Ready to Master the Art of Persuasive Communication? Unlock Your Success Today!

Legal Research and Writing 2024 (guide, resources & examples)

This is the step-by-step guide to legal research and writing.

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 paper writing
  • legal research resources
  • etc,

Let’s go

Transform Your Communication, Elevate Your Career!

Ready to take your professional communication skills to new heights? Dive into the world of persuasive business correspondence with my latest book, “From Pen to Profit: The Ultimate Guide to Crafting Persuasive Business Correspondence.”

from pen to profit 3D mult

What You’ll Gain:

  • Proven techniques for crafting persuasive letters, emails, and proposals.
  • Insights into tailoring your messages for different audiences.
  • Strategies for overcoming objections and turning challenges into opportunities.
  • Real-world examples of successful business correspondence.

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.

How to conduct a Legal Research

The following are the basic steps in conducting legal research;

  • Step 1: Identifying Legal Problem
  • Step 2: Choose a Research Title
  • Step 3: Prepare a Research Proposal
  • Step 4: Data Collection
  • Step 5: Analysis and interpretation of findings
  • Step 6: Summary of findings, Observation, Conclusion, and Recommendation
  • Step 7: Report Writing

Step 1: Identifying 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.

NB. In your title, you must mention a specific institution, law, section or regulation.

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.

See: sample of legal research proposal (pdf download)

How to write a legal research proposal

The following is how you can write your research proposal properly

Chapter 1: 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.

Chapter 2: 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.

Chapter 3: 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.

Chapter 4: 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, 3-4 hypotheses are enough.

Chapter 5: 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.

Chapter 6: 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.

Chapter 7: 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 cover 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 sir 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……………………………………………………………………..

See also: citation guidelines in legal research and writing

Chapter 8: 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 to employ 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 choose 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 from. Here the researcher must specifically state 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.

Chapter 9 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.

Chapter 10: 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

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

Summary of findings show the general overview of the findings, observations reflect what was found in the course of study, the conclusion reveals how the study was conducted, and recommendations address the inadequacy observed in the course of study for the purpose of remedying the situation

The research report is the final document of the research conducted.

Depending on the nature of the research, 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.

Legal research resources (free and paid)

The following is the list of legal research tools to help you take your legal research to the next level

Isack Kimaro
Isack Kimaro

Isack Kimaro, a lawyer, Creative Writer and self-taught SEO expert has been a prominent author of law-related topics since 2017. Through hard work, dedication, and a relentless pursuit of knowledge, Isack has successfully navigated the legal industry by providing valuable and easy-to-understand legal information to 500,000+ individuals of all levels of understanding.