The work deals with both the idea and methods of legal research in a systematic and comprehensive manner. In view of the fact that analytical, comparative, historical, philosophical, policy, action, and feminist legal researches are daily carried on by a large number of researchers as essential methods of legal research, the text provides valuable insights into all these aspects.

Legal research examines subject matter enshrouded in social circumstances in order to conceptualize theories and prepare a future course of action. This dynamic, inter-disciplinary, and labyrinthine character of legal research requires researchers to be fluid, eclectic, and analytical in their approach. Idea and Methods of Legal Research unearths how the thinking process is to be streamlined in research, how a theme is built on the basis of comprehensive and intensive study, and the paths through which notions of objectivity, feminism, ethics, and purposive character of knowledge are to be understood. The book first explains the meaning, evolution, and scope of legal research, and discusses objectivity and ethics in legal research. It engages with the requirements, advantages, and limits of various doctrinal and non-doctrinal methods and tools, and the points to be considered in selecting a suitable method or combination of methods. It highlights analytical, historical, philosophical, comparative, qualitative, and quantitative methods of legal research. The book then goes on to discuss the use of multi-method legal research, policy research, action research, and feminist legal research and finally, reflects on research-based critical legal writing, as opposed to client-related legal writing. This book, thus, is a comprehensive answer to key questions one faces in legal research.

The book unearths the way in which thinking process is to be streamlined in research; the manner in which a theme is to be built, and the paths through which notions of objectivity, feminism, ethics and purposive character of knowledge are to be internalized in legal research. The proposed book has five components. The first part deals with general matters such as meaning, evolution, and scope of legal research; systematization of thinking process; objectivity and ethics in legal research; and building a theme through an appropriate research plan. The second part engages with various ways through which doctrinal legal research can be conducted. This includes doctrinal, analytical, historical, comparative, and philosophical methods of conducting legal research. Part Three unravels discussion on non-doctrinal legal research by highlighting empirical, qualitative, and quantitative methods of legal research. It also catalogues the tools employed for non-doctrinal legal research and explains the method of using them. Part four takes to the fields where combination of doctrinal and non-doctrinal legal research can be attempted. Multi-method legal research, policy research, action research, and feminist legal research occupy this field. A point emphasized in various chapters is that legal research cannot afford to have compartmentalization of methods, and that the researcher has to be eclectic and inter-disciplinary in his approach. The final part reflects over the steps involved in research-based critical legal writing, as distinct from client-related or norm-creating legal writing.

Until quite recently questions about methodology in legal research have been largely confined to understanding the role of doctrinal research as a scholarly discipline. In turn this has involved asking questions not only about coverage but, fundamentally, questions about the identity of the discipline. Is it (mainly) descriptive, hermeneutical, or normative? Should it also be explanatory? Legal scholarship has been torn between, on the one hand, grasping the expanding reality of law and its context, and, on the other, reducing this complex whole to manageable proportions. The purely internal analysis of a legal system, isolated from any societal context, remains an option, and is still seen in the approach of the French academy, but as law aims at ordering society and influencing human behaviour, this approach is felt by many scholars to be insufficient. Consequently many attempts have been made to conceive legal research differently. Social scientific and comparative approaches have proven fruitful. However, does the introduction of other approaches leave merely a residue of 'legal doctrine', to which pockets of social sciences can be added, or should legal doctrine be merged with the social sciences? What would such a broad interdisciplinary field look like and what would its methods be? This book is an attempt to answer some of these questions.

The book is written in a conversational style, and the language is accessible and simple, with flowing examples that users can relate with. Practical legal questions are raised and application of individual research methods, strategies, approaches and philosophies are demonstrated. The book starts with a clear definition of legal research method to justification and importance. It spans the research process, theoretical positions and justification for research, the writing up process and the defence of research output either in seminars, conferences or for PhD defence. It also prepares researchers and academicians for discussion and interaction with peers at conferences and seminars.

"This collection arose out of a conference hosted by the School of Law in the University of Limerick in October 2014."--Preface.