Research = the systematic inquiry — the structured search for truth through defined questions, planned methods, and verifiable evidence (the classic formula: "a scientific and systematic search for pertinent information on a specific topic" — Kothari's textbook definition, the standard Nepali classroom source, named in the syllabus's references). Legal research = the systematic inquiry into law, legal institutions and legal behaviour — what the law is (the rule-content), how it works (the practice), and what it ought to be (the reform). Types (the basic map):
1. By purpose:fundamental/pure (theory-testing — jurisprudential inquiry) vs. applied (problem-solving — the amendment's impact study).
2. By knowledge-claim:descriptive (what is), exploratory (what's there), explanatory (why), evaluative (how well), prescriptive (what should be).
3. By method-family:doctrinal (the law-in-books) vs. empirical/socio-legal (the law-in- action) — Unit 2's great divide.
4. By strategy: historical, comparative, experimental, survey, case study. Importance: the lawyer's craft is research (the case's finding, the statute's meaning, the client's answer); the judge's craft too (the precedent's retrieval — the stare decisis of Art 128's world); the academic's and the reformer's (the law's improvement on evidence); the student's (the dissertation, the seminar paper — this course's own purpose).