LL.M. (Two Years) Legal Education and Research Methodology Syllabus - KSLU 2026

• II SEMESTER
• 05 Legal Education and Research Methodology
• 06 Judicial Process ( earlier Law Making Processes)
• 07 Legal Concepts
• 08 Specialisation Paper - 2
• PAPER 5: LEGAL EDUCATION AND RESEARCH METHODOLOGY [Compulsory]

Objectives:

• A post-graduate student of law should get an insight into the objectives of legal education and legal research. The student should be introduced to the legal regime governing legal education so that they can contribute better when involved in the activities of centers of legal education. Further the students should be thoroughly introduced to the idea and methods of legal research to better equip them to effectively discharge their responsibilities in the capacity of both academicians and professionals. This course is designed to equip the students with the requirements of legal education and legal research in contemporary society.

Course content:

Unit I: Introduction to Legal Education.

• Legal Education: History of legal education; National Education Policy; Objectives of Legal Education; Bar Council of India Rules of Legal Education; present problems of legal education and future perspectives; Curriculum making and reform; designing teaching methods to suit the curricular requirements; diversity in teaching methods and their merits and demerits; legal aid, legal literacy and law reform

Unit II: Idea of Legal Research, Methodology and ensuring good quality research

• Legal Research: Introduction; Legal Research Methodology, purposes and footsteps; thinking process in legal research: diverse models; objectivity, value neutrality, originality, and ethics in legal research; choosing, designing, and building the legal research theme; formulation and testing of hypothesis; rules against plagiarism; introduction to kinds of research.

Unit III: Doctrinal Legal Research Methods

• Doctrinal legal research as a means of synthesizing facts, thoughts and legal principles; analytical legal for expanding the legal world; historical legal research: implications and applications; philosophical research in law: the possibilities; comparative method of legal research: nature, process, and potentiality.

Unit IV: Non-doctrinal Methods of Legal Research:

• Empirical legal research: nature, features and expanding horizons; tools of data collection in empirical legal research: observation, interview, case study, ethnography, questionnaire, survey; qualitative legal research; sampling method: varieties and uses; quantitative legal research.

Unit V: Integrated methods of legal research and Research Reporting:

• Multi-method legal research: nature, need, procedure and potentiality; policy research in law; action research in law; methodology of feminist legal research; Legal writing based on research: report writing, writing articles, case comments and notes

Prescribed Book:

• Bhat Ishwara P., Idea and Methods of Legal Research, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2019)

References:

• Whitney F.L., The Elements of Research, (rev.edn. Prentice Hall, 1948)
• Goode, William J. and Hatt Paul K., Methods in Social Research, 1st Ind. Re.pt. (Delhi: Surjeet Publications, 2006)
• Mike McConville and Wing Hong Chi, Research Methods for Law (Edinburg University Press, 2007)
• SK Verma and Afzal Wani, Legal Research methodology (Indian Law Institution, Second Edition, 2007)
• Justice A.S.Anand, "Legal Education in India- Past, Present and Future," in Lokendra Malik and Manish Arora ed., Legal Education in India: Essays in honour of Professor Ranbir Singh, (New Delhi: Universal Law Publishing Co., 2014) Pp.11-20.
• Justice A.R.Lakshmanan, "Legal Education - Role of the Bar," in Lokendra Malik and Manish Arora ed., Legal Education in India: Essays in honour of Professor Ranbir Singh, (New Delhi: Universal Law Publishing Co., 2014) Pp.35-48.