Star Law book review
Unveiling secrets of legal research
Name of the book: Essentials of Legal Research
Author: Dr. Abdullah Al Faruque
Press: Palal Prakashani
First Published: February, 2009
Price: 150 taka |
Mohammad Moin Uddin
RESEARCH is a sine qua non for the creation and advancement of knowledge, and also for the progress of civilization. Law, being a necessary tool for a sustainable and well-organized society, must be the result of well-researched solution to social problems, and it needs to be kept in constant review. As the society progresses and new problems emerge, we must find out appropriate new solutions and due processes of law through socio-legal research. We must also know how to scrutinize and criticize the existing bad laws.
Whereas research is an integral part of legal education, legal curriculum in Bangladesh highly ignored it in the past. Research remained hostage to a few intellectual minds bearing the pains of exercising it in personal interest, the bulk of other students and teachers remaining outside the pale. Therefore, the absence of any book or working guideline for legal research in Bangladesh is no wonder. Thanks to the author of “Essentials of Legal Research”, Dr. Abdullah Al Faruque for filling up the long thirst.
The book under review is primarily “aimed at introducing the students of law to the basic ideas of conducting legal research at academic level and the skills needed for it”as the writer puts it. Although primarily aimed for potential researchers, grown-ups will also find the book worthy of collection and would like to read and refer to it. Prefaced by the author himself, and forwarded by Professor M. Shah Alam of the Faculty of Law, Chittagong University, the book contains 9 chapters and only 118 pages.
Chapter I titled 'Context of Legal Research' gives a total picture of the nature of a research work. The writer attempts to answer some natural-to-arise preliminary questions in the mind of potential researchers with precision and teacher-like patience. They are- What is research; Why is it for; what goal is to be achieved through it; what is Research Methodology and why; and Where to begin a research work and when to stop writing it? The writer draws 'Steps of legal Research' in such a fashion as one indicates a new comer the right way providing him a road map. The author wraps up the chapter with some basic suggestions in writing legal research.
In Chapter II under the heading 'Methodologies of Legal Research', the author acquaints us with different methods of research and their respective utilities. Explaining the distinctive features of analytical, inter-disciplinary, socio-legal, comparative and historical methods, the author rightly comments that a good researcher will choose one or more of these methodologies as it suits his/her research project and can best resolve his research questions. The vitality of this comparatively short chapter lies in the fact that “an effective legal research is hardly possible without proper understanding of research methodology”-- as the writer justifies it.
Chapter III would be the most attractive part for a young researcher. Under the title 'Design and Structure of Research', the author portrays the overall system of arranging a research work. After giving a general idea of writing Introductory Part, Middle Part and Conclusion part, the author precisely sketched what and how to organize the title page, acknowledgements, abbreviations, table of contents, table of cases, appendices, index, sign-posting, bibliography etc. This Chapter will remove many confusions of a novice researcher.
One of the puzzling tasks for a new researcher is using accurate referencing style. In absence of a proper orientation in this regard, one may commit serious anomalies and diverse referencing in the same piece of research monograph. Chapter IV entitled 'Reference Style' is a commendable addition to this book that resolves the problem. Here the author introduces us with Oxford reference style and Harvard reference style and also with notions like Plagiarism and academic dishonesty. The author gives minutes of referencing system with examples-- that of using footnotes and endnotes; using direct quotation, summary, paraphrasing, primary data and secondary data; how to cite books, journals, internet sources, periodicals etc.; and where to use italics, ibid, supra, infra, et al etc. This chapter will certainly help a new researcher writing his research paper more confidently.
Locating and finding out resources primary, secondary and others is a challenge for proceeding with a research project. The sources of materials for a legal research are to be located properly and the credibility for those sources needs to be ensured. The author tried to give a list of sources of legal research marking their respective authentic value in Chapter V. Although the author does not claim it to be an exhaustive list, hardly any legal material escaped this list.
In Chapter VI, the author speaks about 'Structure and Interpretation of Statutes'. It is beyond question that statutes are the number one source of law in modern times, and that is why a primary tool for legal research. Different parts of a statute must be properly understood and duly interpreted. The writer tried to give a picture of principal methods and fundamental rules of interpreting statutes. While interpretation of law is a multi-faceted task that requires an overall knowledge of jurisprudence and all the corresponding branches of law, an interpreter must start with primary principles explained in this chapter.
We know that law regulates the behaviour of its subjects particularly the human beings in the society. Thus in a socio-legal research, empirical approach to find out an appropriate solution is becoming more prominent. In Chapter VII under the heading 'Empirical Tools of Research: Case studies, Questionnaire Survey and Interviewing', the writer introduces us with various types and sub-types of empirical tools with their respective advantages and disadvantages. The author does not forget to give a 'guideline for designing questionnaire', which will help young researchers to a great deal.
Chapter VIII is a natural corollary of and supplementary to the previous chapter. We know that collection of data for research has a purpose, which is to explore the actual problem prevailing therein. The success of this purpose depends upon proper sampling methods and analysis of data. As the Census method is very costly, time-consuming and generally beyond a researcher's capacity, the writer rightly emphasized on the Sampling method in this chapter. The chapter seems to be a compact one that could be a bit elaborate.
The author wrapped up the very easy-to-understand book with a highly philosophical chapter entitled 'Legal Reasoning: Criteria and Forms'. In chapter IX, the author gives us a brief idea on standards of legal reasoning and different forms of it. While the content of the chapter addresses judges predominantly and therefore it may seem to break the flow of the book in the last chapter, the philosophical part of the discussion will immensely benefit the researchers.
The book is the first of this type of work in Bangladesh. The book is a small volume of only 118 pages but the spirit lying behind a short volume-written in lucid, reader-friendly and easy-to-understand language seems to be high enough. The book is rich in content. Being a prolific researcher himself, the author shared his practical research experiences in many places of the book, e.g. he gives a time management methods for PhD thesis so that it can be timely completed in chapter V. Certainly the book will be marked for pioneering the structural legal research in Bangladesh. But for a few printing mistakes, the book is very much okay and reasonably priced. All Bangladeshi law students must collect one copy of the book; why not law-teachers, rights activists and NGO workers undertaking legal research.
The writer is a Lecturer, Department of Law, Premier University, Chittagong.
