Beruflich Dokumente
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• Legal research is an art as well as a skill. It calls for judgment and creativity
along with mastery of a set of tools and techniques.
• Each research question will have a different starting point, process, and
conclusion.
• Every research project will include false starts, dead ends, and revisions.
• There is never one “right” path. Researchers choosing different paths for the
same research question may be equally successful.
• The starting point of research depends on the nature of the issue, how
it is presented to the researcher, and the researcher’s experience.
• To find the truth which is hidden and has not been discovered as yet.
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TARP Model
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Doctrinal Research
• It is concerned with the formulation of legal ‘doctrines’
through the analysis of legal rules.
• Within the common law jurisdictions legal rules are to be
found within statutes and cases (the sources of law)
• but it is important to appreciate that they cannot, in
themselves, provide a complete statement of the law in any
given situation.
• This can only be ascertained by applying the relevant legal
rules to the particular facts of the situation under
consideration.
• Doctrinal research is therefore concerned with the
discovery and development of legal doctrines 7
Interdisciplinary Research
• Research about law
• An evaluation of the effectiveness of a particular
piece of legislation in achieving particular social
goals or an examination of the extent to which it is
being complied with.
• An uncertain or ambiguous legal ruling can often
be more easily interpreted when viewed in its
proper historical or social context, or when the
interpreter has an adequate understanding of the
industry or technology to which it relates
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Pure Research
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Types of Research Methodology
• Establish a process.
• Avoid binges; little and often- e.g. after
reading a paper, but not immediately -
Why?
• Analyse how you spend your time, not how
you would wish to, ..it is very illuminating!
• Make a plan for each stage of writing up.
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Making it Readable II
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Making it Readable III
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How to do Research
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Doubts about the Topic
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The Supervisor Role
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Justifying your Efforts
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Writing the Thesis I
• Abstract
– general introduction
– summary of the question
– justification for question
– birdseye view of the result
• Background information
– particularly if you span two or more traditional
areas (dissertations/theses often do)
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Generic Dissertation Skeleton II
• Literature review
– state of the art
– organised by ideas, not time/author/geography
• The research question (core/foundation)
– concise statement of question
– justification, refer closely to review (analysis)
– explain why question is worthwhile
(applicability)
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Generic Dissertation Skeleton III
• Description -Design/methods/methodology
– Possibly many sections to some chapters -
balance
– Aim to show that question has been fully
answered
– Show relevance of work to solution
– Avoid detailing blind alleys unless they
contribute to showing that question is answered
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Generic Dissertation Skeleton IV
• Conclusions, generally in three sections
– conclusions
• short concise statements of inferences made as a
result of the work done
• conclusions must be directly related to the research
question/problem raised previously
– summary of contribution
• examiners will scrutinise this section
– future research
• useful to people following in your tracks
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Generic Dissertation Skeleton V
• References
– closely tied to the review done early in the
dissertation
– examiners usually check out this section early
on and will form preliminary assessment
notions early, so pay attention
– references must appear in the main body
– use the guidelines published by OSCOLA
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Generic Dissertation Skeleton VI
• Appendices
– material which casts light on the work done but
which would impede the clear delivery of ideas
• mathematical proofs unless prime focus
• program listings
• huge tables of data
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How Long Does it Take ?
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Lesson Learned!
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How to impress Mian Ali Haider
To carry a reader you have to complete three steps:
– Pick up the reader and tell them where you’re going
(Introduction).
– Take them to another place, one which they would not
have discovered on their own (Middle).
– Put them down, explain how they got there, and
describe what they can do next (Conclusions).
THIS IS A USEFUL AND IMPORTANT SKILL
TO GET GOOD MARKS
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MY Goal
SO CONVINCE ME