Barker, D --- "Book Review: Researching and Writing in Law" [2007] LegEdDig 20; (2007) 15(1) Legal Education Digest 54

Book Review: Researching and Writing in Law, T Hutchinson, Lawbook Co., 2006 (2nd ed) 461pp

Professor David Barker AM

[2007] LegEdDig 20; (2007) 15(1) Legal Education Digest 54

There was a time when legal research was an esoteric topic left to the specialist law academic for its exposition and discussion. However, there is now a greater focus by universities on scholarship outcomes and the Australian Federal Government encouraging this development with much of tertiary education funding being measured against research output. It comes as little surprise therefore that a further edition of Terry Hutchinson’s work, first published in 2002, should make a welcome reappearance.

The present book falls into two parts of approximately equal length. The first describes in outline the process for the formulation and writing of a legal research project, whilst the second provides two hundred and fifty pages of checklists for locating and validating the law in Australia and most overseas jurisdictions.

Part one is concerned with the framework in which modern legal research operates, containing a wide survey of all the necessary aspects of legal research. This incorporates a helpful introduction of why legal research is different, an explanation of the various doctrinal research methodologies, basic electronic research techniques and legal research frameworks. Terry Hutchinson must be admired for not avoiding some of the more contentious issues facing the legal researcher, including whether doctrinal methodology is part of the accepted legal research paradigm and the reluctance of lawyers to move beyond the doctrinal and consider using social science methods and empirical data. Those who are seeking to gain a greater mastery of research techniques will be encouraged by the advice contained in the two chapters dealing with formulating and refining a research topic and/or thesis. In particular is the helpful explanation of the distinction between broad objectives and a hypothesis. From my own experience as supervisor I agree with her that for a doctrinal law candidate the working out of a hypothesis is usually one of the most difficult aspects of a research proposal.

In an unusual juxtaposition the reader will discover that the final chapter in the first part is concerned with legal writing basics. However, this is inserted on the premise that the first draft of a thesis or research paper has already been written. The assumption is that the legal researcher has already absorbed in their earlier studies the appropriate English expression, grammar and creative writing attributes and that this short chapter is only concerned with revising work for accuracy, style and readability.

The second part of the book is completely devoted to a wide ranging number (sixteen) of checklists incorporating the various legal sources of most major jurisdictions. This is a surprisingly comprehensive summary of parliamentary publications, legislation and law reports, with an account of the explanatory material and subject indexes which are available both on the internet and in paper versions. Whilst the earlier chapters in the first part of the book contain an explanation for utilising appropriate research methods and basic electronic research techniques, it might be helpful if the second part of future editions included a further explanatory chapter preceding the checklists. This small criticism however, is not intended to detract from the quality and usefulness of the work, which is of a very high order.

To produce a book of this kind requires great industry and learning and the author has combined with these qualities a deftness of touch which will encourage the legal researcher to achieve their full potential.