LAW5506 Seminar-I: Doctrinal — Unit 2: Selecting and Framing the Research Topic

Unit 2: Selecting and Framing the Research Topic

2.1 Choosing a Topic

The seminar requires a topic related to law and/or legal issues, approved by the seminar teacher/convener. A good doctrinal topic passes five tests:

1. Interest — you will live with it for months.
2. Manageability — narrow enough to master; “Law of Contract” is a shelf, “the doctrine of frustration in Nepali courts after the Civil Code 2074” is a paper.
3. Sources available — the reports, statutes and commentaries you can actually reach (NKP, Nepal Law Reports, lawcommission texts, the library’s holdings).
4. Contemporaneity — the course asks for contemporary legal issues: the new codes, the new constitutional jurisprudence, the digital-and-AI questions, the transitional-justice debates.
5. Original angle — not a re-telling; a gap, a conflict, a critique, a proposal.

2.2 Narrowing Techniques

1. Add a jurisdiction (“in Nepal”, “in South Asia”).
2. Add a period (“after 2074”, “since the 2015 Constitution”).
3. Add a sector (“in consumer contracts”, “in online speech”).
4. Add a lens (“through the proportionality doctrine”, “a comparative view”).

2.3 From Topic to Research Questions

The topic is the territory; the questions are the paths. Examples:

• Topic: Judicial review of administrative action in Nepal.
• Questions: What are the grounds? How has the Constitutional Bench’s case law developed them? Where do Nepali standards diverge from the modern proportionality method? What should reform?

2.4 The Proposal

A one-page proposal for the convener: the topic; the questions; the provisional outline; the source list; the timeline. Approval first, research second — the course’s own discipline.

Model Questions

1. What makes a seminar topic workable? Explain with examples. (10)
2. Turn “right to privacy” into a workable doctrinal topic with research questions. (10)

This is a preview. The complete Seminar-I: Doctrinal notes — full unit, Exam Focus box and model questions — are in the PDF / full version. Get the complete notes →