Researching Legal Propositions — Uncle Bob’s Pointers of Practical Advice

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Legal Researching is one of the most under-rated skills that a practitioner possesses in his arsenal. Based on my very limited exposure to law up until now, I have come to grasp certain approaches that I will articulate in his brief piece, focusing only on the essential steps.

Classical Approach to researching :-

1. Upon being asked to research on a query or proposition, first, you should read the locus classicus on the respective area of law (such as a chapter of a good treatise or commentary) to learn the broad contours of the law. Next, you should look through the descriptions of cases found in the digests or commentary. By skimming scores (or hundreds) of case digests, you will develop an intuitive sense for this area of the law. Only after undergoing the skimming process, you should read in their entirety the cases that appear to be most relevant.
2. After you understand the relevant area of the law and have read the relevant cases, it is imperative to use legal databases to find cases that cannot be located through the digests.
3. Ideally, you should use legal databases to finish your research or to find recent cases. Also, use databases to look up opinions written by a particular judge. But do not use computerized word searches as the first stage for typical legal research.

Researching on Legal Databases :-

While researching on a given proposition in legal databases, you should follow the following course of action :-

1. Is the issue criminal or civil ?

2. Figure out whether the matter is substantive or procedural?

3. Within criminal law, the issue could pertain to substantive criminal law or procedural criminal law?

4. Figure out the area of Law — Determine the ‘compatible lexicon’ of the area of law (Administrative law, employment law, etc.) This is something that takes time and can only be inculcated by extensive exposure to the contours of that particular area of law, i.e. by regular reading of judicial opinions, legislative enactments & academic articles on the subject. This is what separates a novice from an expert, the reason why Senior practitioners are so efficient at research.

5.Based on the compatible lexicon, determine your keywords. Type those keywords in the respective legal database. Familiarity with the norms of the particular legal database helps (e.g. exploiting the ‘section-based’ research feature of Manupatra).

6. Once you have found any determinant authority for the given proposition, ensure that you read it cover to cover in order to identify it’s precise scope, limitation and applicability to your proposition.

Cart-Wheel method for Keyword Research :-

a. Identify major words from facts of research.

b. In the index, table of contents & appendix of the locus classicus or any other determinant authority look up for all of these words, or else;

c. Identify the broader categories of those major words.

d. Look up for these broader categories in the aforementioned sources.

e. Identify the narrower categories of words associated with broader words. (Synonyms, antonyms, closely related words, procedural terms, agencies)

f. Repeat the cycle of looking up for the narrower words these in the index, table of contents, appendix of the book. The idea is to go to the needle from the haystack and not the other-way around.

It goes without saying that the more you practice, the better you get at researching.