Lawctopus Online Course on Legal Research and Writing (2024)

Module 1: Introduction to Legal Research

Introduces you to the idea of research generally. It asks: how should research be done? Everyone has a different answer to this seemingly simple question. This module tells you some common answers and asks you to pick the one you like.

Module 2: Legal Research Design and The Research Problem

Module 2 is about research design. It tells you the steps of a research process and discusses them briefly – choosing the topic and title, understanding and explaining the framework of your research, coming up with a research problem, making a research question & hypothesis, deciding the research methodology & method, and writing & presenting the research. Exactly how you take these steps depends, of course, on the philosophy (‘answer’) you pick in Module I.

Assignment: 1

Choose a research topic, research questions, and get personal feedback from our subject matter experts.

Module 3: Research Methods and Methodology

Module 3tells you more about the research methodology & method. What is “methodology”? What is “method”? Although you would have already read these terms in Module II, Module III gives you more detail. It also explains how the various research methodologies can be classified under the headings qualitative, quantitative, and mixed. Finally, it tells you which methodologies and methods are best suited to doctrinal/analytical and empirical research.

Module 4: Doctrinal Legal Research Methods

Module 4dives straight into doctrinal/analytical research methods. How do you research a given legal issue? How do you find the right legislation or case law? This module explains how to best use available resources to find the authority you need.

Module 5: Empirical Legal Research Methods

Module 5is the empirical counterpart of Module IV. It discusses the various kinds of research methods under qualitative as well as quantitative methodologies.

Assignment: 2

Submit a rough draft, with the structure of your paper, literature review spelt out, and footnotes keyed in. Get personal feedback again from our subject matter experts.

Module 6: Legal Writing

Module 6 teaches you the art of legal writing. The module explains the art of clear writing with a structured, nuanced approach.

Module 7: Presenting and Publishing Legal Research

Module 7explains how to present legal research verbally. Presenting in conferences and seminars is a key activity that helps you develop your research further, disseminate your insights, and build career capital. This module will help you with this.

Module 8: Ethics of Legal Research

Module 8deals with the ethics of legal research. What are the practices you must do during research, and which ones must you avoid? This module explains various scenarios in which ethics become important.

Assignment: 3

Submission of the final paper. Get personal feedback for the 3rd time by our faculty!

Assignment: 4

Presentation of your paper before a panel (for best-performing students)

Assignments Module

The course has a full-fledged ‘Assignments Module’ which addresses the fundamental, practical questions of doing legal research and writing like: How to find a precise research topic? How to go about crafting research questions? How do I find literature gaps? “Everything I read seems alright. I don’t know how to produce something novel”. What all should I footnote? How do I do that? How do I get published in top law journals and win essay competitions?

1. Do we have a live class every day?

No. You’ll have 7-8 live lectures each lasting approximately 90 minutes. The schedule of the live sessions is released when the course starts. Most of our live sessions happen on weekends or on late evenings so that all learners (students or working professionals) can attend them without skipping their regular classes or office.

2. How many hours should I spend every day to complete the course?

We suggest that you spend approximately3-5 hours/week doing the course. When you spend these 3-5 hours is up to you. You may spend around 40 minutes each day or do it over the weekend.

Yes, this course is designed to help an absolute newbie to learn the fundamentals and nuances of legal research and writing. Even senior academicians find the course of immense use. If you are a professional looking to improve their research and writing skills, this course will help you too.

4. The course duration is 2 months long. Can I access the course after the 2 months are over?

Yes, you can access the course for atotal of 4 months[2 months to complete the course + 2 months to review the course]. Please note that the course is complete by the end of the 2nd month. We have strict deadlines for submission of the 4 mini-assignments which have to be followed. However, if you want to revisit and revise the material in the course, you can do that for 2 months after the completion of the course.

5. What if I miss a live class?

We encourage you to attend the live classes after thorough preparations. Just like the realcharm of a live match/performanceis watching it live, the real value of a live class is in attending it live! A lot of new, practical things are covered; and of course, your questions are addressed too. However, if you miss the live class, you can watch the recorded version of the live class which is uploaded for the specific batch only.

6. How will this course help me in my career?

Good research and writing skills are absolutely crucial (no questions asked) for any knowledge professional. Every legal professional, whether a corporate lawyer or a litigator, a judge or an academician, requires good legal research and writing skills. Through this course, you’ll learn these core skills. Consider this: even your CV and cover letters are evaluated by recruiters as short writing samples. Is it written well, formatted well? Interestingly, our students have told us that after this course their internship applications which were rejected earlier were not getting accepted! Good research, writing, and presentation skills are transferable to multiple domains. The course will also help you do well in moots, publications, and conferences and seminars.

7. What are the assignments in the course?

There is only one compulsory assignment: submission of a 1500-2500 word short research essay. The assignment is divided into 3 mini-assignments. Submission of: 1. A research topic and questions 2. Submission of a rough draft with references and footnotes 3. Final research paper Each mini-assignment is followed by feedback from the faculty. Each student is given feedback. We pride ourselves on being able to give personalized, 3-level feedback.

8. Will the course help me do an ‘X’ or a ‘Y’ draft?

The intention of the course is to teach you legal research and writing skills. Any type of legal drafting, civil or criminal or corporate, requires good research and writing skills. The focus of this course is not on particular drafts, but on legal research and writing as the broader skill-set. Your drafting will surely improve after doing this course.

9. Can I do this course without having access to Manupatra, SCCOnline, library?

Yes. There are many free, open sources available online that can help you with your research. SSRN, Google Scholar, ResearchGate, IndianKanoon, Government websites, and many free and open law journals (both from India and abroad), are an excellent repositories of knowledge, information, and insights. We also provide a list of such sources.