Page 18 - RESEARCH HANDBOOK FOR LL.M. AND PHD

Guidelines for
Doctrinal Research Report

Doctrinal research is a qualitative enquiry. The choice and coverage of doctrinal legal research could be
very expansive and it is tough to suggest any fixed format for this kind of research. This is mainly due to
the reasons that this kind of research involves research problem requiring highly individualized rather
than standard methodology. For instance, the research involving case study method of focusing on case
analysis including case comment may have little different frame to follow.

The research involving jurisprudential analysis of an issue, analysis of statute, historical or comparative
growth of any legal doctrine or legal system, examination of any legal concept through case laws or legal
theories, regulatory issues in corporate or IPR regimes, locating and weighing an idea in the context and
human rights context, enforcement issues in various jurisdictions, international laws effecting the
relevant domestic issue etc. are some examples of some broad areas of research which are possible
through doctrinal research design.

Steps for Doctrinal Design
1. Introduction

State the brief background and introduce the subject in few paragraphs or pages; it should not be
directly lifted from the original source. Make your arguments and adopt an analytical tone to place the
problem under investigation in a perspective.

2. Conceptual context

There may be concepts, propositions and doctrines in the proposed study, which need to be defined for
the purpose of the study in hand. Make operational definitions of all such usages.

The scholar in this section is expected to introduce and contextualize the ’general research area’. Such
contextualization is to provide the researcher an opportunity to link a specific social and legal problem
to a body of socio-legal theory.

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