Legal Research

The built resistance to empirical research in the realm of legal studies in developing states like Uganda may be attributed to the lack of understanding of the law as Vasudha Dhagamawar points out:

‘That law is intrinsically related to society and that our understanding of society is permanently relevant to our understanding of law, whether at the stage of enactment or at the other stage of implementation’

It is important to note that in developing the law understanding the law and its relation to society is crucial. Therefore if empirical legal research would help in ensuring this is done, then indeed it is important in the development of the law. That is why it is important to analyze its importance to the development of the law.

Baldwin and Davis have described empirical legal research as involving the study, through direct methods rather than secondary sources, of the institutions, rules, procedures, and personnel of the law, with a view to understanding how they operate and what effects they have. Empirical research is a way of gaining knowledge by means of direct observation or experience.

Etymologically research is a word derived from the word chercer; to search and late cicare; to go round in a circle. However, the encyclopedia goes on to define research as, the act of searching into a matter closely and carefully, inquiry directed to the discovery of the truth and in particular the trained scientific investigation of the principles and facts of any subject, based on original and first hand study of authorities or experiment Investigations of every kind which have been based on original sources of knowledge’

Methodology on the other hand in the words of Martin Bulner;

‘…denotes the systematic and logical study of the general principles… concerned in the broadest sense with the questions of how… knowledge is established and how others can be convinced that the knowledge is correct.’

Empirical legal research is a not so popular type of research in Africa and all developing countries. Research in such countries is mainly doctrinal because there is this feeling of apathy towards non-doctrinal legal research which would require data collected through empirical techniques.

Mittal once noted that;

‘With the change in the nature of societal realities the techniques of research are bound to undergo change… there is a movement from analytical research to empirical research…and obviously the study of law cannot escape this trend if law is to attain its rightful place as a social science.

Derivative from Mittal’s observation, empirical legal research is important in the development of the law especially in ensuring that the law is understood in connection with social changes, to ensure that the law moves at the same pace of development at which the society moves.

Martin. U. Gasiokwu in his Legal research and methodology observed that once we admit the relevance of law to society, the next step will be to try to explore all aspects of the relationship between law and society, with a view to understanding how law works, whom it serves, how it is understood and why it fails.

Such tasks which are very important in developing the law could be accomplished only by doing empirical legal research thus rendering it important in the development of the law.

This is why Justice V.R Krisha of India lent his support for empirical legal research when he remarked;

‘The law commission and the legislative wing of the law Ministry should not act on impressionistic ideas but on empirical research data…defects and deformities and lacuna and gaps may be noticed in the working of socio-economic laws… and researchers must focus on law reform where social and economic goals are not as intended. ’

Further, empirical legal research helps to high light the deficiencies in legal enactment and the problem of the implementation It can explain which of the laws can be enacted, the causative factors for the delay in administering justice, and problems that arise because of the variation of interpretations given by lawyers. These are very important in the development of the law and as such empirical legal research is important in the development of the law.

Therefore in conclusion empirical legal research is very important in the development of the law, especially where it helps to determine the hindrances to law enforcement, law reform and institutional development and restructuring. All this shows that indeed empirical legal research is to a larger extent important in the development of the law

BIBLIOGRAPHY

A thought on methodology (1982) 24 JILI

Upendra Baxi, Social-Legal Research in India; A program shift( Indian council of social science research occasional monograph No. 12 (iv) 1975

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empirical_research Wikipedia (The free Encyclopedia), accessed on 22nd .03 .2011

Sociological Research Methods; An introduction, London Macmillan press ltd, 1977

Sociology Vs Anthropological methods in Understanding Indian Legal Reality (1982) 1 d
Peter Cane and Mark Tushnet,

The Oxford Handbook of legal studies, Oxford University press, 2003

The Cambridge Edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica 1911

Martin. U. Gasiokwu, Legal research and Methodology (The A-Z of writing theses and dissertations in a nutshell), Fab Anieh (Algeria) Ltd, 1993

Cohen, Morris, Robert C. Berring, and Kent C. Olson. How to Find the Law. 9th ed. St. Paul: West Publishing Co., 1989.

Cohen, Morris L., and Kent C. Olson. Legal Research in a Nutshell. 7th ed. St. Paul: West Publishing Co., 2000.

Jacobstein, J. Myron, Roy M.. Mersky, and Donald J. Dunn. Fundamentals of Legal Research. 7th ed. Westbury, N.Y.: The Foundation Press, 1998.

Wren, Christopher, and Jill Robinson Wren. The Legal Research Manual: A Game Plan for Legal Research and Analysis. 2nd ed. Madison, Wis.: A-R Editions, 1996. Chapter 1.