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Hutchinson, Terry C. & Duncan, Nigel

(2012)
Defining and describing what we do : doctrinal legal research.
Deakin Law Review, 17 (1), pp. 83-119.

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 Defining and Describing What We Do:
Doctrinal Legal Research

Terry Hutchinson1 and

Nigel Duncan2

Abstract 
What exactly is doctrinal legal research? And where does the doctrinal methodology ‘fit’
within the spectrum of scientific and social research methodologies undertaken in other
disciplines? The practitioner lawyer of the past had little need to reflect on process. The
doctrinal research methodology developed intuitively within the common law - a research
method at the core of practice. There was no need to justify or classify it within a broader
research framework. Modern academic lawyers are facing a different situation. At a time
when competition for limited research funds is becoming more intense, and in which
interdisciplinary work is highly valued and non-lawyers are involved in the assessment of
grant applications, lawyer-applicants who engage in doctrinal research need to be able to
explain their methodology more clearly. Doctrinal scholars need to be more open and
articulate about their methods. These methods may be different in different contexts. This
paper examines the legal research doctrinal method and its place in recent research
dialogue. Some commentators are of the view that the doctrinal method is simply
scholarship rather than a separate research methodology. Richard Posner even suggests
that law is ‘not a field with a distinct methodology, but an amalgam of applied logic,
rhetoric, economics and familiarity with a specialized vocabulary and a particular body of
texts, practices, and institutions ..’.3 Therefore, academic lawyers are beginning to realise
that the doctrinal research methodology needs clarification for those outside the legal
profession and that a discussion about the standing and place of doctrinal research
compared to other methodologies is required.

1
Associate Professor, Law School, QUT Faculty of Law, [email protected]
2
Professor of Legal Education, City University London, [email protected];
Felicity Deane is the research assistant on this project. We would like to thank those who commented on
early drafts of the paper especially Nigel Stobbs, QUT Faculty of Law.
3
Richard Posner, 'Conventionalism: The Key to Law as an Autonomous Discipline' (1988) 38
University of Toronto Law Journal 333, 345 as quoted in Richard Schwartz, ‘Internal and external method
in the study of law’ (1992) 11 (3) Law and Philosophy 179, 199, iv.

1
 ‘The training of lawyers is a training in logic. The processes of analogy,
discrimination, and deduction are those in which they are most at home. The
language of judicial decision is mainly the language of logic. … But certainty
generally is illusion …. Behind the logical form lies a judgment as to the relative
worth and importance of competing legislative grounds, often an inarticulate and
unconscious judgment, it is true, and yet the very root and nerve of the whole
proceeding. You can give any conclusion a logical form. You always can imply a
condition in a contract. But why do you imply it? It is because of some belief as to
the practice of the community or of a class, or because of some opinion as to
policy, or, in short, because of some attitude of yours upon a matter not capable
of exact quantitative measurement, and therefore not capable of founding exact
logical conclusions.’ Oliver Wendell Holmes Jnr4

Introduction 
With the Global Financial Crisis as a backdrop, it is not surprising that government
policy is attempting to direct research money towards whatever is judged to be ‘quality’
research. Now, more than ever, it is imperative that academic lawyers, working within an
increasingly sophisticated research context, explain and justify what they do when they
conduct ‘doctrinal research’. Lawyers need to explicate their methodology in similar
terminology as other disciplines.

The term ‘doctrinal research’ needs clarification. The word ‘doctrine’ is derived from the
Latin ‘doctrina’ which means ‘to instruct, a lesson, a precept’. The doctrine includes legal
concepts and principles of all types – cases, statutes, rules. Doctrine has been defined as
‘a synthesis of rules, principles, norms, interpretive guidelines and values. It explains,
makes coherent or justifies a segment of the law as part of a larger system of law.
Doctrines can be abstract, binding or non-binding’.5 Historically, law was passed on from
lawyer to lawyer as a set of doctrines, in much the same way as happened with the
ecclesiastics. The term ‘doctrinal’ is also closely linked with the doctrine of precedent –
legal rules take on the quality of being doctrinal because they are not just casual or
convenient norms, but because they are meant to be rules which apply consistently and
which evolve organically and slowly. It follows that doctrinal research is research into the
law and legal concepts. This method was the dominant influence in 19th and 20th century
views of law and legal scholarship and it tends to dominate legal research design.6

Where does the doctrinal methodology “fit” in terms of the spectrum of scientific and
social research methodologies used in other disciplines? The doctrinal method lies at the
basis of the common law and is the core legal research method, and until relatively
recently there has been no necessity to explain or classify it within any broader cross-

4
‘The Path of the Law’ (1897) 10 Harvard Law Review 457.  
5
Tricia Mann (ed), Australian Law Dictionary (Oxford University Press, 2010) 197.
6
Des Manderson and R Mohr, ‘From oxymoron to intersection: an epidemiology of legal
research’ (2003) 6 Law Text Culture 165, 168. And see Des Manderson, ‘Law: The search for
community’ in Simon Marginson (ed), Investing in Social Capital (University of Queensland
Press, 2002) 152 on breakdown of empirical and doctrinal PhDs in Australia.

2
disciplinary research framework. If we accept that law has a paradigm according to
Kuhn’s definition,7 and is a distinct area of scholarship and that juristic thought in
particular makes up part of that discrete and credible paradigm, then it makes sense that
law would have its own unique research method.8 But therein lies an anomaly for legal
researchers – operate within the intuitive and arcane doctrinal paradigm and you are
being vague according to funding providers, operate outside it and you are not being a
lawyer according to the profession. At a time when competition for limited research
funds is becoming more intense, and in which interdisciplinary work is highly valued and
non-lawyers are involved in the assessment of grant applications, lawyer-applicants who
engage in doctrinal research need to be more open and articulate about their methods

In the first instance, this paper examines the main features of the current Australian and
UK research contexts. In particular, it describes the constantly fluctuating government
policy frameworks – including the Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA) initiative
and the UK Research Excellence Framework (REF) – which are directed towards
assuring quality research outputs. These determine, to some extent, the outcomes for
university research funding. This paper examines a snapshot of Australian higher degree
research (HDR) enrolment and completion statistics for the discipline of law, and very
briefly analyses a study of the articulation of research methodologies in recent law theses.
The paper notes the various attempts at categorisation, explanations and definitions of
legal research methodology in the last two decades and briefly describes the standard
‘doctrinal’ research methodology. This paper argues that there needs to be a more overt
process for articulating the doctrinal method that is accepted within the discipline and
acknowledged outside the discipline. Then, more ambitiously, the paper makes a start in
attempting the categorisation of this methodology in comparison with other standard
‘non-doctrinal’ methodologies.

1. The current research landscape 
The research landscape in universities has changed significantly in the last twenty years.
There is more emphasis on group, interdisciplinary and empirical research rather than the
older paradigm, particularly common in law faculties, of an individual legal researcher
working alone. Within the universities, there is an emphasis on increasing links with
industry and funded applied research, rather than on purely theoretical research.
Governments are encouraging institutional specialisation and centres of excellence, by
funding research infrastructure and research training. A ‘vocationalist shift’ is evident in
the promotion of professional doctorates which are more aligned with applied rather than
theoretical research.

Competition between law schools for students and research funds is intense. In Australia,
the operating grant is no longer ‘as of right’ but tied to research outcomes and student
numbers. In the UK, universities are faced with the withdrawal of government grants to
cover teaching, replaced by student fees of up to £9,0009 and intake controls linked to

7
Thomas Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (University of Chicago Press, 1962).
8
CM Campbell, ‘Legal Thought and Juristic Values’ (1974) 1 (1) British Journal of Law and Society 13,
15.
9
See HEFCE: New arrangements for teaching funding - 2012-13 and beyond,

3
entry qualifications.10 In both countries there is an emphasis on success in gaining
external competitive grants. The importance of research outputs has prompted a ‘publish
or perish’ mentality. Academics are being directed towards publication in refereed or
peer reviewed journals with academic audiences, rather than practitioner journals where
arguably their research may have more impact. Authoring student texts or disseminating
research knowledge to the broader community generally receives less ‘kudos’.11

Government funding imperatives do have direct effects on academic research activity.

The journal ranking system in Australia is an excellent example of this phenomenon. The
influence of the Washington and Lee rankings in formulating ERA law journal rankings
resulted in US publications being ranked more highly than several prestigious Australian
law journals. This in turn resulted in publications on important jurisdiction-specific legal
issues becoming less publishable, and academics directing their research to areas and
topics that are more likely to be of interest to international audiences. Because of these
unintended results, and general disquiet in the university sector, the Commonwealth
Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research, Senator Kim Carr, suddenly
announced at the end of May 2011 that journal rankings were no longer to be a key
indicator of research quality for the current ERA process. 12

There has also been a shift towards a national legal profession in Australia which is
accompanied by a trend for young law graduates to practise outside the jurisdiction in
which they were trained.13 As a result, there is growing recognition of the importance of
training in public international and comparative law studies, and the role legal education
plays in internationalising the profession. The movement towards transnational law is
being buoyed by the increasing amounts of legal data (case law, legislation, journal

<http://www.hefce.ac.uk/learning/funding/201213/>, which provides links to the relevant White Paper.

10
See HEFCE: Student number controls for 2012-13, at
<http://www.hefce.ac.uk/news/hefce/2011/snc.htm>, which provides links to the relevant consultation
documents.
11
See also the discussion in Susan Bartie, ‘The Lingering Core of Legal Scholarship’ (2010) 30 (3) Legal
Studies 345, 351, 352; William Twining ‘SLS Centenary Lecture Punching Our Weight - Legal Scholarship
and Public Understanding’ (2009) 29 Legal Studies 519, 529.
12
‘Improvements to Excellence in Research for Australia’ -
<http://minister.innovation.gov.au/Carr/MediaReleases/Pages/IMPROVEMENTSTOEXCELLENCEINRE
SEARCHFORAUSTRALIA.aspx>.
In the UK, reflecting attitudes across Europe, there has been resistance to such formal ranking of journals.
However, there is little doubt that journal reputation is of significance at an informal level. Indeed, an
attempt has been made to provide a ranking, proposing the Modern Law Review as the pre-eminent journal
and six others competing in a second rank (see Kevin Campbell, Alan Goodacre & Gavin Little, ‘Ranking
of United Kingdom Law Journals: An Analysis of the Research Assessment Exercise 2001 Submissions
and Results’ (2006) 33 Journal of Law and Society 335, 363; Kevin Campbell, Douglas Vick, Andrew
Murray and Gavin Little, ‘Journal Publishing, Journal Reputation, and the United Kingdom’s Research
Assessment Exercise’ (1999) 26 (4) Journal of Law and Society 470).
13
See Attorney-General’s Department, Council of Australian Governments
<http://www.ema.gov.au/www/agd/agd.nsf/Page/Consultationsreformsandreviews_CouncilofAustralianGo
vernments(COAG)NationalLegalProfessionReform>.

4
articles, law reform reports, parliamentary material, and policy documents) available via
the Internet which in turn is leading to major changes in doctrinal method.14

All of these changes are requiring academic lawyers to delineate and defend their
research territory. Lawyers need to examine more carefully what it is they bring to the
research table in relation to the skills, expertise and outputs of other disciplines.

2. Research acknowledged through government policy 
Governments in both Australia and the UK have recognised the importance of research
for economic development. Policies have also been influenced by the broader economic
picture particularly the Global Financial Crisis of the last two years. All aspects of
university operation are being regulated more directly in Australia with the establishment
of the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency (TEQSA), and a new Australian
Qualifications Framework (AQF), to ensure consistency in accreditation of new courses
and quality outcomes.

In the UK, an incoming Labour government in 1997 increased funding for all aspects of
higher education. This operated through the funding councils15 and included
improvements in core research funding as well as initiatives to improve teaching and
learning. This period of relative largesse was curtailed by the global economic crisis and
the Government identified cuts of a total of £398 million in the Annual Grant for higher
education.16 A change in government in the UK exacerbated the situation, with a
Conservative/Liberal Democrat coalition taking a policy decision to reduce the deficit
over a relatively short period.17

Research Councils UK argues that ‘Continued public investment in scientific endeavour

is essential for the success of UK business and industry – and, more broadly, for a
productive economy, a healthy society and a sustainable world’.18 However, these
aspirations may be difficult to achieve. Resources available to the Arts and Humanities
Research Council19 and the Economic and Social Research Council, 20 the two Councils
most likely to allocate grants for legal research, show a projected fall.

14
See, eg, Terry Hutchinson, ‘The Transnational Lawyer: GATS, Globalisation and the Effects on Legal
Education’ (2006) Australian and New Zealand Journal of Legal Education 93.
15
The Higher Education Funding Councils for England (HEFCE), Wales (HEFCW), Scotland (SFC), and
Northern Ireland (NIHEC).
16
Peter Mandelson, Annual Grant Letter to HEFCE,
<http://www.hefce.ac.uk/news/hefce/2009/grant1011/letter.htm at para 10>.
17
The Spending Review was announced on 20 October 2010 and indicated a 9% reduction in higher
education research funding
<http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=26&storycode=413961>.
to be placed in the context of a 40% reduction in funding of teaching and student support.
<http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=26&storycode=413956&c=1>.
18
R Vaitilingam, Research for our Future: UK business success through public investment in research,
(2010) 4. <http://www.rcuk.ac.uk/aboutrcuk/publications/corporate/researchforourfuture.htm>.
19
AHRC Delivery Plan 2011-2015, p. 19. (AHRC resources will drop from £99.881m in 2011/12 to
£98.370m in 2012/13). <http://www.ahrc.ac.uk/About/Policy/Documents/DeliveryPlan2011.pdf>.

5
The economic downturn appears to have been weathered better in Australia. The 2010
election returned another Labor government. The Tertiary Education Minister Chris
Evans indicated that ‘the Gillard government remains committed to its multi-billion-
dollar Bradley reforms despite the need to return to budget surplus in about two years’.21
The government promised $5.2 billion in outlays during the next five to six years
including ‘improved resourcing of the indirect costs of research’.22

Determining the level of funding required to achieve quality research outcomes is always
difficult. Since taking office, Labor has commissioned a number of studies of the
university sector. In 2008, the Bradley Review underlined the urgent need for increased
funding for Australia’s universities. The report concluded that ‘For Australia to improve
its relative performance against other nations, additional, ongoing and significant public
investment in higher education will be required’.23 December 2008 saw the publication
of the Australian House of Representatives Standing Committee Report into Research
Training which again pointed to the need for government nurturing of the higher
education research sector.24 The report notes the ‘years of neglect’ of the sector and the
‘inadequate funding’ as being a ‘fundamental obstacle’ to building Australia’s full
research capacity.25 It states ‘In Australia, we still do not hold research and researchers in
high esteem, despite the significant contribution they make to the nation. The low status
of research careers is evidenced by continuing low levels of national investment, social
recognition and relative remuneration’.26 It comments that ‘inadequate funding for
research training and research careers remains the fundamental obstacle to building
Australia’s full research capacity’.27 There were a number of recommendations for
change coming out of this report. Principally there was a recommendation for increased
funding for research and development.28

Finally there is the Department of Innovation, Industry, Science and Research, Review of
the National Innovation System which resulted in the Cutler Report - Powering Ideas: An
Innovation Agenda for the 21st Century.29 In this Report the Labor government

20
ESRC Delivery Plan 2011-2015, p. 21. (ESRC resources will drop from £174.637m in 2011/12 to
£167,335m in 2012/13). <http://www.esrc.ac.uk/_images/ESRC%20Delivery%20Plan%202011-15_tcm8-
13455.pdf>.
21
Guy Healy, ‘Bradley reforms go ahead’ The Australian Higher Education Wednesday 20 October 2010,
21.
22
Ibid.
23
The Review of Australian Higher Education: Final Report (Chair Prof Denise Bradley December 2008)
<http://www.deewr.gov.au/highereducation/review/pages/reviewofaustralianhighereducationreport.aspx>. 
24 House of Representatives Industry, Science and Innovation Committee: Australian House of

Representatives Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Innovation, Inquiry into Research Training
and Research Workforce Issues in Australian Universities (2008) Parliament of Australia - Building
Australia's Research Capacity <http://www.aph.gov.au/House/committee/isi/research/index.htm>. 
25
Ibid vi.
26
Ibid vii.
27
Ibid.
28
Ibid.
29
Department of Innovation, Industry, Science and Research 2009.
<http://www.innovation.gov.au/innovationreview/Documents/PoweringIdeas_fullreport.pdf>. 

6
acknowledges that ‘public research capacity is critical’ even though ‘the pay-off may be
indirect and a long time coming’.30 The report notes that ‘We depend so much on
universities .. that if their performance slips, the whole innovation system suffers’ …
therefore ‘they must be able to demonstrate genuine and consistent excellence’.31 These
reports recognize the importance of the higher education sector and also the importance
to the economy of measuring and encouraging the work being done there.

3. Attempts to measure research quality  
In 2008 the Australian federal government announced that the Excellence in Research for
Australia (ERA) initiative was to replace the previous government’s Research Quality
Framework (RQF) program. The UK is also revising its quality review system for higher
education. In 2005, the UK Government announced that the Higher Education Funding
Council for England (HEFCE) would replace the Research Assessment Exercise (RAE)
with the Research Excellence Framework (REF) – a more bibliometrics-oriented method
also designed to test economic and social impact. The UK consultation process finished
in December 2009 and the first REF exercise is to take place in 2014.32 The REF will be
undertaken by the four UK higher education funding bodies.33 The aim is to reduce the
burdensome collection process of the old system while maintaining robust benchmarking.

The primary focus of the UK REF is to identify excellent research of all kinds, assessed
through a process of expert review, and informed by robust research citation data. There
is significant additional recognition where researchers build on excellent research to
deliver demonstrable benefits to the economy, society, public policy, culture and quality
of life. The emphasis therefore is on research quality, along with effective dissemination
and application. The organisation of this endeavour is through four panels, each of which
is divided into sub-panels. The Law sub-panel is linked into Panel C which places it
firmly within the company of the social sciences disciplines as opposed to the
humanities.34

Different criteria are appropriate to different disciplines. A strongly bibliometric

30
Ibid.
31
Ibid.
32
<http://www.hefce.ac.uk/Research/ref/>; And see Jayne W. Barnard, Reflections on Britain’s Research
Assessment Exercise’ (1998) 48 Journal of Legal Education 467; Gareth Williams, ‘Misleading,
unscientific, and unjust: the United Kingdom's research assessment exercise’ (1998) British Medical
Journal 1079; Paddy Hillyard, Joe Sim, Steve Tombs and Dave Whyte, ‘Leaving a Stain upon the Silence’
(2004) May British Journal of Criminology 369.
33
Higher Education Funding Council for England, Scottish Funding Council Higher Education Funding
Council for Wales, Department for Employment and Learning, Northern Ireland Research Excellence
Framework impact pilot exercise: Findings of the expert panels November 2010; Research Excellence
Framework Second consultation on the assessment and funding of research September 2009/38 Policy
development Consultation HEFCE 2009; Paul Jump ‘We need impact and the time to deliver is right now’
Times Higher Education , 9 December 2010 , 14.
34
Together with Architecture, Built Environment and Planning; Geography, Environmental Studies and
Archaeology; Economics and Econometrics; Business and Management Studies; Politics and International
Studies; Social Work and Social Policy; Sociology; Anthropology and Development Studies; Education
and Sports-Related Studies Units of Assessment and Recruitment of Expert Panels, REF 01.2010 July 2010,
12. <http://www.hefce.ac.uk/research/ref/pubs/2010/01_10/01_10.pdf>.

7
approach which may be appropriate in scientific fields of endeavour is not entirely
meaningful to lawyers. The use of metrics within the legal discipline is proving highly
controversial. Of course, this is because there are no effective metric measures of citation
for law. In addition, many in the discipline do not accept that this is a legitimate way to
judge the worth of research. Quality of research within the discipline of law is evaluated
not only by the citation of research papers by other researchers, but also by the
referencing of pertinent research by the courts or law reform bodies. This is not the type
of citation measure that is customary for other disciplines.35 This category of citation is
not included in the most reputable research citation indexes which cover the discipline of
law.36 Citation rates will continue to be relevant criteria for determining research quality
in other discipline areas, so this is a matter of concern to legal researchers.

The Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA) initiative is administered by the

Australian Research Council (ARC) and was developed by that body in conjunction with
the Department of Innovation, Industry, Science and Research, to assess research quality
using a combination of metrics and expert review by committees comprising experienced,
internationally-recognised experts.37 These evaluations, similar to the UK REF, are
informed by four broad categories of indicators including research quality, research
volume and activity, research application and indicators of recognition. Each field is rated
on a scale ranging from 1 to 5.38  Consultations following the 2010 process resulted in
changes including the removal of journal rankings, proposals to strengthen the peer
review process and increased accommodation of multi-disciplinary research.39

There is some ambivalence as to where law as a discipline ‘fits’ within the broader
research community. The ERA evaluates research within 8 discipline clusters. The 2009
trial evaluated the Humanities and Creative Arts (HCA) cluster which contains Law
along with Built Environment and Design, Law and Legal Studies, Studies in Creative
Arts and Writing, Language Communication and Culture, History and Archaeology, and
Philosophy and Religious Studies.40 Law was in a different social science grouping under
the superseded Coalition government Research Quality Framework (RQF) scheme. That

35
The AustLII database in Australia is taking this issue on and they are attempting through the LawCite
system to manufacture a citation measurement based on the full text judgments and other law reform
documents they already hold on the database. <http://www.austlii.edu.au/lawcite/>.
36
See for example Social Sciences Citation Index or Science Citation Index published by Thomson Reuters.
The journals indexed in these tend to be published predominantly in the United States.
37
<http://www.arc.gov.au/era/default.htm>. 
38
Australian Research Council, Excellence in Research for Australia 2010 Report, 2.
<http://www.arc.gov.au/pdf/ERA_report.pdf>.
For critique see Jennifer Nielsen, ‘Power, Regulation and Responsibility in the era of ERA – implications
for the emerging voices of critical scholarship’ (Legal Research Interest Group, Annual ALTA Conference,
Auckland University, July 2010); Chris Arup, ‘Research Assessment and Legal Scholarship’ (2008) 18 (1&
2) Legal Education Review 31.
39
Senator Kim Carr, Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research , ‘Ministerial Statement to the
Senate Economics Legislation Committee Improvements to Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA)’
(Media Release, 30 May 2011)
<http://minister.innovation.gov.au/Carr/MediaReleases/Pages/IMPROVEMENTSTOEXCELLENCEINRE
SEARCHFORAUSTRALIA.aspx>.
40
<http://www.arc.gov.au/era/era_2009/HCA09_trial.htm>.

8
previous grouping with Education and Criminology was more akin to the present
grouping of Law in the UK REF.

It is apparent in this very competitive context where discipline funding is being based on
measurable criteria and outcomes and with interdisciplinary panels examining their work,
that academic lawyers need to be able to explain their research in terminology that
demonstrates its credentials to those outside law’s ‘community of practice’.41

4. Competitive research funding for legal research 
Research published in the United Kingdom in 2004 demonstrates that relatively few
projects by UK law school academics in ‘core law’ research areas were being externally
funded.42 Michael Doherty and Patricia Leighton defined ‘core law’ as doctrinal or ‘black
letter work’.43 Their study noted that funded projects tended to be ‘undertaken by
economists, social policy specialists, and those in inter-disciplinary research units that
could, but typically do not involve legal researchers’.44

In Australia, as the following graphs demonstrate, there were an increasing number of

ARC Discovery and Linkage Grants Projects, stipulating Law as their primary area,
submitted in the years 2001-2005.45 The success rates were higher for the Linkage
scheme46 than for the Discovery projects.47 The Discovery projects are those which are
more likely to be using a predominantly doctrinal methodology.

41
Jean Lave and Etienne Wenger, Situated learning: Legitimate peripheral participation (Cambridge
University Press, 1991) 98-100; Similar quality measurement schemes are in operation in other
jurisdictions see New Zealand’s PBRF <http://www.tec.govt.nz/Funding/Fund-finder/Performance-Based-
Research-Fund-PBRF-/>; Michael Taggart, ‘Some Impacts of PBRF on Legal Education’
<http://www.victoria.ac.nz/nzcpl/Files/Keith%20Conference/Keith%20Conference%20-%20Taggart.pdf>.
42
Michael Doherty and Patricia Leighton, ‘Research in Law: Who funds it and what is funded?’ (2004) 38
(2) Law Teacher 182.
43
Ibid 187. The term ‘black letter’ refers to research about the law included in legislation and case law. The
term originated from the name of the Gothic type which continued to be used for law texts. It is defined in
Blacks Law Dictionary (9th ed, Westlaw International, 2009) as: ‘One or more legal principles that are old,
fundamental, and well settled.’ In addition, the definition notes: ‘The term refers to the law printed in books
set in Gothic type, which is very bold and black’.
44
Ibid 198.
45
Hilary Charlesworth, ’Challenges for Legal Research in Australia’ (Paper presented at the Australasian
Law Teachers Association Conference, Victoria University of Technology, Melbourne, 4-7 July 2006) 3.
‘RFCD’ refers to Research Fields, Courses and Disciplines Classification: Australian Bureau of Statistics,
Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classification (ANZSRC) 2008, ABS Catalogue No
1297.0 (2008).
46
The objectives of Linkage Projects include encouraging and developing long-term strategic research
alliances between higher education organisations and other organisations, including with industry and other
end-users, in order to apply advanced knowledge to problems and/or to provide opportunities to obtain
national economic, social or cultural benefits. Australian Research Council, Linkage Projects Funding
Rules for funding commencing in 2012(Variation No 1).
47
The objectives of the Discovery Projects scheme include supporting excellent basic and applied research
by individuals and teams. Australian Research Council, Discovery Projects Funding Rules for funding
commencing in 2012.

9
 Number of Linkage Projects applications, number of funded projects,
and success rates for applications submitted between 2001 and 2005
that nominated law as their primary RFCD

40 70

60
Numbers of applications/funded

50

Success rates (%)

40
projects

Applied
20 Funded
30 Success rate

20

10

0 0
2001 2002 2003 2004 2005
Submit years

Number of Discovery Projects applications, number of funded

projects, and success rates for applications submitted between 2001
and 2005 that nominated law as their primary RFCD

100 40

80
Numbers of applications/funded

30
Success rates (%)

60
Applied
projects

20 Funded
Success rate
40

10
20

0 0
2001 2002 2003 2004 2005
Submit years

The following table demonstrates the number of applications indicating Law as their
primary research area for the years 2002 through to 2009.48 The numbers of applications

48
The schemes included are: Centres of Excellence, Discovery Indigenous Researchers Development,
Discovery Projects, Federation Fellowships, Australian Laureate Fellowships, Future Fellowships, Linkage
Projects (APAI Only), Linkage APD CSIRO, Linkage Infrastructure Equipment and Facilities, Linkage
Projects, Special Research Initiatives, Linkage International, ARC Research Networks, and Special
Research Initiatives (Thinking Systems): ARC Funded Research Projects – Trend Data Sets Prepared by
the ARC Data Analysis Unit April 2010.
<http://www.arc.gov.au/xls/WebData_Trends.xls#RFCD_number!A1>

10
 are increasing overall but the success rates are dropping correspondingly. Success rates in
the ‘hard sciences’ (Engineering and Technology, Biological Sciences, Physical Sciences,
Chemical Sciences) are generally higher.49 More research is needed to understand the
actual reasons for the failure to achieve higher success rates. The answer may simply
arise from two obvious factors - the competition from other quality projects, together
with a finite pot of funds. However, another reason may be that academic lawyers are not
explaining the value and quality of their methods with the necessary clarity in order to
satisfy funding bodies’ requirements. Further analysis would be required This project did
not seek to gauge the actual influence of the methodology (or lack of a sufficient
description of the methodology) on the success of the applications.50

ARC Funded Research Projects – Law 390151

Law 3901 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009
Number of 47 49 51 53 71 59 68 88
Applications
Number 16 16 17 19 22 13 15 21
Funded
Success 34% 33% 33% 36% 31% 22% 22% 24%
Rate
Amount $4,501,021 $2,628,611 $2,044,181 $6,037,315 $5,497,006 $3,931,606 3,770,975 $8,292,722

It is also important to note that in 2009, while the success rate of applications was lower
(24%) than for example 2002 (34%), the actual dollar amount of funding for the year
($8,292,722) was considerably higher than in any of the earlier years. Over this time 139
of a possible 485 projects were funded with a total funding amount of $36,703,437.

5. Examining the extent of HDR activity in Australian law faculties 
Australian universities have experienced major growth in Higher Degree Research
(HDR) completion rates for Law in the last two decades. Statistics show an increase from
a PhD completion rate for Law and Legal Studies in Australia of 6 students in 1988 to 42
in 1998 (with approximately 20 Masters completions for both years of the study).52 The
annual figure for 2008 had risen to 79 (together with an additional 16 Masters by
Research completions).53

49
Ibid.
50
The relative importance of the research methodology and description in determining the success or
failure of the applications would evident from the reviewers’ assessment scores.
51
Ibid.
52
Department of Education Science and Training Higher Education Report for the 2000 to 2002 Triennium
<http://www.dest.gov.au/archive/highered/he_report/2000_2002/html/3_3.htm>.
53
Department of Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR), Selected Higher Education Statistics,
Award Course Completions for Detailed Field of Law & Justice and Law Enforcement Course for Higher
Degree Research Students by State/Institution and Level of Course 2004-2008, September 2010. (The
Tertiary Cluster of the Department of Education Employment and Workplace Relations has now been
transferred to the Department of Industry, Innovation, Science, Research and Tertiary Education.)

11
Statistics of HDR enrolments in the field of law supplied by the Department of Education
Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR) provide a snapshot of the actual total
numbers of students enrolled in HDR courses in the subject area denoting Law (090900-
090999) at individual Australian universities each year during the period from 2004 to
2008.54 The total enrolments increased from 795 in 2004 to 982 in 2008.55 The number of
completions is increasing at a slower rate with 85 in 2004 and 95 in 2008.56 These
statistics demonstrate a discrepancy between the numbers enrolled in higher degrees each
year and the annual number of completions. This reflects the lag time between student
enrolment and completion. Although doctoral candidates are publicly funded for 4 years
full time, many students would not complete within this timeframe for various reasons.57

The higher number of students completing at the established universities was

commensurate with those institutions’ more established postgraduate programs and
greater postgraduate student numbers.58 Some of the more recently established law HDR
programs also demonstrate excellent completion rates despite small enrolment numbers.59

These figures paint a picture of a growing Australian university HDR cohort in the fields
of Law and Legal Studies. Legal researchers are increasingly being called on to justify
and explain (to themselves as well as to other disciplines) the value and importance
attached to their work. The increasing numbers of students enrolled in higher degree
research in law bodes well for the continued growth of research in the discipline along
with the development of a more sophisticated researcher profile.

6. Are HDR students in law articulating their methodologies in their 
theses?  
A Higher Degree Research (HDR) paper stands as evidence of the candidate’s research
expertise. As such, the students, supervisors and examiners need to consider the research
methodology. What data is contained in the research? How was this data collected? At
some point there must be a statement, however brief, concerning the method of collection

54
Department of Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR), Selected Higher Education Statistics,
Number of Higher Degree Research, Detailed Field of Law & Justice and Law Enforcement Courses,
Students by State/Institution and Level of Course 2004-2008, September 2010 (Enrolments).
55
Ibid. The annual figures are 2004 (795), 2005 (849), 2006 (870), 2007 (917) and 2008 (982).
56
Ibid. These figures include Masters by Research: 2004 (85), 2005 (94), 2006 (81), 2007 (94) and 2008
(95).
57
Yew May Martin, Maureen Maclachlan, Tom Karmel, Postgraduate completion rates Department of
Education, Training and Youth Affairs, 2001D, Occasional Paper Series, 21. According to a quantitative
analysis of the performance of the 1992 cohort of postgraduate research students studying at Australian
institutions, only 10 completed in the category Law, Legal Studies in the period. ‘The results indicate that
after eight years, only 53 per cent of postgraduate research doctoral students had completed the courses that
they had enrolled in 1992’. ‘The study also confirms the view that few students completed their chosen
courses within the expected time. Of those doctoral students who had completed, 36 per cent completed
within four full-time study years’. <http://www.dest.gov.au/archive/highered/occpaper/01d/01d.pdf>.
58
See above n 53 and n 54. The University of Melbourne (63 completions in the Law field over the 5 year
period) and the University of Sydney (52 completions in the Law field over the 5 year period) had by far
the largest number of annual HDR student enrolments and completions in the Field of Law tables.
59
See above n 53 and n 54. Deakin University, for example, with only a handful of HDR enrolments in the
Law field each year, had 8 completions in the subject area over the 5 year period.

12
of the data, for example: ‘This study will include a doctrinal analysis of legislation and
case law.’

Is this sufficient? Should funding agencies, examiners and reviewers expect more detail
from legal scholars? Should there be a statement of the breadth and depth of the legal
doctrine, legislation and case law located, along with a listing of the issues being
examined in proving the thesis? Even accepting that it would be difficult to formulate a
thesis without stating the major issues, is it then possible to delineate how these issues are
going to be analysed. Is it feasible for doctrinal researchers to describe the legal
reasoning techniques being used or any theoretical underpinnings involved in the
analysis? Is it possible to unpack the doctrinal method in this detail?

Unfortunately the doctrinal method is often so implicit and so tacit that many working
within the legal paradigm consider that the process is unnecessary to verbalise. Any
articulation that occurs is for the benefit of the outsiders. But any discipline could argue
the same. It is when lawyers step or are pushed into wider interdisciplinary work, or find
themselves competing for grants with researchers from other disciplines that the
articulation of method becomes of paramount importance.

A survey of postgraduate research in Australian law schools undertaken ten years ago
demonstrated that only 20 per cent of all doctoral research projects could be described as
purely ‘doctrinal’.60 A more recent examination of HDR theses submitted to the
Australasian Digital Thesis Program website in the five year period 2004-2009, reveals
that most of the legal theses had a doctrinal component, even though only a few students
overtly identify the study they were conducting as being to any extent ‘doctrinal’.61 The
analysis covered all law theses from founding universities’ law faculties,62 together with
those from the Queensland University of Technology (QUT). The examination of the
database took place in October 2010 and covered a reading of 60 theses available
digitally.63

The analysis demonstrates that the doctrinal methodology is rarely discussed, even when
a methodologies chapter is included in the thesis. Methodologies’ chapters in the theses
examined appear more frequently and are more prominent when the thesis involves a

60
Manderson and Mohr, above n 6, 168. The term ‘doctrinal’ was not defined in the study. See also Tricia
Mann (ed), Australian Law Dictionary (Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 2010), 501.
61
The study of the Australasian Digital Thesis Program website was undertaken by Felicity Deane and
Terry Hutchinson and completed in October 2010. http://adt.caul.edu.au/homesearch/advancedsearch/
The Australasian Digital Theses Program database ceased operation in March 2011. The database server
has been decommissioned, and the content of that database is searchable via the National Library of
Australia’s Trove service. http://www.caul.edu.au/caul-programs/australasian-digital-theses/finding-theses
The ADT included only higher degree theses. Trove includes theses at all levels, including Honours theses.
The ADT included only theses from Australian and New Zealand universities whereas Trove includes
theses held in other Australian institutions and those awarded elsewhere but housed in Australian libraries.
62
The founding universities are Australian National University, Curtain University of Technology, Griffith
University, University of Melbourne, University of New South Wales, University of Sydney, and the
University of Queensland.
63
From the statistics provided earlier in this article, it is obvious that not all theses were placed on the
database.

13
survey or interviews. These methodologies ordinarily require ethics clearance from the
university but even this crucial step in the research process is not always acknowledged
overtly.

An examination of the database demonstrates that only 16 of the 60 theses include a

methodologies chapter (26.6%), 21 discuss methodologies as part of another chapter, and
one deals with the methodology in an appendix. Therefore, only 38 of the 60 law theses
(63.3%) actually include a discussion of the methodology as part of the thesis. Non-
doctrinal methodologies are treated more expansively with extensive descriptions and
lengthy chapters. Where the thesis represents traditional legal research, significantly less,
and sometimes no attention is given to explaining the methods for conducting the
research. Fifty-six percent (n=34) are of a research nature that is unlikely to require ethics
clearance, which obviously differs from most other disciplines, demonstrating that law is
still essentially a ‘scholarly’ endeavour.

Legal academics may argue that a statement of doctrinal methodology would be out of
place in a doctrinal thesis, and that, in any case, this aspect would have been examined
during the earlier phases of the HDR process. One commentator, Paul Chynoweth, asserts
that ‘no purpose would be served by including a methodology section within a doctrinal
research publication’, because the process is one of ‘analysis rather than data
collection’.64 We would argue that while this may be true for published research in
journals, the situation in relation to research grant applications and HDR theses is
different. Chynoweth argues that legal academics need to seek to educate their
interdisciplinary colleagues on the nature of the methodology and that in order to do this
we should ‘reflect upon our own previously unquestioned assumptions about the
practices in our own discipline, and to articulate these for the benefit of others within the
field’.65 On this point we agree entirely.

This small study of a selection of law theses demonstrates that lawyers are not
conforming to the formalities of describing methodology in the same way that occurs in
other disciplines. Perhaps there is not the same need to articulate the method for an
audience from within the law paradigm. However, academic lawyers are now
participating in broader interdisciplinary environments where there is little knowledge of
doctrinal research processes and where there are different expectations in relation to
explanations of research methodologies.

7. Defining legal research terminology 
Before continuing this discussion, it is important to explore some of the nuances implicit
in the terminology we are using. We need to distinguish ‘law’ as a practical discipline
exercised within a professional setting, ‘law’ as a body of normative rules and principles
(‘the law’) and ‘law’ as an academic discipline. Jurisprudence and law has been a social
and political force since the days of the pre-Socratics, but law as an academic discipline

64
Paul Chynoweth, ‘Legal Research’ in Andrew Knight and Les Ruddock (eds), Advanced Research
Methods in the Built Environment (Wiley-Blackwell, 2008) 37.
65
Ibid.

14
did not truly exist in the common law world prior to the late 1800’s.66 Up until then
lawyers received all their training as clerks articled to practising lawyers. This remained
true of much legal training in both Australia and the UK right up until the latter half of
the twentieth century.

By the 1980s, law was well established as an academic discipline in Australia. At that
point, the national review bodies within the tertiary sector began to attempt to define and
measure the research work being undertaken in the university law faculties. The Pearce
Committee reviewed the research coming out of the Australian law schools. They
categorised the research as encompassing:

1 Doctrinal research — ‘Research which provides a systematic exposition of the

rules governing a particular legal category, analyses the relationship between
rules, explains areas of difficulty and, perhaps, predicts future developments.’

2 Reform-oriented research — ‘Research which intensively evaluates the

adequacy of existing rules and which recommends changes to any rules found
wanting.’

3 Theoretical research — ‘Research which fosters a more complete understanding

of the conceptual bases of legal principles and of the combined effects of a range
of rules and procedures that touch on a particular area of activity.’67

The 1982 landmark study on the state of legal research and scholarship in Canada, the
Arthurs Report, included a fourth category covering non-doctrinal methodologies:

4 Fundamental research — ‘Research designed to secure a deeper understanding

of law as a social phenomenon, including research on the historical, philosophical,
linguistic, economic, social or political implications of law.’68

The Arthurs Report was rather scathing in its assessment of the legal research being
carried out in Canada at the time and also commented –

‘We conclude that law in Canada is made administered and evaluated in what
often amounts to a scientific vacuum. Without overstraining analogies to the
“hard” sciences, the state of the art of all types of legal research is poorly
developed. Clients are advised, litigants represented and judged, statutes enacted
and implemented in important areas of community life on the basis of
“knowledge” which, if it were medical, would place us as contemporaries of
Pasteur, if it related to aeronautics, as contemporaries of the Wright Brothers’ …..
66
David Weisbrot, Australian Lawyers (Longman Cheshire, 1990).
67
Dennis Pearce, Enid Campbell and Don Harding, Australian Law Schools: A Discipline Assessment for
the Commonwealth Tertiary Education Commission 1987 cited in Terry Hutchinson, Researching and
Writing in Law (Reuters Thomson, 3rd ed, 2010) 7.
68
Consultative Group on Research and Education in Law, Law and Learning: Report to the Social Sciences
and the Humanities Research Council of Canada (Information Division of the Social Sciences and
Humanities Research Council of Canada, 1983) cited in Hutchinson, Ibid 8. 

15
 1983.69

This is an interesting statement that itself might be unpacked a little. In some respects
perhaps all that the Committee was saying is what the Nuffield Inquiry has been saying
more recently … that is, that we need much more empirical research about the law and its
effects in society.70

All the reports agreed that doctrinal legal research was the most accepted methodology in
the discipline of law. The 2009 CALD Standards refer to the necessity for students to be
able to achieve research methodology skills akin to the ‘doctrinal’ including:

‘b. the intellectual and practical skills needed to research and analyse the law from primary
sources, and to apply the findings of such work to the solution of legal problems.
c. the ability to communicate these findings, both orally and in writing.’71

Martha Minow, Dean of Harvard Law School, in outlining the types of intellectual
contributions resulting from legal scholarship refers to ‘doctrinal restatement’ and
‘recasting’ as a starting point for her list:

‘Doctrinal Restatement - Organize and reorganize case law into coherent

elements, categories, and concepts; Acknowledge distinctions between settled and
emerging law; and identify differences between majority and “preferred”
practices with an explanation of the criteria utilized.

Recasting - Gather more than one line of cases across doctrinal fields and show
why they belong together or expose unjustified discrepancies; and Offer a new
framework.

Policy Analysis - Present a problem; Canvass alternatives; Propose an evaluative

scheme or method; and Recommend preferred solutions.

Proposition Testing - Take a widely assumed or commonly known proposition

familiar to legal theorists; and Undertake an empirical investigation about its
validity, summarize and assess empirical work conducted by others, undertake
model-building or summarize and apply models developed by others.

Study, Explain, and Assess Legal Institutions, Systems, or Institutional Actors -

Conduct an historical, anthropological, sociological or economic analysis of the
behavior of legal actors or institutions utilizing empirical or interpretive methods
and/or models; and Offer a normative assessment or agenda for further study.

69
Ibid. 
70
Hazel Genn, Martin Partington and Sally Wheeler, Law in the Real World: Improving our Understanding
of How Law Works: The Nuffield Inquiry on Empirical Legal Research (November 2006).
71
Council of Australian Law Deans, The CALD Standards for Australian Law Schools, 17 November 2009,
3.

16
 Critical Projects - Expose unstated assumptions, patterns or results, internally
inconsistent structures, or other tensions within a body of law, legal practices or
institutions; and Highlight these tensions and contradictions and attempt to link
them to larger psychological, social, or philosophic difficulties.

Comparative and Historical Inquiries - Describe an earlier era or contrasting legal

regime; Contextualize the selected era or regime utilizing social sciences such as
anthropology or history; and Illuminate differences, choices, or continuities when
compared with contemporary domestic practice.

Jurisprudence and Philosophy of Law - Develop a theory that tries to explain how
law or areas of law fit together; Demonstrate the contribution this theory makes to
the resolution of a doctrinal or practical problem; and Advance a normative
framework for the future.

Combinations of the above-referenced approaches.’ 72

Minow canvasses a range of methodologies and definitely (looking at this from a US

rather than an Australian or British perspective), makes use of the term ‘doctrinal’ as tacit
terminology, and the process of gaining knowledge from doctrinal work as implicit
within the legal research context.

But it is the CALD description which most succinctly delineates the sophisticated higher
level thinking which is the hallmark of doctrinal work, and that permeates all quality
legal research. The CALD Statement on the Nature of Legal Research reads:73

To a large extent, it is the doctrinal aspect of law that makes legal research
distinctive and provides an often under-recognised parallel to ‘discovery’ in the
physical sciences. Doctrinal research, at its best, involves rigorous analysis and
creative synthesis, the making of connections between seemingly disparate
doctrinal strands, and the challenge of extracting general principles from an
inchoate mass of primary materials. The very notion of ‘legal reasoning’ is a
subtle and sophisticated jurisprudential concept, a unique blend of deduction and
induction, that has engaged legal scholars for generations, and is a key to
understanding the mystique of the legal system’s simultaneous achievement of
constancy and change, especially in the growth and development of the common
law. Yet this only underlines that doctrinal research can scarcely be quarantined
from broader theoretical and institutional questions. If doctrinal research is a
distinctive part of legal research, that distinctiveness permeates every other aspect
of legal research for which the identification, analysis and evaluation of legal
doctrine is a basis, starting point, platform or underpinning.

72
Martha Minow, ‘Archetypal Legal Scholarship - A Field Guide’, in AALS WORKSHOP FOR NEW LAW
TEACHERS (AALS, 2006), 34-35. <http://www.aals.org/documents/2006nlt/nltworkbook06.pdf>.
73
Council of Australian Law Deans, Statement on the Nature of Research, 3.
<http://cald.anu.edu.au/docs/cald%20statement%20on%20the%20nature%20of%20legal%20research%20-
%202005.pdf>.

17
Most commentators in this area agree that ‘some element of doctrinal analysis will be
found in all but the most radical forms of legal research’.74 The ‘conceptual analysis of
law’,75 recognised in the CALD Statement, exists as the basis of legal research. Susan
Bartie, in examining the scholarship about legal scholarship, (what Bartie terms ‘legal
meta-scholarship’) concluded that ‘a great deal of English legal scholarship builds upon
the tenets of the core rather than discards them’, and that in this regard ‘the attitudes
towards the core in England and Australia seem almost identical’.76 Bartie has referred to
this research process, with traits ‘captured by the concept of “doctrinalism” or “black
letter law”’, as ‘the core tenets of legal scholarship in England and Australia’, and has
argued that these tenets have provided ‘an element of unity in legal scholarship over the
past century or so’.77

8. Does the research method differ among the various legal research 
genres? 
There are obviously varying degrees of complexity within doctrinal legal research. The
range lies from practical problem-solving to ‘straightforward descriptions of (new) laws,
with some incidental interpretative comments’, to ‘innovative theory building
(systematisation)’, with ‘the more “simple” versions of that research’ being the
‘necessary building blocks for the more sophisticated ones’.78 Different forms of legal
research necessitate variations in the method.

There is firstly the problem-based doctrinal research methodology used by practitioners

and students. This approach is predicated on solving a specific legal problem and
normally includes the following steps:

1. Assembling relevant facts

2. Identifying the legal issues
3. Analysing the issues with a view to searching for the law
4. Reading background material (including legal dictionaries, legal encyclopaedias,
textbooks, law reform and policy papers, looseleaf services, journal articles)
5. Locating primary material (including legislation, delegated legislation and caselaw
6. Synthesising all the issues in context
7. Coming to a tentative conclusion

This type of basic stepped research methodology design can lead to scepticism about
doctrinal research in the general academic community. Is doctrinal research simply what
‘legal puzzle solvers do’ to come up with pragmatic answers? Of course the steps used to
research the law are rarely as simplistic as the list above might suggest.

74
Chynoweth, above n 64, 31.
75
Tricia Mann (ed), Australian Law Dictionary (Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 2010) 501.
76
Bartie, above n 11, 346, 359, 362.
77
Bartie, above n. 11, 345, 350.
78
Mark Van Hoecke (ed), Methodologies of Legal Research Which Kind of Method for What Kind of
Discipline? (Hart Publishing, 2011) vi.

18
Even though the practitioner’s advice to the client, whether it is verbal or in writing, is
invariably concise and pragmatic, it may nevertheless involve very complex aspects of
the law. Therefore the practitioner lawyer often specialises in a particular legal area, and
certainly would not need to slavishly follow research steps such as undertaking
‘background’ reading.

The core doctrinal methodology used by the practitioner is also used by the judge.
However, the degree of complexity evidenced in a judge’s decision demonstrates another
level of doctrinal work. The judge, in determining a case, and handing down a decision
between opposing parties in the court, is writing not only for the parties and their counsel,
but also for a more general audience. The judge’s decision needs to be justified and fully
explained. The theoretical stance of the judge towards their judicial role, and the
approach the judge brings to the reasoning in the case arguably too affects the
formulation of the decision.79 Of course this decision needs to be determined in
conformity to the rules of precedent along with the possibility of more general
application of any decision.

Is this all that law academics are doing, too, when they research? Finding solutions to
practical problems? The doctrinal methodology is not always predicated on a specific
legal ‘problem’ or directed to locating one answer or conclusion. Academic researchers
choose both the topic and the breadth and depth of investigation. The doctrinal method is
similar to that being used by the practitioner or the judge, except that the academic
researcher (or HDR student) is not constrained by the imperative to find a concrete
answer for a client. As Posner comments – ‘The messy work product of the judges and
legislators requires a good deal of tidying up, of synthesis, analysis, restatement, and
critique. These are intellectually demanding tasks, requiring vast knowledge and the
ability … to organize dispersed, fragmentary, prolix, and rebarbative material.’80 This
constitutes the academic lawyer’s work. 

The researchers’ philosophical stance frequently determines the research questions,

progress and possible outcomes of academic research. However, the ‘perspective’ or
theoretical stance often lies unstated. Pauline Westerman argues that within the dominant
paradigm, ‘the legal system itself functions as a theoretical framework that selects facts
and highlights them as legally relevant ones’.81 Westerman describes the typical approach
of academic legal researchers in this way:82

‘Most … take as a starting-point a certain new legal development, such as a new

interpretation of a certain doctrine, or a new piece of European regulation, and
just set out to describe how this new development fits in with the area of law they
are working in, or, if it does not seem to fit in, how the existing system should be
79
For example, the declaratory theory, ‘law as science’, formalism, strict legalism, legal realism and anti-
formalism.
80
Richard Posner, ‘In Memoriam: Bernard D, Meltzer (1914-2007)’ (2007) 74 University of Chicago Law
Review 435, 437.
81
Pauline Westerman ‘Contested Boundaries’ in Mark Van Hoecke (ed), Methodologies of Legal Research
Which Kind of Method for What Kind of Discipline? (Hart Publishing, 2011) 91.
82
Westerman, Ibid 89.

19
 rearranged in order to accommodate for this novelty. So after first depicting what
the new development actually consists of, my colleagues commonly address the
question of how the new development can be made consistent with the rest of the
legal system, in which sense other related concepts are affected and how current
distinctions should be adapted and modified. After having described all this, they
usually recommend steps in order to accommodate for the new development.’

However while this may hold true for some categories of reform oriented doctrinal
writing, there are many different genres within academic doctrinal work. The treatment of
law in a legal encyclopaedia such as Halsbury’s Laws of Australia,83 or a standard
treatise such as Cheshire and Fifoot,84 or a practitioner journal such as The Proctor
published by the Queensland Law Society, differs markedly from the more broad-ranging
discussions taking place in refereed journal articles published in the most prestigious law
journals. The HDR thesis constitutes a separate genre. Useful examples of typical HDR
statements of main argument or guiding propositions, a device often used as a pseudo-
hypothesis within doctrinal academic work, were evident in the theses database:85

‘This dissertation argues that China’s legal system must be seen as a product of
China’s distinctive history and local circumstances’;86
‘The thesis argues that constitutional recognition and protection of Indigenous
rights and the negotiation of treaties are essential if the Indigenous right of self-
determination is to be respected and accommodated by the dominant society’.87

These two examples demonstrate the level of legal research being developed in HDR
work. Therefore, the methodology used by legal researchers may be the same at its basis
but the process and the output differs among the writing genres.
 
9. Doctrinal method as a two part process 
Doctrinal method is therefore normally a two part process, because it involves locating
the sources of the law and then interpreting and analysing the text. In the first step, it
could be said that the researcher is attempting to determine an ‘objective reality’, that is,
a statement of the law encapsulated in legislation or entrenched common law principle.88
However, many critical legal scholars would be quick to contest whether any such
objective reality exists, as the very concept of objectivity is based in a liberal theoretical

83
Halsbury’s Laws of Australia (LexisNexis Butterworths).
84
Nicholas Seddon and Manfred Ellinghaus, Cheshire and Fifoot’s Law of Contract (9th ed, LexisNexis
Butterworths, 2007).
85
See above n 56.
86
Jian Fu, Corporate Disclosure by listed companies in the People’s Republic of China and Australia:
seeking an appropriate pathway for the regulation of the Chinese securities market (UNSW, 2005) iii.
<http://www.unsworks.unsw.edu.au/primo_library/libweb/action/dlDisplay.do?vid=UNSWORKS&docId=
unsworks_894>.
87
Daniel Edgar, The Indigenous right of self determination and ‘the state’ in the Northern Territory of
Australia (University of Melbourne, 2008) ii .
<http://dtl.unimelb.edu.au/R/LTYLPHMJVEF4K3B7AQ7SDRPCCG84EENJ76JL8YI2G44HV6VKTA-
01299?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=117935&pds_handle=GUEST>.
88
Terry Hutchinson, above n 62, 37.

20
framework. Most would argue that the law is rarely certain. As Christopher McCrudden
comments, ‘If legal academic work shows anything, it shows that an applicable legal
norm on anything but the most banal question is likely to be complex, nuanced and
contested’.89 However if we take legislation as an example, the laws are passed by
parliament and the words are written down. In that sense there is a positive statement of
the law. It is at the next step where the law or rule is interpreted and analysed within a
specific context that it becomes ‘contingent’.

Before analysing the law, the researcher must first locate it. A research project, for
example, may require the researcher to access and analyse all the current and historical
legislation and administrative regulation, of all the Australian states or Canadian
provinces for the last century, covering three or four different but related legal subjects,
along with any judicial interpretation of those rules and statutes. Even a mere description
of the scope of such an exercise makes the breadth of the undertaking more apparent to
the ‘outsider’.

Having located this wealth of documents, the second step is more nebulous. Is it actually
possible to plan and describe this second aspect of the doctrinal research methodology in
an intelligible way for an ‘outsider’? As Geoffrey Samuel has queried – ‘Can legal
reasoning be demystified?’90 Can the legal researcher describe what it is to undertake the
distinct form of analysis involved in thinking like a lawyer? Perhaps it is simply the case
that the ‘medium is the message’,91 so that the doctrinal discussion and analysis of the
law encapsulates and demonstrates the extent of research that has taken place and on
which the arguments are based.

These steps can range from ‘stare decisis and its complexities’ to the ‘common law
devices which allow lawyers to make sense of complex legal questions’.92 Those studying
the methodologies of lawyers point to a number of techniques used within the
synthesizing process once the documents are located and read. This calls for a description
of the particular line of inquiry being developed whether it is conceptual, evaluative or
explanatory. These, along with a description of, for example, the use of deductive logic,
inductive reasoning and analogy where appropriate, would constitute the second part of
the methodology.93 If the researcher intends to draw heavily on an approach using the
standard tools of logic, then the methodology would require a description of the basic
89
Christopher McCrudden, ‘Legal Research and the Social Sciences’ (2006) 122 (Oct) Law Quarterly
Review 632, 648.
90
Geoffrey Samuel, ‘Can legal reasoning be demystified?’ (2009) 29(2) Legal Studies 181; L Alexander
and E Sherwin, Demystifying Legal Reasoning (Cambridge University Press, 2008); Geoffrey Samuel,
‘Does one Need an Understanding of Methodology in Law Before One can Understand Methodology in
Comparative Law?’ in Mark Van Hoecke (ed), Methodologies of Legal Research Which Kind of Method
for What Kind of Discipline? (Hart Publishing, 2011) 177.
91
Marshall McLuhan, Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man (Mentor, 1964).
92
Irene Baghoomians, Review of Frederick Schauer, Thinking like a lawyer: A new introduction to legal
reasoning (Harvard University Press, 2009) in (2009) 31 Sydney Law Review 499.
93
Paul Chynoweth, ‘Legal Research’ in Andrew Knight and Les Ruddock (eds), Advanced Research
Methods in the Built Environment (Wiley-Blackwell, 2008) 32; John Farrar, Legal Reasoning (Thomson
Reuters, 2010) 92 in reference to Lord Diplock’s discussion in Dorset Yacht v The Home Office [1970] AC
1004.

21
syllogism and the processes involved in inductive and deductive reasoning. Legal
problems are often deductive because the general rules are ‘given’ for example through
legislation. The lawyer researcher examines the legislative provision, examines the
situation and then decides if the situation comes within the rule.94 By comparison,
inductive reasoning uses a process of arguing from specific cases to a more general
rule.95 Where the source of the rule is case law rather than legislation, the ‘lawyer will
have to examine several cases to find a major premise which underlies them all’.96 So the
lawyer will have to ‘reason from particular case decisions to a general proposition’.97
Analogy, on the other hand, involves locating similar situations arising for example in
common law cases, and then arguing that similar cases should be governed by the same
principle and have similar outcomes. As Farrar points out, ‘Analogy proceeds on the
basis of a number of points of resemblance of attributes or relations between cases’.98 Set
out in this way it is apparent that an overt doctrinal research plan or methodology is
feasible – and it would provide a rigour and discipline often missing in doctrinal research.
And, as McKerchar argues so succinctly, perhaps this methodology is nothing more than
the need for doctrinal research to follow accepted conventions, using clear rationales, and
that the research needs to be ‘systematic and purposive with a robust framework’.99

The literature review as a step within the doctrinal method

One point that must be made is that doctrinal research is more than simply a literature
review. 100 Every research project, no matter what methodology is being used, needs a
literature review as a precursor to further study – a nexus to that which has been done
before. A literature review routinely includes the following steps:

1. ‘Selecting research questions

2. Selecting bibliographic or article databases
3. Choosing search terms
4. Applying practical screening criteria
5. Applying methodological screening criteria
6. Doing the review
7. Synthesising the results.’ 101

The literature review is basically asking - What has been said about the topic previously?
What Testimony is available on your topic?102 ‘Testimony’ can include the secondary
literature – texts, journal articles, government reports, policy documents, law reform
94
Farrar, Ibid 91.
95
Chris Enright, Legal Theory/Legal Reasoning Ch 6 Induction, 59. <http://www.legalskills.com.au/>.
96
Farrar, above n 84, 91.
97
Ibid.
98
Ibid 102.
99
Margaret McKerchar, Design and Conduct of Research in Tax, Law and Accounting (Lawbook, 2010),
116.
100
A Fink, Conducting Research Literature Review: From the Internet to Paper (Sage, 2 ed ) in M
McConville and WH Chui (eds), Research Methods for Law (Edinburgh University Press, 2007) 22, 23.
101
Ibid.
102
Hutchinson, above n 62, 141. Aristotle’s Heuristic - ‘Definition (What is it?) Comparison (What is it
like and unlike?) Relationship (What caused it?) Testimony (What has been said about it?) and
Circumstance (What can come of it?)’.

22
documents and media reports. Just like any other research, doctrinal research requires
background research of secondary commentary and sources as a first step. In this respect,
doctrinal research requires a literature review, that is, ‘a critical analysis of the existing
research literature, theoretical and empirical’, related to the research topic. 103 The
literature review thus informs us of ‘what is known and not known’ about the topic.104

But the doctrinal research methodology is much more than ‘scholarship’. It is the
location and analysis of the primary documents of the law in order to establish the nature
and parameters of the law.105 That is the crux of the doctrinal method. The ‘screening
criteria’ for legal primary materials are necessarily more rule bound and intricate.
Doctrinal research also requires a trained expert in legal doctrine to read and analyse the
law — the primary sources — the legislation and case law. Doctrinal research is not
simply the locating of secondary information. It includes that intricate step of ‘reading,
analysing and linking’ the new information to the known body of law.106 Doctrinal
research is centred on the reading and analysis of the primary sources of legal doctrine. It
seeks to achieve more than simply a description of the law.

9. How can we categorise the doctrinal method vis­à­vis other research 
methods? 
What kind of discipline is law and how should we categorise its main research method?
Legal research does seem to include facets of research methodologies used in other
disciplinary domains including hermeneutic, argumentative, empirical, explanatory,
axiomatic, logical and normative techniques.107 There seems to be no accepted and stable
classification preference for the law discipline within the research schemes for example.
The ERA categorises Law within the Humanities and Creative Arts cluster which use
qualitative research methods but more often Law is clustered with the Social Sciences.108
The UK REF categorises Law within the Social Sciences Panel and the RQF categorised
it in a similar fashion.109

One way of describing a process is to ask ‘What is it like and unlike?’110 Lawyers have
attempted to set the doctrinal method apart and said what we do is ‘different’. In binary
coupling, where the more important term is placed first, academic lawyers privilege the
term ‘doctrinal’ in comparison to ‘non-doctrinal’. Anything that is not ‘doctrinal’ can be
encompassed in the ‘other’ of non-doctrinal research. Doctrinal method certainly
distinguishes itself from ‘empirical’ or evidence based methods. Empirical data comes
about from ‘observing and/or measuring social phenomena’.111 There are aspects of
‘empirical’ or factual notions within doctrinal work, as legislation and judgments may be

103
M Walter (ed), Social Research Methods (Oxford University Press, 2 ed, 2010) 485.
104
Ibid.
105
Hutchinson, above n 62, 37.
106
Hutchinson, above n 62, 38.
107
Van Hoecke above n 72, 4-11.
108
Diana Hacker, Research and Documentation Online
<http://www.dianahacker.com/resdoc/history.html>.
109
See text above n 38.
110
Hutchinson, above n 62, 141.
111
M Walter (ed), above n 93, 18.

23
seen as social phenomena, but these are different because they are ‘legitimated’ by the
sovereignty of the source (parliament or court) rather than because they are the ‘naturally
occurring’, observable phenomena usually used in empirical work. Other terms are
bandied round in these discussions, such as quantitative112 and qualitative,113 which
encompass a myriad of research techniques.114

Comparing internal and external research frameworks

Some commentators in discussing the issue of delineation of methodology have sought to
draw a distinction between the ‘internal method’ used in doctrinal legal research
reflecting the viewpoint of the participant in the legal system studying the texts of the
law, compared to the ‘external method’ reflecting ‘the conceptual resources of extralegal
disciplines’ which involves studying the law in practice using empirical
methodologies.115

According to Westerman, ‘legal doctrine’ is the type of research which draws on the legal
system ‘as the main supplier of concepts, categories and criteria’.116 This she
distinguishes from research that studies law ‘from an independent theoretical framework,
which consists of concepts, categories and criteria that are not primarily borrowed from
the legal system itself’ and include ‘historical studies, socio-legal research, philosophy,
political theory and economy’.117 As NE Simmonds explains, legal doctrine (‘the corpus
of rules, principles, doctrines and concepts used as a basis for legal reasoning and
justification’) represents ‘the heart of a legal system’.118 Simmonds calls the discipline
that studies legal doctrine, legal science: ‘Legal science is the systematic and ordered
exposition of legal doctrine in the works of juristic commentators’.119 According to
Simmonds, ‘Legal science, being itself a body of practices, can be understood only by
reference to its own self-conception’.120

Similarly, McCrudden explains that the internal method includes the study of law ‘using
reason, logic and argument’ and the ‘primacy of critical reasoning based around
authoritative texts’.121 This internal approach includes the ‘analysis of legal rules and
principles taking the perspective of an insider in the system’.122 This encapsulates the
112
Walter (ed), above n 93, 25 – Quantitative research ‘involves the collection and analysis of data that can
be presented numerically or codified and subjected to statistical testing’.
113
Walter (ed), above n 93, 26 – Qualitative research is ‘meaning-making’ with the key focus being on
‘smaller units of people and society, with the method and analysis drawing out the meanings, perceptions
and understandings that individuals and groups attach to behaviours, experiences and social phenomena’.
114
Ibid 25.
115
W Lucy, ‘Abstraction and the Rule of Law’ (2009) 29 (3) Oxford Journal of Legal Studies 481 and
Hutchinson, above n 62, 36.
116
Pauline C Westerman, ‘Contested Boundaries’ in Mark Van Hoecke (ed), Methodologies of Legal
Research Which Kind of Method for What Kind of Discipline? (Hart Publishing, 2011) 94.
117
Ibid, 94.
118
Nigel Simmonds, The decline of juridical reason: Doctrine and theory in the legal order (Manchester
University Press 1984) 1.
119
Ibid.
120
Ibid 30.
121
McCrudden, above n 88.
122
Ibid 633 and Hutchinson, above n 62, 36.

24
pure doctrinal legal method. As Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr noted in The Common Law
‘The business of the jurist is to make known the content of the law; that is, to work upon
it from within, or logically, arranging and distributing it, in order, from its stemmum
genus to its infima species, so far as practicable’.123 According to this view, the internal
aspect of law can be approached in a systematic fashion and the stages documented
sufficiently to effect a separate doctrinal methodology.

The majority of contemporary legal researchers acknowledge that it is important to build

on doctrinal research conclusions by using sociological or other ‘outsider’ perspectives.
The dichotomy that can exist between the study of legal doctrine and actual legal
behaviour has been criticized by modern scholars. Roger Cotterrell has argued that true
legal scholarship must entail a sociological understanding of law.124 But that debate is
not central to our discussion of legal doctrinal methodology at this point and is not being
pursued in this paper.125

Is doctrinal research a qualitative or a quantitative methodology?

If we accept that the doctrinal method is a two-part process of locating ‘the law’ or
doctrine and then analysing the texts, it might be argued that doctrinal research has
aspects of both quantitative and qualitative methodologies within it. Like the quantitative
methodologies, doctrinal research is underpinned by positivism and a view of the world
where the law is objective, neutral and fixed. The research involved in locating the
sources of the law can be easily replicated by other researchers. However, can the law
(legislation and case law) be categorised as data? On the contrary, Christopher
McCrudden would argue that ‘Law is not a datum; it is in constant evolution, developing
in ways that are sometimes startling and endlessly inventive’.126

Many aspects of the law are contingent and need to be interpreted and analysed for
meaning. Synthesising the law and where necessary applying the law to the facts and
context is nebulous. Therefore the analytical, legal reasoning aspect of the process is
necessarily a qualitative one. The outcome varies according to the expertise of the
individual scholar and cannot be replicated exactly by another researcher. When a
researcher undertakes doctrinal work, it is totally dependent on the voice and experience
of the individual. Doctrinal research requires a specific language, extensive knowledge
and a specific set of skills involving precise judgment, detailed description, depth of
thought and accuracy.

As with any social science research, the doctrinal methodology is undertaken according
to accepted discipline standards and rules. It requires an ability to achieve a high level of

123
Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr, The Common Law, 219.
<http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext00/cmnlw10.txt>
124
Roger Cotterrell, ‘Why must legal ideas be interpreted sociologically?’ (1998) 25 (2) Journal of Law
and Society 171.
125
See also CM Campbell, ‘Legal Thought and Juristic Values’ (1974) 1 (1) British Journal of Law and
Society 13.
126
Christopher McCrudden, above n 77; Hutchinson, above n 62, 37, 38.

25
analysis and critique. However, this process is different from social scientific thought.127
Doctrinal research focuses on legal principle generated by the courts and the
legislature.128 Arguments are based on legal norms or standards, and a distinction is made
between these standards and the facts of any situation. It differs from other social science
research because it involves ‘the search for the particular rather than the general’ and ‘the
non-probabilistic nature of statements of law’. 129

Doctrinal research compared to historical research

Historical research is an example of a methodology that is in some way aligned to
doctrinal research. Is doctrinal research a form of or very similar to historical research?
Historical research involves ‘developing an understanding of the past through the
examination and interpretation of evidence. Evidence exists in the form of texts, physical
remains of historic sites, recorded data, pictures, maps, or artifacts. The historian's job is
to find evidence, analyze its content and bias, corroborate it with other evidence, and use
the evidence to develop an interpretation of past events that has some importance for the
present. Historians use libraries to locate primary sources (firsthand information such as
diaries, letters, and original documents) for evidence, find secondary sources, historians'
interpretations and analyses of historical evidence, and verify factual material as
inconsistencies arise’.130

Unlike historical research which seeks to find the truth through considering the
perspective and view of every actor whatever their social status or role in events, and
examining every conceivable range of data, doctrinal research for the most part focuses
on ‘privileged voices’.131 As an example, in doctrinal research, these voices or versions of
the truth are those of the judges in case law and the parliament in legislation. The
doctrinal researcher is generally not much interested in the transcripts of cases, that is, the
dialogue between the barristers and the witnesses. The doctrinal researcher is examining
the finding of legal principle. The legal researcher examines primary sources in order to
draw logical conclusions about what the law is, in those instances where it is not
immediately self-evident from those sources. By contrast, the historical researcher
examines primary sources as evidence of fact.

Doctrinal research compared to content analysis

Content analysis has also been compared to doctrinal research. Is doctrinal research
simply a process of analysing text similar to content analysis? Content analysis has been
described as an ‘analysis of documents and texts that seeks to quantify content in terms of
predetermined categories and in a systematic and replicable manner’.132 The description
‘content analysis’ was originally used in connection with quantitative research, but there
is a qualitative approach to this methodology that is more frequently used by lawyers as

127
Campbell, above n 8, 20 discussing V. Aubert, "The Structure of Legal Thinking" in Legal Essays (ed.
F. Castberg, Universitetsforlaget, Norway), 41.
128
Bartie, above n 11, 350.
129
Campbell, above n 8, 20
130
Diana Hacker, Research and Documentation Online
<http://www.dianahacker.com/resdoc/history.html>.
131
Hutchinson, above n 62, 36.
132
Alan Bryman Social Research Methods (Oxford University Press, 3rd ed, 2008) 692.

26
well. Qualitative content analysis, like doctrinal analysis, emphasizes the role of the
investigator in the construction of the meaning of texts. There is ‘an emphasis on
allowing categories to emerge out of data and on recognizing the significance for
understanding the meaning of the context in which an item being analysed (and the
categories derived from it) appeared’.133 Content analysis includes the process of reading
judgments, legislation and policy documents as text rather than reading for the substance
of the ‘law’ and legal reasoning. It is the process of quantifying the use of words and then
examining the language, and not simply what is being said or the meaning of the words in
the first instance. Content analysis identifies patterns in text and the themes in bodies of
documents. Critical legal scholars use the technique to identify meaning behind the words
of judicial and legislative text. It is a way of deconstructing text rather than reading and
synthesising meaning from the text. It is, therefore, distinguished from most doctrinal
analysis.

Conclusion 
This short examination highlights the need for an increased analysis and description by
researchers of the doctrinal methodology. The conclusion from this study is that the
doctrinal research methodology is a discrete method. It is more than simply scholarship
or an elaborate literature review of primary materials. However, it is not sufficiently
delineated for the current research environment. This article has not attempted to fully
explain the method, or even to provide a model for researchers to follow in setting out
their methodologies. It has proposed the groundwork for the development of such an
explanation, in drawing attention to the distinctive characteristics of doctrinal legal
research and the characteristics it shares with other research methods. It has argued the
need for a thorough examination of the current legal research record and context.

In the past, this under-description has not been problematic because the research has been
directed ‘inwards’ to the legal community. The targeted audience has been within the
legal paradigm and culture and therefore cognisant of legal norms. However, in a modern
interdisciplinary framework, where the research is being directed, read and more
importantly ‘judged’ by those outside a narrow legally trained discipline, articulation of
method is vital – especially if funding is tied to quality, and quality depends on
methodological clarity.

133
Ibid 697.

27