Mastering Legal Research as a Law Student

Legal research is a fundamental requirement of studying law at university. Whether you are answering problem questions, writing essays, writing a dissertation or any other form of written work, you will have to engage in some form of legal research. But what does this really entail? Well, it involves finding relevant and credible sources that are useful for your argument or writing. Great, but what makes it different from a simple search? It needs credibility, accuracy and relevance. Your sources need to be peer-reviewed or ‘official’ and they need to adequately address your problem or question. Thus, relying on a simple Google search does not usually cut it, especially since there are many uncredible sources you could find using this method. Websites in the public domain, such as Wikipedia, or blogs that are written by businesses to advertise their products, are just a few examples of sources that lack credibility. You run the risk of relying on inaccurate, non-academic or opinion-based information. What you need to look for is peer-reviewed journals or articles and official reports that discuss the law or provide some other form of accurate evidence.

This leads to the next question. What makes it different from research in other disciplines? Aside from the importance of precision which has just been mentioned, it is different because it focuses on hierarchical rules i.e. ‘law’, that is constantly evolving. For example, a study on climate change from 2015 may still be useful in environmental science, but a 2015 data protection ruling will be outdated due to the new data protection laws established in 2018. It is also different because it requires an interpretation of the law. For example, in medicine you could say 95% of patients responded to Treatment A, but in legal research you identify the law and explain whether it is ‘good’ or ‘bad’, ‘useful’ or ‘necessary’ etc.

Therefore, here are some useful tips for undergoing legal research whatever your task:

Define Your Research Scope

You want to begin with looking at the bigger picture before delving headfirst into researching. What area of law are you dealing with? What are the legal issues you are looking into? What types of sources are you looking for? Cases, statutes, academic commentary, legal reports, bills etc.?

Note: While most legal research requires cases, statutes and academic commentary, some topics may rely more heavily on one more than the other. For example, an emerging legal issue may not have much case law yet, but it may have substantial academic discussion.

Start Broad, Then Narrow Down

Before diving into Westlaw or LexisNexis, begin with material that provide a solid foundation:

• Lecture notes, handouts, revision guides and textbooks – these help you understand the bigger picture and key legal principles.
• Legal summaries – use these as quick references to clarify concepts before deep research.

Tip: Remember, legal research is usually a graded criteria in law assessments. Demonstrating that you have engaged in wider legal research, as well as consulting a variety of sources to analyse your question will usually grant you higher marks. So, while you use your lecture notes and handouts as a starting point, do not forget to go beyond that once you actually begin researching. Always do this, unless you are explicitly told not to.

Use Appropriate Legal Research Platforms

As previously stated, do not use a simple Google search. While it is technically possible to find relevant sources this way, it is usually a better idea to start with standardised research platforms such as Google Scholar, JSTOR, Hein Online etc. Then it is important to engage with legal research databases such as Westlaw or LexisNexis. These have journals, statutes, case law etc. and they provide tools to understand the history of primary sources, whether they are still applicable (have not been overturned or replaced), and subsequent cases that have relied on a particular case.

Use Smart Research Techniques

One of the biggest mistake students make is typing vague keywords into databases and hoping for the best. While this may get you some relevant sources, it may not draw out the ones that are most applicable to your question. The problem is, you either have too much or too little results return after the search, many of which may not be relevant. Therefore, you should focus on:

• Using Boolean operators (AND, OR, or NOT) to narrow or broaden your research.
• Put phrases in quotation marks. This will get you more exact results.
• Apply filters for date, jurisdiction, document type etc.

For example, if you are dealing with a question that asks you to assess the difference between the right to privacy and data protection, your search should look like this: “Data Protection” AND Right to Privacy. Only documents that contain the phrase ‘Data Protection’, relating to the right to privacy will be drawn. This will save you hours of scrolling through irrelevant results.

Note: Sometimes a simple keyword search may bring you enough relevant sources. This is okay too.

Prioritise Primary Sources

Legal research should be grounded in primary sources, calling for a critique of the law itself. Therefore, while you may start with textbooks or summaries for useful background, always make sure you read and understand the primary sources relevant to your topic or question and analyse the judicial reasoning instead of relying solely on textbook interpretations. This ensures that you are not missing the ‘legal’ aspect of your research, and that it is critical rather than descriptive.

Check Law Validity

Make sure that you are relying on cases and statutes that are up to date and have not been overturned by the court or replaced by new law. Use Westlaw’s KeyCite and LexisNexis’ Case Analysis to check this. It is also helpful to read the latest edition of textbooks, as they will usually have more up to date information on the law. Now, depending on your task you can acknowledge old law and explain why it has been overturned. This is usually the case in some essay questions.

Stay Organised from the Start

Basically, what this means is always record your findings. It is very possible, and in fact a common occurrence to find a useful case or journal article and then forget it because it has not been recorded or saved anyway. Therefore, a useful tip is to:

Create a folder on Westlaw or LexisNexis and save useful documents there as soon as you find it. Alternatively, you can create a literature log in your Word document and record the details of any source, along with its link. It will also be useful to take notes on what you found useful from this source, as it tremendously helps with understanding the literature and performing some critical analysis after acknowledging diverse opinions.

Note: It will be useful to have separate titles for separate assignments, for example ‘Contract Law Essay’, ‘Criminal Law Report’ etc.

Time Management Is Key

There are usually two problems students can run into when researching. It is either you spend no time on it, or too much time. The key to effective legal research is balance.

Consider the length of your assignment. How many sources would be appropriate? Of course, this is subjective, but it is always useful to get a sense of how much you are aiming for. It can be less or more than anticipated, depending on the topic. However, the most important thing to remember is quality over quantity.

Set time limits for each stage of researching. For example, 30 minutes for background reading, 1 hour for identifying key cases and legislation and 1 hour for identifying academic commentary. This is by no means a standard template. But it is important to remember that you need to spend some time researching before you begin writing. The writing process will become easier if this is done prior.

To Conclude…

Legal research can feel daunting, overwhelming, or pointless to some people (they do not see the need for it, so they dive headfirst into writing, without undergoing effective legal research.) However, it is an important prerequisite for legal academic writing and with the right tools and techniques, it will be a manageable task. Remember, you do not need to read every case or article, you just need enough to answer your question properly.

At the end of the day, it is not just about finding information, but understanding, applying and communicating what you have found clearly, with appropriate analysis. With practice, you really can do it without losing your mind.

Article written by Constance Eke, LLB graduate from the University of Leeds and current LLM student at the University of Sheffield