the scholarly disciplines, separate from both scholarly fields and the professional concerns of law.

At their core, each of these enterprises entails a distinct voice, a distinct audience, and a distinct
agenda.
Law is an important variable in any social investigation. Researchers cannot do anything in
sociological research if they do not know at least the basics of law, legal system and law institutions.
Similarly, a legal researcher cannot do justice to the legal inquiry if he does not know about the
mechanics of social research methods. In a planned development of the society, law is playing the
role of a catalyst to help in the process of social change. In a dynamic society, a legal research must
switch over to multi or inter-disciplinary approach as the legal problems are connected with social,
political, economic, psychological issues.
Law and social transformation is a very unique concept which highlights the studies and changes
in social problems and their solutions through legal approach. Here “law changes the society” which
means that the law of the land compels the society to be changed according to the law. When dispute
arises the matter is brought before the judiciary, which applies the rule of law principle to change
either the existing custom or law. Secondly society changes the law it means that the law is made
by the society according to the requirement of the democratic institution. It can be brought out either
by legislating function or by adopting customs and practices1. Law has always been seen as an
instrument that could bring out social change. An attempt is made in this paper to emphasize that
though there are several devices to bring about a change and transformation in our society but for
law none can be considered as the most effective and safest method.

INTERPRETATION OF THE WORD 'LAW'

According to Blackstone, “Law is a rule of conduct, prescribed by the supreme power in the State,
commanding which is right and prohibiting what is wrong. Jurisprudentially law consists of rules
prescribed by the society for the governance of human conduct”. Law of any civilized country is
not denite, but changes according to the demand and circumstances of the society 2.
Roger Cotter views “Social change is held to occur only when social structure - patterns of social
relations established social norms and social roles changes”. Law not only lays down the norms
which are acceptable to a given society, it also lays down the norms, which the society should adopt
in the interest of its own welfare. The rules or code of conduct which a society develops by
experience shapes into law for the sake of uniformity, consistency, performance and sanction. An
acceptable norm thus becomes a law. The departure there from is condemned as crime in criminal
law but civil law becomes a code of conduct regulating the society.

2
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REASONS ATTRIBUTED FOR SOCIAL TRANSFORMATION
Social transformation occurs due to several factors such as changes in technology, demography and
ideology, changes in political life and economic policy and in legal principles or institutions.
American Judge Benjamin Cordozo said that the “Final cause of law is the welfare of society”. Law
should not be denite but must be transformable according to the requirement and necessity of the
society. The law cannot remain immutable. The researcher is of the view that in a changing society
law should march in tune with the changed ideas and ideologies. Social life has undergone changes
because of communication revolution. Hence to keep in pace with the technological development,
Law has to be competent for detection of various crimes and prevention of the same also. New acts
like Information Technology Act has been brought, rules of evidence has been amended to
recognize electronic transaction. Methods of providing remedies have undergone tremendous
change with the growth of electronic commerce, cyber-crime and internet.

THE EMERGENCE OF SOCIO-LEGAL STUDIES

Until fifty years ago, the study of law as the object of social science inquiry, though not unknown,
was at best intermittent and marginal to academic social science and legal scholarship. The
sociological (broadly defined to include all of the social sciences, including psychology and
economics) study of law was limited to the occasional sociologist, historian, economist, or law
professor, who had strayed far from the mainstay or central focus of his or her scholarly community.
Some of these exceptions are notable. At the turn of the twentieth century, Emile Durkheim, the
great French sociologist, focused on law in his search for understanding a society's moral sentiments
and established an important but short-lived school in which law was a major focus.' More
generally, the social bases and consequences of law have always been of concern to a handful of
idiosyncratic scholars, such as Sir Henry Maine, Rudolph von Jhering, Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.,
Benjamin.
There are some institutional exceptions to this account as well. For well over one hundred years,
criminology has focused on deviance and law-conforming behavior, though even here criminal law
has not been a distinct focus. This literature is too voluminous to canvass here.
With the triumph of instrumentalism, it was natural enough to call on experts of the human sciences
to help shape the new administrative state and help determine if it was functioning efficiently and
effectively. This collaboration between law and the then new and emerging human sciences was
eagerly embraced by the earliest champions of this new conception of law. There is also a long
tradition of legal history.

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CHALLENGES IN SOCIO-LEGAL RESEARCH
In today’s world we will find that most lawyers, judges and jurists collectively agree upon the fact
that legal research is a source of progression in the country, even though it may differ in qualitative
terms when compared many other countries. Law, like all other disciplines can never be an isolated
one. The legal rules and provisions that prevail are in relation to various real life factual situations
that may potentially arise and so that those legal rules and provisions may be applied to produce
certain desirable outcomes3. The various intellectual disciplines such as history, science (both
physical and social), religion and philosophy are related to and influence the factual situations are
also connected to law.
Socio-Legal research or trans-disciplinary research does not present many problems or occupational
hazards for the researchers or those who promote the research. The problem faced by the researchers
and scholars arises almost exclusively from the depth of knowledge and awareness of the researcher
in the field of law and all the other intellectual disciplines as well. For example, it has been observed
that scholars/researchers of personal laws have used their knowledge and expertise in the same and
applied it to their research and study of various religious literatures.
Socio-Legal Research denotes the trans-disciplinary research combining law and other social
sciences. The challenges faced by socio-legal researchers and scholars though manageable are not
to be taken lightly. The most eminent problem is the fact that the number of social sciences that are
recognized in today’s world are quite large and each of them have been researched upon and studied
for a considerable period of time which has led to many sub-categorisations within a single
discipline.
For example, the study of economics is just one distinct discipline for the non-economists but in
reality we find that economics has been further divided into various categories such as finance,
economic theory, econometrics, economic history, economic policy, etc., and there are scholars
who have specialized only or rather exclusively in one or maybe more of those sub-categories under
the broad headed discipline of economics4.

3
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RESEARCH ETHICS

Research ethics as a concept per se refers to a set of standards, values and schemes that facilitates
and acts as guidelines for research activity. The inherent responsibility of maintaining the ethical
standards when engaging in research activities is connected to the standard of research process, the
relationship between the researchers and the reason for which the research activity has been
engaged with. All research ventures must be guided by the set guidelines, standards and values. A
very basic problem might arise as there might be opposing views among fellow researchers
regarding what can be considered ethical or not in cases where the ethical boundaries are not crystal
clear in their explanations. Such conflicts among researchers might actually prove to be beneficial
to the society at large as these conflicts and confusions may bring in different approaches and views
regarding a particular subject with had earlier not been recognized and do not have an established
opinion as of yet.

PROBLEM OF PLAGIARISM
Plagiarism is the unethical practice of presenting someone else’s work, ideas, and concepts as one’s
own without acknowledging the fact that those works have been borrowed. When it comes to
research work, plagiarism is a major problem irrespective of the field of research. We must keep in
mind that there are diverging views when it comes to defining plagiarism and determining what
makes plagiarism reprehensible. In today’s world it has become imperative for the researchers to
understand what plagiarism is, its boundaries and the consequences. With the help of the internet,
researchers now have access to a plethora of information compiled and publicised by other
researchers and this has also increased the frequency of plagiarism prevalent nowadays. What the
researchers who plagiarise do not understand is that using others’ work defeats the whole purpose
of them undertaking any research project and they are also exposed to the risk of actually
plagiarising work which in fact is not very authentic or well accepted apart from the risk of being
caught and then facing the consequences for the same.

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STEPS IN THE FORMULATION OF A RESEARCH PROBLEM

SPECIFY THE RESEARCH OBJECTIVES:

There must be a very clear and specific statement that defines the research objectives. This
statement will help the researcher evaluate the research question that the researcher intends to find
an answer to. What is also important is that the objectives defined must be manageable and not so
many in number that the researcher gets confused as to which objective is more important than the
other and get confused, thereby jeopardising the entire project. Having two or three main goals
keeps the researcher focused.

EXPLORE THE NATURE OF THE PROBLEM:

It has been found that the number of variables and their interdependency influences the range of a
research problem going from simple to complex. The variables may be directly related to each other
or at times be absolutely indifferent to each other. Since the variables individually if not in pairs or
groups always influence the nature of the research problem, it becomes imperative for the researcher
to obtain all necessary information regarding those variables relevant to the research problem 5.

ANALYZING THE VARIOUS COURSES OF ACTIONS:

Any time we find a solution to any problem, one must analyse the various possible solutions. Same
is the case of research problems as well. Once the objectives have been clearly defined and the
nature of the problem has been explored vividly, the next step is to identify and carefully scrutinize
all possible courses of actions that may be taken to solve the problem at hand. Anticipating the
possible outcomes from the various courses of action makes it clear for the researcher to choose
which course of action must be taken as the most suitable potential outcome can be identified.

5
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CONCLUSIONS & SUGGESTIONS

The researcher concludes that social problems are interconnected rather than isolated and law is a
mirror to know how people are related to one another. Effective implementation of law as an
instrument or device of social change should work in tandem with social and cultural life of people
of India. Transformation of social system according to the need of the times and in accordance with
the modes and mores of the people is a matter of necessity. A striking balance between
instrumentality of law and folkways and mores of the people would really pave way for real justice
in action and thus leads to empowerment of society.

Law and society have a kin relationship and they are supposed to be cordial with each other.
Prohibition of excise, dowry prohibition is few laws as been passed by the parliament or state
legislatures vis-à-vis but has not been imparted with its objective, so the relationship between these
two is supposed to be cordial and supportive.

Coming towards an end of the discussion regarding as to how a law be used as an instrument of
social change, it can be said that law is already an instrument present to bring in a social change
and to be precise it has brought in a lot of social changes but it still has a long way to go in order to
bring in societal transformation.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

Books & Journals

1. Introduction to Jurisprudence, Avtar Singh, 4th Ed, Lexis Nexis
2. Legal Research Methodology, Dr. S.R. Myneni, Allahabad Law Agency
3. Indian Journal of Applied Reseach, Vol 5, Issue 12, Page 130-132
4. Jagannath University Research Journal, Vol – 1, Issue 1, Page 81-83

Websites & e-Contents

5. https://epgp.inflibnet.ac.in/
6. https://journal.rostrumlegal.com/the-role-of-law-in-social-transformation/
7. https://ijlpp.com/3688-2/
8. https://www.legalserviceindia.com/legal/article-4883-understanding-the-law-as-a-means-
of-social-change.html
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