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Analytical Approach to Legal Research – An analytical method is the most important and widely used in legal research. The analysis involves an explanation of the cause and effect of complex phenomena. Analytical skill is crucial for any legal researcher. The analytical approach requires logical reasoning and interpreting laws to conclude,

• Since laws are written in abstract and general terms by their nature, it is the researchers’ and judges’ task to apply those general rules to concrete factual circumstances, for which they apply logic and common sense to analyze and interpret the words in the law.
• In most cases, the analytical approach deals with one or more legal concepts or legal theories.

Analytical research uses interpretive methods to examine cases, statutes, and other forms of law to seek out, construct, or reconstruct rules and principles. An analytical approach is sometimes viewed as doctrinal research. Doctrinal research of law provides a systematic exposition of the rules governing a particular legal category, analyses the relationship between the rules, explains areas of difficulty, and predicts future developments.

The sources of law have been the primary materials, law doctrines, case law, and legislation. The legal research is largely confined to an analysis of legal doctrine, The salient characteristic of the analytical approach is its emphasis on the autonomy of law as an independent discipline or science. Thus, the analytical approach of legal research can lead to ‘close reasoning.’ The analytical method serves the fundamental object of giving effect to the terms of a legislative instrument.

Analytical research is applied to dissect the terms of a provision, draw inferences from them, and apply the conclusions to resolve legal questions. The most relevant aspects of the analytical approach are:

• what did the law-maker intend to achieve with the legislation under consideration?
• What is the underlying policy rationale of a piece of legislation?

In the analytical approach, the researcher should highlight the positive aspect of the law, e.g., what a legal situation is, and its normative aspect, e.g., what a legal situation should be. Thus, it not only describes facts and circumstances but also defines parameters and interprets the facts.
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Which method is used in a legal research?

7.4 Analytical Legal Research Lawyers often use an analytical approach to their legal research to find the most relevant information. From analytical research, a person finds out critical details to add new ideas to the material being produced.
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Which research method is used for socio-legal research?

Co-operative inter disciplinary research is required to deal with the social-legal problems as socio-legal research is all interdisciplinary approach which extends into the fields of an social sciences.
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What are the sources of data collection in legal research?

Legal Research Sources Legal research sources are divided into two categories: primary and secondary. Primary sources include statutes, rules, regulations, and case law. Secondary sources are much more diverse and include law review and journal articles, legal encyclopedias, treatises, and law digests.

Primary sources are not necessarily binding – it depends on which jurisdiction your case is pending in. You learned about mandatory and persuasive authority in the chapter about the judicial structure in the United States. Mandatory authority is binding on the court, but persuasive authority is not binding.

All primary sources are not mandatory authority, i.e., all primary sources are not necessarily binding. For example, judicial decisions are primary sources, but they may only be persuasive authority, depending on the jurisdiction. No secondary sources are mandatory authority – they are all only persuasive authority.
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What are the 4 types of research methods?

There are four main types of Quantitative research: Descriptive, Correlational, Causal-Comparative/Quasi-Experimental, and Experimental Research. attempts to establish cause- effect relationships among the variables.
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What is the most popular research method in criminal justice?

Survey research dominates the field of criminology and criminal justice. No other method rivals survey methodology as a way of gathering information on crime, criminals, and society’s reaction to crime.
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What materials are used for legal research?

Introduction – Legal research materials help us find out what the law is. They include secondary and primary sources. Secondary sources explain the law. They include legal dictionaries, legal encyclopedias, legal periodicals, annotations, and treatises.

• Primary sources are the law.
• They include codes and cases.
• It is mandatory for us to follow primary authority from our jurisdiction.
• Authority that is merely persuasive includes all secondary authority as well as primary authority from other jurisdictions (and from courts that are lower than the one we’re dealing with, in our own jurisdiction).

Many legal research materials have tables of contents and alphabetized topical indexes to help us find the information we need. Legal research materials are often updated with supplements. Some supplements are placed inside the back cover and are called “pocket parts.” Some supplements are separate additional or replacement volumes.
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What is the case method of legal education?

The Case Method – By contrast, the Case Method refers to a pedagogy (rather than a teaching style) introduced by Christopher Columbus Langdell (yeah, his parents had a sense of humor) who served as Dean of Harvard Law School in the late 1800’s. Langdell organized the first casebook — a compilation of actual judicial opinions — and revolutionized how law is taught.

You see, despite how some conservatives despise “activist judges” who “create law,” under the Anglo-American common law system we inherited from Great Britain, that’s the exact role of judges: TO CREATE LAW that arises from new or unforeseen factual circumstances. Using the Case Method, law students are expected to read hand-picked judicial opinions (cases) that gave rise to legal rules and dissect them by engaging in an exercise in retrospective analysis that explores why the court crafted the legal rule as it did.

So, while most law professors use the Case Method as a way to introduce legal rules, the Socratic Method refers to the incessant questioning that only some professors use to prod and test the rules they cover. Interested in learning more about how top law professors describe what they do in a law school classroom, and/or ” : The Socratic Method, The Case Method and How They Differ
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What are 3 main legal systems?

What Is The Legal System? November 23, 2018 The legal system includes rules, procedures, and institutions by which public initiatives and private endeavors can be carried out through legitimate means. In other words, is a system for interpreting and enforcing the laws.

• It elaborates the rights and responsibilities in a variety of ways.
• Three major legal systems of the world consist of civil law, common law and religious law.
• Other legal systems are: Jury system is a legal system for determining the facts at issue in a,
• The tax system is a legal system for assessing and collecting taxes.

The Electoral system is a legal system for making democratic choices. Jurisdiction’s basis of applying law consists of (1) a constitution, written or oral; (2) primary legislation, statutes, and laws; authorized by constitutionally authorized legislative body; (3) primary legislation approved body enacts subsidiary laws or bylaws; (4) traditional practices upheld by the courts; (5) Civil, common, Roman, or other code of law as source of such principles or practices.

(*Law Dictionary: What is a legal system? definition) Most of us acknowledge the importance of the legal system in our society. As members of a community, we have a social obligation to the people around us to create a safe environment for everyone and make us feel secure walking the streets and dealing fairly with one another.

However, though we abide by these laws and rules each day, we are not the ones responsible for their enforcement, whether we choose to break or follow the law, is up to each person and enforcement falls into the hands of the criminal justice system. : What Is The Legal System?
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What are the six main methods of data collection?

Methods of data collection – The system of data collection is based on the type of study being conducted. Depending on the researcher’s research plan and design, there are several ways data can be collected. The most commonly used methods are: published literature sources, surveys (email and mail), interviews (telephone, face-to-face or focus group), observations, documents and records, and experiments.
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What are the 2 commonly research methods?

There are two main categories of research methods: qualitative research methods and quantitative research methods. Quantitative research methods involve using numbers to measure data. Researchers can use statistical analysis to find connections and meaning in the data.
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What is the most effective research method?

How to choose the research methodology best suited for your study | Editage Insights Popular This is in Conducting research is often the stepping stone when you are writing your dissertation, thesis, or any report. Choosing the correct research methodology can determine the success and overall quality of your report. It is hence essential to get the initial stage of your research right.

In this article, we discuss the research methodologies in detail and help you identify which method should you choose for your study. Understanding the different research methods There are two general approaches to collecting data: quantitative and qualitative research. Let us understand in detail. Quantitative research In this type of research, the data collected is generally expressed in numbers and graphs to confirm theories and assumptions.

The data collected are factual information on the topic. Under the quantitative research method, the factual information can be collected in many ways such as:

• Surveys: Surveys consist list of questions in the form of multiple-choice or ratings asked either in person, over phone, or online. In your report, before you mention the findings of the survey in the data form, you can walk your readers through the survey by introducing information like when and where you conducted the survey, how long the participants took to respond to the questions, the response rate, etc. Additionally, you could include the list of the full questionnaire as an appendix so that your reader can see exactly what data was collected.
• Experiments: In this method, you perform a test in a controlled environment, and you obtain the data from it. This type of data is used for a situation in which variables are controlled and manipulated to establish cause-and-effect relationships. It is good to include full information in your report on how you design the experiment (e.g. between-subjects or within-subjects), what tools, techniques and procedures you used to conduct the test.
• Existing data: Here, you would gather data from an existing source (such as publications or archival data) for inclusion in your analysis. Post inputting your data in the report, include information on where did you source the material from, how the data was initially produced, and what criteria you used to select the date range.
• Observations: This involves observing people in their natural environment where variables can’t be controlled.
• Content analysis: This refers to systematically recording the presence of certain words or a set of texts to analyze communication patterns.

In quantitative research, you can include information on:

• How the data was prepared
• Software used to analyze the data (e.g. Stata or SPSS)
• Statistical methods used (e.g. regression analysis)

An example of quantitative research approach Consider this scenario. You are surveying some 300 students at your university and ask them questions such as: “On a scale from 1-5, how satisfied are you with your professors’ teaching skills?” You can perform statistical analysis on the data and draw a conclusion such as “On an average, students rated their professors 4.4.” Qualitative research This method is used to understand thoughts, concepts, or experiences of people via interviews, focus groups, case studies, discourse analysis, and literature review.

• Interviews: This method involves asking open-ended questions verbally to respondents. Describe when, where, and how the interviews were conducted. Include information on: how you found and selected participants
• how many people took part?
• what form the conversations took (structured, semi-structured, unstructured)
• how long the interviews took
• how they were recorded (e.g. audiovisual recordings and note-taking)
• what group or community you observed?
• how you gained access to the participants
• Focus groups: Gathering opinions by having a group of people discuss a topic.
• Case-study: An in-depth study of an event, an organization, a person, or a group. Explain how you selected your case study materials (such as texts or images) for your analysis, the type of materials you analyzed, and how you collected and selected them.
• Literature-review: A survey of published works by other authors.
• In qualitative research, the analysis will be based on image, language, and observations (generally involving form of textual-analysis). Specific methods might include:
• Content-analysis: Discussing and categorizing meaning of sentences, words, and phrases.
• Thematic analysis: Coding and carefully examining the data to identify broad themes and patterns
• Discourse analysis: Studying communication and purpose concerning their social context

Qualitative research approach example Let us consider a situation where you conduct in-depth interviews with say 20 students and ask them questions like: “How content are you with your curriculum study?”, “What is the positive aspect of the study program?”, and “What the students feel can be done to improve the study program?” Based on the answers you get you transcribe all interviews using transcription software and find commonalities and patterns in the responses.

• Another approach could be to start with a survey to find out trends or opinions or beliefs, followed by interviews to better understand the reasons behind the trends.
• Understanding differences between quantitative and qualitative research
• Quantitative and qualitative research methods collect data in different ways, and they allow you to answer different kinds of research questions.

Quantitative research	Qualitative research
Focuses on testing theories and hypotheses	Focuses on exploring ideas and formulating a theory or hypothesis
Is analyzed through math and statistical analysis	Is analyzed by summarizing, categorizing, and interpreting
Mainly expressed in numbers, graphs, and tables	Mainly expressed in words
Requires many respondents	Requires few respondents
Closed (multiple choice) questions	Open-ended questions
Key terms: testing, measurement, objectivity, replicability	Key terms: understanding, context, complexity, subjectivity

When to use qualitative vs quantitative research A thumb rule for deciding whether to use qualitative or quantitative data is:

• Using quantitative analysis works better if you want to confirm or test something (a theory or hypothesis)
• Using qualitative research works better if you wish to understand something (concepts, thoughts, experiences)

For most research topics, you can choose between qualitative, quantitative, or mixed methods approach. Which type you want depends on, among other things, whether you’re taking an inductive vs deductive research approach; your research question(s); whether you’re doing experimental, correlational, or descriptive research; and other considerations such as money, time, availability of data.

• Applications such as SPSS, SAS or Excel can be used to calculate parameters like:
• Average score
• The number of times the particular answer was given
• Correlation between two or more variables
• The reliability of the results

Qualitative data is more challenging to analyze than the quantitative data. It consists of images, text or videos instead of numbers. Some conventional approaches to analyze the qualitative data are:

• Qualitative content analysis: To track the position, occurrence, and meaning of words or phrases
• Thematic analysis: To closely examine the data to identify the main themes and patterns
• Discourse analysis: To study how communication works in social contexts

Conclusion Remember that your aim is not just to describe your methods, but to show how and why you applied them and demonstrate that your research was rigorously conducted. You should be able to convince the reader why you choose either qualitative or quantitative method and how it suits your objective.

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