Course Listing

Traditions of Legal Research
Last Updated Date:   7 July 2026


5 Units,  Semester 1

Course Description:
This course addresses the central approaches to legal research currently found in legal scholarship. Approaches to be examined include, but are not limited to, doctrinal analyses, analytic analyses, moral-philosophical analyses, socio-legal analyses, comparative analyses, and law as it is portrayed in literary fiction and mass media. The course will explore the questions and concerns that motivate these different approaches; as well as what each visibilizes and what it obscures. More broadly, it will show how collectively, these approaches reveal the many different ways “the law” can manifests itself in our social consciousness, and how different people can see “law” in very different ways but still be able to meaningfully talk to one another about it.

Course Convenor: A/P Michael Dowdle

Co-teacher(s): NA

Course Codes: LL4290V / LL5290V / LL6290V / LLJ5290V

Contact Hours: 3 hour weekly seminar

Workload: 3 hours

Mode of Assessment: Class Participation - 30% & Research Proposal (5000 words) - 70% [Due: Thu, 12 November 2026 (9am)]

Preclusions: LL4290/LL5290/LL6290 Legal Research: Method & Design

Prerequisites: NUS Compulsory Core Law Curriculum or common law equivalent.

Examination Date: Different Mode of Examination

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