The first step is often the hardest step in writing any kind of research paper and to counter that we have one easiest step as the first step which is research. Without researching it becomes impossible to write anything, may it be law assignments, legal papers, research papers, dissertations, thesis, etc. The depth of research varies as per the paper or article we plan to write, and to make researching practical, meaningful and time-saving, we will discover the step by step process in this article.
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Conducting Legal Research: Step- by- Step Process
There is no specific number as to research since the needs or requirements of writing keeps on changing with time but we can filter out the basic steps of conducting legal research. Let's dive right into in:
Research about the topic: Step 1
There might be two possibilities regarding researching about the topic, first is when we are already aware of what we need to research and secondly when we don't know what we should research about. Let’s talk about the first case scenario:
When we have a topic or a case in hand, unlike going the easy way, we must choose the traditional way which is using offline methods such as books, journals or research papers.
Visiting the library is the best choice if we are in shortage of books, journals or papers. Take at least 2-3 books which are most read by students. If you are an undergrad you need textbooks like J.N. Pandey or D.D Basu. But if you're a post graduate you need books of higher level, especially the commentaries related books.
After going through these books you can then surf on the internet, and you'll find that most of the articles are just simplified and interpretations of these books, and that will help you understand the concept of these books.
This step will help you decide whether you are comfortable with the topic you're assigned with.
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Research for New Topic
Researching for a new topic is also a first Step in case we don’t know what we should write about or we are given an assignment but without any topic, we can do these five things:
Pick topics based on recent activities, for example, a recent case law, a recent amendment, bill or newly passed Acts.
Pick topics which are given more importance in your lecture, this is also a way to filter out important topics of your subject among the plethora of topics in law.
Pick topics according to the previous year question paper, this will also help you in your exams.
Pick a topic which you know is important but is hard for you to understand. We have a habit of postponing things which are hard for us to understand but if we are asked to write or research on something, picking the hardest topic will help you cover almost all kinds of topic that is, from easiest to hardest.
In case you don’t have much time, you can take the help of AI tools like ChatGPT, Deepseek, grok, copilot, gemini etc, to fetch topics as per your need. All you have to do is write a prompt based on your needs.
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Research about the Structure: Step 2
After we're ready with our respective topics, we need to build a skeleton draft for our paper, assignment, dissertation or thesis. By following these little steps, we can achieve a well drafted structure:
Every library has the papers and thesis written by the students or faculty of such university/college. Going through them will give you an idea about the pattern that such a university or college is following. You can also take a subscription of e-libraries in case you are unable to access offline ones.
Online sources like Scribd, Shodhganga, etc are great Open Source websites for research papers, they have a plethora of research papers and thesis and can be a great substitute for offline libraries.
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Research on Formatting: Step 3
Drafting a good quality content in any research paper becomes useless if the formatting of such paper is not apt. This is the step where you need to invest more time and focus than the above mentioned steps:
When you're writing a research paper, it is likely either for your grades, publishing or presentations, and the common part is, there will always be a supervisor to check your research paper and so you need to go through the instructions provided by your university, supervisor or publishing companies.
Write down the instructions related to formatting in your own handwriting and keep it handy when you're drafting your research paper.
Students often make mistakes while writing footnotes, so you must make yourself familiar with the terminologies like Supra Note, ibid, etc. Not only you must understand what these terms mean but also the format for writing them as to if they should be in italics or bold.
Legal Research requires case studies to be incorporated in the research paper and you need to learn how to footnote the citations of the caselaws. And for this, you can go back to Step 2 by referring to other research papers.
The last step is to always confirm and reconfirm your formatting right after drafting the initial pages by your faculty in case you are writing under a supervisor.
Researching about the Content: Step 4
This becomes the easiest step if you have followed all the abovementioned steps because now you have books, journals, online articles, case studies, news headlines, etc. Yet there are few tips which can fasten this step:
Before jumping on to the blogs and articles, go through the primary sources like Bare Acts, Textbooks, Commentaries, Journals, etc,. After that you can refer to Secondary sources like Articles, Blogs, Case laws summaries, news headlines, etc.
If you are writing the lectures of your teacher or supervisor you can also mention that in your legal research paper. And in order to make the first impression as last, add those notes in the beginning and in the chapters which hold more importance. This can give you brownie points and help in maintaining the originality.
How to Match the Steps of Legal Research While Drafting?
After going through all steps, a question might arise in your head, "How do I incorporate them?" and to answer that, following are some steps which can be followed:
Draft the cover page and other formalities such as, Certification, Declaration, Acknowledgement, etc.
Write Research Methodology before drafting the legal research paper.
Add the Index, and it will be better if you use the automatic table which is provided in "references" section of MS Word.
You need to write content and maintain the formatting simultaneously. Never think of writing content first and then editing. Always maintain the formatting while writing the content.
Draft the Bibliography at the end of the research paper and with this, you will be able to draft a high quality legal research paper way before the deadline.
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Summary
Conducting legal research is the first and foremost important step while writing any kind of legal paper. Legal research requires lots of time and focus since the content is vast and chances of running into bluff increases when we conduct online research and in order to prevent us from this hassle and to familiarize with our topic of legal research, we must go through the traditional way of researching by taking help of books, law journals, bare acts, etc. We must pay more attention to the formatting by researching things like how to do footnoting or cite case laws. By following the steps mentioned in this article, conducting legal research will become organized and less time consuming.
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How to do Legal Research?: FAQs
Q1. What is the meaning of legal research?
Legal research means nothing but the research which is conducted by those who are pursuing a career in law.
Q2. How do I select topics for my research online?
You can take assistance from AI like ChatGPT, Copilot, Gemini, etc. Or you can simply surf since there are many articles online which provides topics for your legal research
Q3. What are the steps to do legal research?
First step is to research about your topic, second is to research about the structure that you need to follow in your legal research paper, you need to research about the instructions on formatting and lastly you can research on the content.
Q4. Where can I find samples of legal research papers?
Websites like Scribd, Shodhganga can help you with the sample of legal research paper, along with the help of e-libraries.
