Which type of research focuses on the laws as they are enacted and applied?

The focus of primary legal research is on the laws as they are enacted and applied, making it the correct choice for this question. This form of research involves examining legal documents such as statutes, regulations, case law, and constitutions, which represent the actual sources of law. Primary legal research is essential for finding authoritative legal materials that establish legal principles and set precedents.

In contrast, historical research looks at the development and evolution of laws over time, examining past legal norms and their transformations, rather than current laws as they are enacted and applied. Secondary legal research involves analyzing and interpreting primary legal sources, often through commentary, analysis, or summaries provided by scholars and practitioners, but does not involve the original laws themselves. Quantitative research typically applies statistical methods to analyze data and is not specifically focused on legal texts or the enactment and application of laws. Each of these other types of research serves different purposes within the legal research framework but does not directly focus on the current application of laws like primary legal research does.