Law in Social Context

The phrase 'legal method' is made up of two words -'legal' and 'method.' The word "method," in ordinary parlance, means a way of doing something or the quality of being well planned and organized.1 The word "legal," which is an adjective, connotes something connected with the law.2 Law operates in a society based on certain methods, that is, in accordance with certain processes, which must be properly understood for law to be put to best uses as an instrument of social control. Legal method can therefore be defined as an attempt to explain or analyse the technique of 'thinking like a lawyer.3 In other words, it is learning to study the use and construction of legal rules, with a view to gaining insight into how law is planned and organized to achieve its objectives in a society.