Research Proposal - Legal History | Study

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Running head: RESEARCH PROPOSAL
LEGAL HISTORY

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Contents
Introduction.................................................................................................................................................3
Research objectives-....................................................................................................................................4
Significance of research proposal................................................................................................................4
Research questions......................................................................................................................................4
Literature review-........................................................................................................................................5
Legal history............................................................................................................................................5
History of law of United Kingdom..........................................................................................................6
Research methodology................................................................................................................................8
Research philosophy................................................................................................................................8
Research approach...................................................................................................................................9
Research design.....................................................................................................................................11
Research strategy...................................................................................................................................12
Approach of data collection method..........................................................................................................13
Data analysis..........................................................................................................................................14

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Ethical consideration.................................................................................................................................15
Conclusion................................................................................................................................................16
Bibliography..............................................................................................................................................18

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Introduction
The history of law or legal history is considered as the study of how the rules or regulations have
developed and what the requirement of changes is in law. The history of law is closely related to
the advancement of civilisation. It is significant to know the legal history. The legal history is set
in broader framework of the social history. Amongst some jurists as well as historians of legal
procedure, it has been seen as the recording of the development of law as well as technical
description of how the laws have developed with an overview of great understanding the origin
of various legal concepts. There are certain jurists who consider it as the branch of intellectual
history. This research proposal examined the legal history. This research proposal in the form of
thesis contains various sections. In the first section, the description is made about the overview as
well as the rationale of project, research aims, research objectives, and importance significance
of research. The next part covers literature review. A main objective of the literature review is to
present study in an effective manner. Subsequently, the research proposal describes the statement
of the issue of project. The report also confers research design as well as methodology followed
in project. A fundamental scope of the research is also demarked. Finally, the ethical
consideration and expected outcomes are also outlined in the end. The chapter of research
methodology states decisions of method that will be needed to do research task in an appropriate
as well as effective manner.

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Research objectives-
This research proposal is made to know about the legal history. It is designed to meet the certain
objectives. These research objectives are discussed as below-
• To discover the legal history
• To discover history of law of United Kingdom
Significance of research proposal
The research proposal is significant for the readers. The research proposal ensures that the reader
will get the value of this subject and proficiency. They will get great understanding about the
research problem. The readers need to make sure that this is not impractical part of inscription.
However, it is reflective effort of the research that will be very helpful for the learning. The
proposal proves that a researcher has a plan for the work and the project of researcher would be
successful1. The research proposal renders overview for methodology to make research for
rendering best solution of research question.
Research questions
Following are questions of research -
• What do you mean by legal history?
• What is the history of law of United Kingdom?
1 Methew Patton, Qualitative research. (John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, 2015)

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Literature review-
Legal history
The “law” may not be spoken of as the single standardised entity. According to Mathuva (2017),
the law is considered as the system of rules and rules identified by the community or nation as
administrating the actions of the members as well as enforced by the obligation of penalty2.
However, the legal history of various societies has been established in the different manners.
They reflect the widespread social as well as political standards or beliefs of the society that they
administer. It can see that the legal history of pre-literate African societies is not as same as the
legal history of established Western democracy. The research paper would take history of
English law into consideration. It would also plan how this has established over periods3.
Further, British law is considered as law of older times that is still considered valid to extent that
they are also re-established by passing new legislations. It can say that all the nations have
history of revolution as well as existence of the international rules. The various changes are
required to make in the economy of particular countries, culture, and laws among the different
things3. However, United Kingdom was never regulated by the international powers. Henceforth,
the consistency may be reviewed in the judicial context. In the law matter, the level of sameness
over the constant time does not create judicial context out-dated. The English judicial structure is
developed upon the matter by case base as well as rules of law, which are created decade before
by high-level magistrates are adopted presently by the different magistrates to prevail the matter
2 Dew Mathuva, The Influence of legal history in UK (Routledge, 2017)
3 Kieran Dolin, Law and literature (Cambridge University Press, 2018).
3 Albert Venn Dicey, Lectures on the relation between law and public opinion in England during the nineteenth
century (Routledge, 2017)

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of same nature. It is evident that the law or administrative ruling is mainly important in the
comparison with personal decision4.
History of law of United Kingdom
The history of the United Kingdom law has established in tandem with British unwritten
constitution that sets broader doctrines on which common law is depended. United Kingdom is
effectively unaided among the new self-governing states in not considering the written
constitution5. It can say that United Kingdom laws sources are differed. Sources of law of United
Kingdom involve not only acts that passed by the parliament. However, it also includes the legal
decision of the magistrates on the matter-by-matter basis. It can evident that there are three
branches of state. These three branches are legislature, judiciary along with executive. These all
three branches have the significant part to play in establishing the history of law. A collaborative
system has established through past of UK, as well as when the absence of the main exclusive
political disorder has been cited as a motive United Kingdom has not searched a requirement for
written constitution6.
Further, the main principle of history of law in UK is the supremacy of Parliament. It can say that
even though all the branches of the state have significant part in establishing law, the Parliament
(a legislative body) is greatest source of law. The laws (rendering they have been acted in
appropriate manner) should be implemented and retained by courts7. The principle of supremacy
of Parliament is premised on a doctrine that Parliament is constitutionally designated.
4 John Baker, Introduction to English Legal History (Oxford University Press, 2019)
5 Peter Leyland and Anthony Gordon. Textbook on administrative law (Oxford University Press, 2016)
6 Hene Ongori, A review of the literature on legal history. (Springer, 2017)
7 Graham Dutfield, Intellectual property rights and the life science industries: a twentieth century history.
(Routledge, 2017)

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For this reason, it is required to have upper hand in creating laws or rules. Subsequently, the
main source of British law that has passed by history of law is a common law. It can see that now
it will be considered8. The common law is considered as the law created by court (that will be
depended on the statutory law). A past context to establishment of the law in UK is important.
The main thing to consider is that United Kingdom was not regulated by the exclusive system of
law. Somewhat, there were different operational system before the Norman Conquest in 11th
century. The representatives of the crown administered the law according to domestic
regulations. Finally, it led to the “common law” through the nation that became the historical
base for the common law of new time. In this way, it is a legal history of the common law9 in
UK. Subsequently, it was exported to various dominions everywhere in the world. It can say that
it was the outcome of the colonial functions of Britain. The historical development of common
law can be seen in different eras of the activities in judicial law making. The magistrates were
normally less prepared to “authorise from benches.” Through 20th century or before this century,
the legal function in this respect has been improved. Lord Denning (activist magistrate)
motivated the magistrates not to be timid in establishing as well as following law to fulfil altering
social requirements, in the speech entitled “A Need for New Equity.” One may differentiate the
changes in relation to a history of English law to bench.
In relation to criminal law10, the main aspect of the history of English legal system is trial by
bench. Generally, the French imported this into English law at the time of Norman Conquest.
The Jurors primarily played a role of witness. They had administrative part to play in the legal
system. Gradually, their functions have been changed by the history of law. The principle has
been developed that the juror should know as little as possible regarding the matter in which they
8 Helena Wray, Regulating marriage migration into the UK: A stranger in the home (Routledge, 2016)
9 The common law
10 The criminal law

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are included before the trial. The historical implication of the case of Bushell (1670) cannot be
over-elaborated. It is stated by Lloyd (2018) that juries are sole judges of the facts. They have
certain rights to render verdicts as per the morality of juries11. The effects of the present law are
that juries can clear the defendant even in situations wherever law requires the guilty verdict.
Research methodology
A chapter of the research methodology can be helpful for selecting the appropriate methods to do
research in effective manner. The research methodology defines the research philosophy, data
collection method, research design and research approaches. It is helpful in getting correct data
in relation to research problem12.
Research philosophy
Research philosophy is helpful in developing best understanding for the readers about the
research problem. The researcher is required to choose proper research philosophy because it
facilitates the researcher to evaluate methods to gather, assess and interpret information by using
research process. There are 3 kinds of research philosophies. The research philosophies are
positivism philosophy, interpretivism philosophy and realism philosophy. The proposed study
will be depended on the ontological assumption. The main reason is that there are various social
realities of how the law is made in United Kingdom. The researcher only cannot describe what is
actual as other people have the personal views, interpretation as well as meaning of nature of
reality. The interpretivism paradigm would be followed by research scholar for developing the
11 Andrew Lloyd, The implementation of legal theories (Springer, 2018)
12 Elle Locke and Gerry Latham, New developments in Law. (Routledge, 2015)

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understanding about the meaning and history of law. The researcher select this research
philosophy because what he considers as truth or real cannot be assessed. The interpretivism
paradigm will be helpful to assess research problem or concern. The researcher can only know
the impact of law. The interpretivism philosophy is helpful for the researcher to rendered detailed
data about the research issue by collecting opinion of respondent. The interpretivism seems to be
applicable to the research because the research scholar looks for under the social constructed
meanings of occurrence by the participant. Conversely, the realism research philosophy as well
as positivism research philosophy are not useful because it is not relevant for this research. In
addition, it is also not required to apply greatly ordered method such as development of
hypothesis as well as assessment of the outcome according to the generalization13.
Research approach
It is significant to select appropriate research approach. The correct and appropriate research
approach justifies the selected research methods and designs. By utilizing the research approach,
the investigator can state the facts or data in the logical way. Further, the researcher has two
options. The research scholar may select either inductive research approach or deductive
approach. The best selection of research approach authorizes the researcher to justify a utilization
of collected particular information. It also justifies the evaluation techniques for the research. It
can say that the researcher is required to enhance detailed understanding about the
implementation of different methodologies as this may be effective to fulfil research aim and
research aims. For this study, a researcher will use inductive approach rather than deductive
research approach14. The inductive research philosophy is relevant for the researcher because of
13 Rupert Haigh, Legal English. (Routledge, 2018)
14 Prien Watt, The legal history and its relevance. (Oxford University Press, 2018)

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the significance and relevancy with research concern. The inductive research philosophy is
useful when research uses the positivism philosophy. On the other hand, the inductive approach
is useful when the researcher uses the interpretivism research philosophy. The inductive research
approach is implemented as compared to deductive approach as it enables the researcher to
increase the subjective understanding about research concern. It can also see that the deductive
approach is useful to develop hypothesis in relation to the research concern. In this way, the
researcher is required to collect the set of facts as well as data to reject hypothesis or accept
hypothesis. However, inductive approach also creates tractability because the hypothesis are not
needed to establish regarding research concern15.
Moreover, the project would utilise inductive approach since research will review the literature
about the research problem that how the law is made in United Kingdom and what is meaning of
legal history in this relation. By using the inductive approach, research scholar is able to get the
reliable as well as appropriate results. The main purpose of selection of this research approach
will be to know what is going on as well as how they consider the issue or problem of researcher.
The data gathered from the interview will be assessed and the evaluation will be utilised to create
the theory. The study will consequently go from gathering data to formulate the theory. In
contrast to this, a deductive approach is not relevant for the researcher as a researcher has not
made the hypothesis to respond the research question.
Research design
It is also important to select proper research design. There are three types of the research design.
These all categories of research will be helpful for the researcher to examine the design of
research study. These are exploratory research design, descriptive design, along with casual
15 William Cornish, Law and society in England 1750-1950 (Bloomsbury Publishing, 2019)

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research design. Researcher will select the research design as per the purpose of research study.
The descriptive research design is valuable to get detailed data about the research issue by
defining its occurrence. Additionally, the casual research makes impact on the causes as well as
effects of the different variables. Conversely, the exploratory research design defines the primary
study that enable the researcher to accomplish the research problem by making hypothesis. This
research proposal proposes the descriptive research design. A reason is that this research design
is relevant for provided research concern. The researcher will use the descriptive research design
because it will be more appropriate than exploratory research design. By following exploratory
research design, the researcher will be able to collect the detailed facts about the meaning of
legal history as well as the significance of legal history in UK. The proposal proposes that the
descriptive research design will be useful for the researcher to understand the features of both
group of people as well as people. By adopting descriptive design, the research scholar would be
capable to collect different views, facts, opinions, as well as information of the respondents
about research concern as this is valuable to get actual along with effective outcomes. In
opposition, the casual research would not be helpful for the research scholar for a reason that
there is no requirement to establish cause and effect relation between different variables. Thus,
the researcher will not use exploratory research design and casual research design16.
Research strategy
Research strategy is very significant part of research method. It will allow a researcher to
evaluate an issue of research by responding different questions in well-organized method. With
help of appropriate strategy, the researcher will be able to collect informative data. A researcher
16 Mathias Reimann and Zimmermann Reinhard, The Oxford handbook of comparative law. (Oxford University
Press, 2019)

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will assess information to get the specific conclusion. There are various categories of the
strategies to conduct study in effective manner. The researcher strategies are observation,
experiment, and interview method, survey through the questionnaires, literature review, and case
study as well as focused group. It can see that the literature review, interview and survey
research strategy are most common strategies used by the research scholar. Literature review
strategy permits research scholar to gather proper along with enough data in relation to the
meaning and significance of legal history in United Kingdom. By utilising literature review
strategy, research scholar will be capable to get proper data as well as facts. The researcher will
be capable to have data in minimum time17. This research strategy is also less expensive in
comparison of other research strategies such as interview, survey through questioners, focussed
group, observation along with experiment. This research proposal proposes literature review
strategy because it will increase the quality of research between different participants along with
shareholders. In addition, the implementation of the literature review strategy will be useful for
the research scholar to collect detailed and appropriate facts about the research concern. The
research strategy will also enable the researcher to develop connection with the respondents. As
the outcome, it will be helpful for the researcher to get research aims along with research
objectives in the limited time. By conducting literature review, the researcher will facilitate the
results as per the expectation18.
Approach of data collection method
17 James Walker, Perspectives and planning in UK (Routledge, 2018)
18 Jein Charles and Walker Schmidheiny, Walking the talk: The business case for sustainable development
(Routledge, 2017)

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The data collection methodology is most important part for the researcher in doing research. The
data collection methodology is helpful in pooling facts as well as data in systematic manner by
using different sources to get objectives or aim of research. The feasible data collection
technique renders the direction to a researcher to make data about the research concern that what
is meaning and relevance of legal history in United Kingdom. By selecting proper data collection
method, research scholar will be capable to make conclusion about research issue. In the way,
the research scholar should be careful in selecting data collection method. There are mainly two
kinds of the data collection methodologies. These two categories of data collection methods are
primary method and secondary data collection method. It can see that the primary data technique
provides the data, which is collected from new researcher for the first time. The primary data
collection methods include interview, survey throughout questionnaires, group discussion, case
study along with the action research19. Alternatively, the secondary data collection method is
gathered from different researchers and companies to accomplish the research objectives along
with research aims. The secondary data collection technique publishes the data that can be
accessed by the investigator easily to get reliable data. The secondary data collection methods are
website, article, journal, governmental report, newspapers, and magazine along with books.
The researcher can get secondary data from these sources.
Moreover, the proposal is depended on the meaning and relevance of legal history. The
researcher will select the secondary data gathering methodology. The secondary data collection
methodology will be beneficial to create straight relationship with participant to attain the belief
about a research problem. For this study, the researcher will use secondary data gathering
method. The implementation of secondary data collection methods will be valuable create depth
as well as theoretical understanding about the subject of research. By using this, the researcher
19 Frances Nicholson and Twomey Patrick, Current issues of UK asylum law and policy (Routledge, 2019)

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will be capable to get some data from various sources. The main sources are books, articles,
journals and sites. This method will improve the validity of the research outcomes. It is
significant to pool the reliable and valid facts regarding research concern. This method is also
beneficial for the researcher to collect an opinion from targeted respondents in relation to the
meaning and relevance of legal history20.
Data analysis
In this part of data analysis, the research scholar will evaluate information related to research
concern that what is meaning of legal history and how it is created in United Kingdom. This
chapter of the research study will play important role to select and assess effective method for
the investigator to separate collected data and assess them according to the pre-determined
objectives of the research study. In this case, the section of data analysis can direct the researcher
that how to manage information. It also guides a researcher to how to examine facts or data
rationally by applying proper methods to assess information. With the help of this, the researcher
can demonstrate information in the methodological manner to get the proper outcomes. The
reason being this is famous methodology of assessing qualitative data, this is flexible and
accessible. Moreover, this will useful for the researcher to put together what is general in a
collective meaning of participant’s response21.
Ethical consideration
For this project, a researcher will take care of ethical consideration. It consists the research
procedure in the effective manner. As per this, the researcher will also consider the guiding
directions as well as course of action of University. For considering the ethical considerations,
20 Brew Gates and Oian Barr, Oxford Handbook of law (Oxford University Press, 2017)
21 Emmie Martin, Concise legal history (Oxford University Press, 8th edn, 2018)

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the researcher will conduct the research in ethical way to get understanding and solution of the
research problem. For this project, the research scholar will focus on some elements such as
elimination of piracy, correct references, and manipulation of data. In addition, the researcher
will keep the private data of the respondents who take participation in doing research22. The
research scholar would conduct the research in according to policy of university after getting
support from ethics committee23. This is significant to get moral acceptance so that the
participants as well as researcher are protected. Saunders et al., (2007) stated following ethical
principles-
• The researcher will not be shady, dishonest or deceitful in relation to any portion of the
research process
• No bodily, expressive or mental harms would come to participant
• The participant will be assured confidentiality along with secrecy
• The researcher will also follow the legislations in relation to the processing of personal
information
• The participants will have rights to withdraw at level deprived of being asked
• The Knowledgeable agreement of the participants will be taken using the approval form
before proceeding with study.
• Rights as well as dignity of the participant will be respected in a complete and proper
way
• In addition, the findings would be noted properly without being changed in any manner.
22 Francis Lyall, and Larsen Paul, Space Law: A Treatise 2nd Edition (Routledge, 2017)
23 Methew Saunders, Paul Lewis and Annie Thornhill, Research Methods for Business Students (Harlow: Financial
Times Prentice Hall, 2017)

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• Gathered information will be stored on password protected files that only the research
scholar would have access to
• The research scholar will address affiliation as well as conflict of interest
Conclusion
As per the above discussion, it is found that that the researcher will use qualitative above
quantitative research method. For the reason that this is flexible, humanistic as well as sample
space is smaller. It is the qualitative research method, as this will use the non-numerical facts. It
will develop insights in different meaning of phenomena from participant’s viewpoints. It will
develop best understanding about the research concern. The reader will be able to know that
there are different legal histories in different nations. The Constitution of United Kingdom is the
directing light in all the subjects such as executive, judicial, as well as legislative in nation. This
is wide-ranging along with aims to be sensitive. The reader will understand that the Constitution
turned the direction of system primarily defined for continuation of colonial as well as imperial
interest in the nation, firmly in the manner of social benefit. The Constitution clearly and by the
legal interpretation empowers the weak members of the societies in UK. It is found that United
Kingdom has the organic law as the significance of common law system. The researcher will
able to conclude that the legal pronouncements along with legal actions have been fine-tuned for
the different situations of United Kingdom. The judicial system of United Kingdom moves
toward the social justice model. However, it undertook this individually. It can be seen to mirror
the modifications in the different regions with common law system. In this way, a historical
development of 2 key facets of British law. These two facets are the juries as well as common

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law. The productivity of British law is greatly an outcome of the longer as well as unsettled
history, without a requirement to develop the codified constitution along line of civil law nations.

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Bibliography
Primary sources
Statutes and statutory instruments
The common law
The criminal law
Secondary sources
Books
Baker, J, Introduction to English Legal History (Oxford University Press, 2019)
Charles, J, and Schmidheiny, W, Walking the talk: The business case for sustainable
development (Routledge, 2017)
Cornish, W, Law and society in England 1750-1950 (Bloomsbury Publishing, 2019) Dicey,
AV, Lectures on the relation between law and public opinion in England during the
nineteenth century (Routledge, 2017)
Dolin, K, Law and literature (Cambridge University Press, 2018).
Dutfield, G, Intellectual property rights and the life science industries: a twentieth century
history. (Routledge, 2017)
Gates, B, and Barr, O, Oxford Handbook of law (Oxford University Press, 2017)
Haigh, R, Legal English. (Routledge, 2018)

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Leyland, P, and Gordon, A, Textbook on administrative law (Oxford University Press, 2016)
Lloyd, A, The implementation of legal theories (Springer, 2018)
Locke, E, and Latham, G, New developments in Law. (Routledge, 2015)
Lyall, F, and Paul, L, Space Law: A Treatise 2nd Edition (Routledge, 2017)
Martin, EA, Concise legal history (Oxford University Press, 8th edn, 2018)
Mathuva, D, The Influence of legal history in UK (Routledge, 2017)
Nicholson, F, and Patrick, T, Current issues of UK asylum law and policy (Routledge, 2019)
Ongori, H, A review of the literature on legal history. (Springer, 2017)
Patton, M, Qualitative research. (John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, 2015)
Reimann, M, and Reinhard, Z, The Oxford handbook of comparative law. (Oxford University
Press, 2019)
Saunders, M, Lewis, P, and Thornhill, A, Research Methods for Business Students (Harlow: Financial
Times Prentice Hall, 2007)
Walker, J, Perspectives and planning in UK (Routledge, 2018)
Watt, P, The legal history and its relevance. (Oxford University Press, 2018)
Wray, H, Regulating marriage migration into the UK: A stranger in the home (Routledge, 2016)