Techniques of Legal Research

 History of Law reporting-

1774-   Started with the creation of Supreme Court

1824-   Sir Francis Macnaghten included certain cases of Hindu Law in his Consideration upon Hindu Law.

1825-   Sir William Macnaghten included Muslim laws in his Dissertation on Mohammedan Law.

1829-   Notes of cases of the Supreme Court.

1834-   Notes of cases inserted in Smoult's 'Collection of Orders'.

1774-1841- Morton's reports

1830-31- Bignell's reports

1842-44- Fulto's reports

1846-   Montriou's reports

1853-59- Boulnoi's reports

1851-1860- Gasper's Commercial Cases

1847-1848- George Taylor's reports

1798-1816- CJ Sir Thomas Strange published a case report of SC of Madras

1875-   A Law Report Act was passed.

 

Bangladesh	India
DLR-Dhaka Law Report	AIR-All India Law Reports
BLD-Bangladesh Legal Decisions	CWR-Calcutta Weekly Report
MLR-Mainstream Law Reports	CLJ-Calcutta Law Journals
BLT-Bangladesh Law Times	SCC-Supreme Court Cases
BTD-Bangladesh Tax Decisions	CrLJ-Criminal Law Journal
BLC-Bangladesh Law Chronicles	CWN-Calcutta Weekly News

 

Pakistan	England
PLD-Pakistan Legal Decision	ALR-All England Law Report
PLC-Pakistan Labour Cases	WLR-Weekly Law Report
PLJ-Pakistan Labour Journal	LRQD-Law Report Queen's Division
PSC-Pakistan Supreme Court Cases	AC-Appellate cases in the House of Lords and the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council.
PTD-Pakistan Tax Decision	Fam-Cases decided in the Family Division and on appeal therefrom to the Court of Appeal.

 

In Bangladesh Law Reports are made by dividing-

i) Appellate Division's Decision

ii) High Court Division's Decision

iii) Statutory Portion

iv) Commentaries

Article-111: Judgment passed by the AD or HCD are precedents.

Courts are generally reluctant to permit the citation of unreported cases.

A case is cited mentioning-

i) Name of parties

ii) Name of the judges

iii) Name of the Counsellors

iv) Date of judgment

v) A fact in brief

vi) Reasoning behind the judgment

vii) Judgment

viii) Execution

 

Rules of writing articles for research journal (Law and Judiciary)-

The Journal of Islamic Law and Judiciary has decided to follow these rules-

Part-I

i) The writers are requested to send 2 hard copies and floppy disk

ii) Space of writing should me 1.5 to 2

iii) Writing should be clear, free of ambiguity

iv) No copy will be sent back to the writer

v) Editorial board has the right of correction

vi) All references should be put in the end notes

 

Part-II

The following rules should be followed in quoting a book-

i)    Surname of Author (,)

ii)   First name (,)

iii) Name of the Book (in italic) (,)

iv) Name of publisher (,)

v)   Name of place of publication (,)

vi) Year of publication (,)

vii) Edition (,)

viii) Volume (,)

ix) Page no (.)

 

Concise form of reference-

a) If the same reference is used, the second reference can be shortened.

Hamidullah, Introduction to Islam, p. 170.

 

b) Using Ibid-

Used for the subsequent reference if it is the same book and same page. If the page no. is different then after Ibid the page no. is used.

ibid. 60

 

c) Using of op. cit-

To avoid the whole information of the book or article. Quoting of the name of the author, book and page number is enough.

Rahman, Dr Tanzilur, A Code of Muslim Personal Law, Islamic Publishers, Pakistan, 1990, vol. 1, p. 350.

Rahman, Dr Tanzilur, A Code of Muslim Personal Law, op. cit, p. 360.

 

d) Using passim-

If the information is scattered.

Mawdudi, Syed Abul A'ala, Four Basic Quranic Terms, Islamic Publications Ltd., Lahore, Pakistan, 1972, chap. 6 passim.

 

e) Using pp.

For quoting more than one page.

pp. 150-158.

 

f) Using edt, edn-

edt-edited

edn-edition

Chowdhury, Obaidul Haq, edt., Hand Book of Muslim Family Law, DLR (Publisher), Dhaka, Bangladesh, edn. 1st, vol. 2, 1993, p. 155.

 

h)

nd.       - no date

et. al.   - and others

e.g.      - for example

viz.      - namely

vs.        - against

cf.        - approximately

 

Quoting of Public Documents-

i) Name of the country (.)

ii) Year (.)

iii) Name of the document (.)

In case of parliament the following style-

Bangladesh.2005.Marriage & Divorce Act 1962 (Rv. 2005) (Act. 505).

 

Quoting International Documents-

UNESCO.1960.Director General of UNESCO report Paris.UNESCO.

 

Quoting Article from Journal-

i) Name of Author (.)

ii) Year (.)

iii) Title of article (.)

iv) Name of journal (italic) (.)

v) Number of volume (bold)

vi) Number of issue (in bracket) (colon)

vii) Page no. of the whole article (.)

Dr. ABM Mahbubul Islam. 2005. Sources of Islamic Constitution. 11UC Studies. Vol.2. (3) : pp. 146-162.

 

Quoting Newspaper-

i) Name of the writer (.)

ii) Year (.)

iii) Name of article (.)

iv) Name of Newspaper (.)

v) Date (.)

vi) Page number (.)

Dr. Tareq MR Chowdhury. 2005. Human Rights in Islam and Conventional Law: A Comparative Study. The Daily Star. 25 June. 8

 

Quoting Al Quran and Al Hadith-

2 ways of transliteration-

i) Al-Shamsia

ii) Al-Qamaria

Example- Alif Lam Dhalik al Kitabu or

Alif Lam Mim Dhalika al Kitabu.

 

Using reference for ayat and Surah and Hadith-

·   Quran-

i) Name of the Book (,)

ii) Name of the Sura (,)

iii) Number of Sura (:)

iv) Number of Ayah

Al Quran, Al Baqarah, 2:217

 

·   Hadith-

i) Name of the book (,)

ii) Status of the Hadith, Sahih or Sunan (,)

iii) Name of chapter and name of section (.)

Al-Bukhari, Sahih (k). Al Qada (b) or chapter (ch) sariqah. (If possible Hadith number).