Developing Legal Research Skills: Expanding the Paradigm
![handle is hein.journals/mulr32 and id is 1073 raw text is: CRITIQUE AND COMMENT
DEVELOPING LEGAL RESEARCH SKILLS: EXPANDING
THE PARADIGM
TERRY HUTCHINSON*
[This article explores the development of tertiary legal research skills education in Australia in the
underlying context of Australian legal education and the transformation of legal research resulting
from advances in information technology. It argues that legal research is a fundamental skill for
lawyers and that research training in a law, degree must cater for the vocational needs of the
individual student w1hether their ultimate focus is practice or higher degree research. It argues that
the traditional doctrinal paradigm of legal research is no longer sufficient for modern lawyers and
that exposure to additional methodologies needs to be included in research training units. This
article argues that w1hile legal research skills education has changed it must continue to develop in
order to better cater for the needs of students, the profession and the academy in the contemporary
legal environment.]
CONTENTS
I Intro d uction ........................................................................................................... 10 6 6
I A Historical Examination of How the Research Process Has Previously Been
D efin ed ................................................................................................................. 10 6 7
III What Are the Identifying Features of the Changing Environment? ..................... 1073
A Information Technology Affecting Legal Research ................................. 1073
B Australian Government Policies on Research Prompting Change
within the Tertiary Legal Education Sector .............................................. 1076
C Aligning Legal Research Training with Educational Theory ................... 1077
D Increasing Trade in Professional Legal Services Paving the Way for
the Transnational Law yer ......................................................................... 1080
IV Expanding the Legal Research Paradigm ............................................................. 1081
A Placing an Emphasis on Research Process Rather Than on Research
Sources W hen Teaching Research ........................................................... 1083
B Suggesting a Broader Paradigm for Law That Involves Other
Methodologies Apart from a Simple Doctrinal Approach ....................... 1083
C Integrating the Research and Writing Processes So That Writing
Genres Become an Integral Part of the Research Curriculum ................. 1087
D Emphasising the Different Pathways Available for Research Skills
T rain in g .................................................................................................... 10 8 8
E Gradually Enhancing Research Knowledge and Abilities Following a
'Point of N eed'Approach to Training ...................................................... 1089
V C on clu sion ............................................................................................................ 10 94
BA, LLB (UQ), DipLib (UNSW), MLP (QUT), PhD (Griffith); Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Law,
Queensland University of Technology.
1065](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/mulr32&div=42&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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Developing Legal Research Skills: Expanding the Paradigm
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