. Observe all citation principles/guidelines to avoid plagiarism.
Sample research report pdf
Conclusion
My aim here was to share everything you need to know about legal research and writing.
I hope you have found this post useful. In case of any questions feel free to ask in the comment section.
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