Contents   

1. Topics for dissertations
2. Firming up a proposal
3. Timescales
4. Support during your dissertation
5. Supervision: what to expect from your supervisor
6. Format of the dissertation
7. Academic Integrity
8. Word limits
9. Submission of dissertation
10. Extensions and late submission
11. Marking of the dissertation/distinctions
12. Failure of the dissertation component

A. Topics for dissertations

General LLM students may choose any topic of their choosing, provided it falls within the scope of one of the modules they have studied. Anyone studying a specialist or named LLM (e.g. LLM in International Human Rights Law) as opposed to a General LLM, must ensure that the topic of their dissertation falls within the area of their chosen specialism. If the dissertation topic falls outside the named specialism, the candidate will not qualify for the specialist LLM but will graduate with the LLM (Masters in Law).

B. Firming up a Proposal

The first thing you will need to do is to identify a topic or subject area that interests you and is relevant to your Pathway (if appropriate). Once you have done, draft a possible research question that reflects the issues you hope to consider. As you commence this task, do consider the following matters:

1. The scope of the dissertation should be specific and well defined. The proposal will often identify a “gap” identified in the current literature on the topic, a gap to be filled at least in part by this dissertation. You might identify coverage of the area you are proposing to explore as sparse. Alternatively, you might consider that the topic has been well covered in the past but recent developments (e.g. economic, scientific, technological developments) mean that new insight or reflection is needed.
2. The scope has to be limited in some way – by the case method, geographically, functionally, within a historical period etc.; too broad a scope will leave the student floundering at the writeup stage.
3. The topic chosen has to be clearly law-related.
4. In identifying the research question to be addressed in the dissertation, it is not sufficient to say “I’m going to analyse the law on doctor-patient confidentiality”. Some understanding of what aspect needs researching and why is important. Students should by this stage to show an appreciation of how to identify and frame research questions. You may find some useful insights from questions or issues covered in your Modules or Tutorials.
5. It is common for the scope of the dissertation to change during the process of researching and writing it. The further you delve into the issues and available literature, the more likely that your preconceptions will be challenged. Changing the scope of your dissertation or changing your focus or line of argument can be a reflection of the fact that you have remained open-minded in the course of your enquiry. Where you find your expectations challenged, then make this a feature of your discussion.
6. The title chosen in the early stages is treated as a ‘working title’ and it is anticipated that it may well change before submission. For many students, tweaking the title to better reflect their final draft of the dissertation is the last thing they do before submission.
7. Some, but not all, supervisors may suggest that in the early stages you complete a literature review, which would appear at the beginning of your dissertation. The literature review should identify the main authors/sources of knowledge on the particular topic and summarise the current state of play in terms of what has been argued in this particular area. Whether or not you are asked to complete a literature review, you should be able to identify the key authors on your topic, summarise their contribution to the particular field of study and be able to comment (respectfully) on the limitations of these contributions in the context of your dissertation (e.g., no longer timely, does not take into account recent developments in X, was written in the context of jurisdiction Y where different arrangements apply and this dissertation will test those findings in a different jurisdiction).

C. Timescales

Your supervisor may ask you to set out an indicative schedule for completion of your dissertation in your first or second consultation. Most students will be ready to start their dissertation shortly after submission of their semester 2 coursework (i.e., around mid-May 2020) and some will have already started gathering materials before coursework submission.

Working backwards, this means students have roughly four months to complete their dissertation. Intercalating students need to submit their dissertations prior commencing the final year of studies.

The above schedule is for guidance purposes only and will not work for everyone, but it provides an idea of how the workload might be broken down.

D. Support during your dissertation

1. You will be allocated a supervisor. We attempt to match people up with their preferred supervisor, but this is not always possible as some members of staff are heavily oversubscribed due to the popularity of their areas of expertise.

1. Allocated supervisors will be the main port of call regarding any academic problems experienced during the preparation of the LLM dissertation.
2. We hope that LLM students will see their fellow students as a potential source of support during the dissertation period. In the summer months all LLM students preparing their dissertation will be likely to be experiencing similar challenges. Whilst students may be geographically far apart in many instances, ideally students will stay in contact with each other through email or social networking. Colleagues on the LLM may be a valuable source of inspiration, research tips or simply someone to share concerns with. LLM students are encouraged to set up a dissertation discussion group in an effort to keep in touch over the summer.

E. Supervision: what to expect from your supervisor

1. Supervision meetings – How many is ‘enough’? Supervisors are obliged to provide the opportunity for four ‘consultation’ (online) meetings.  For example, the consultations may be divided up into:

Consultation 1 might be a face to face (or online) meeting at the beginning (e.g., to discuss the proposal, suggest a structure and agree a schedule for completion and future meetings/consultations). This might be followed by three consultations by email/Zoom, e.g.:

Consultation 2 might be to discuss difficulties experienced or for the supervisor to act as sounding board;

Consultation 3 might be to discuss/provide comment on a submitted chapter; and

Consultation 4 might include discussion/comment on re-submission of the same chapter after editing.

Please note that these four consultations do not necessarily preclude supervisors from organising additional meetings when this is suitable to both parties.

2. Group supervision meetings – supervisors with a number of dissertation students may decide to offer group supervision sessions for the first one or two of these meetings or consultations. The supervisor will determine the format of these sessions and may request that students complete a plan for their dissertation broken down into chapters, a schedule for completion and/or an indicative bibliography. It is hoped that this will help to foster a spirit of mutual support between students engaging in the dissertation and keep everyone working to a similar timetable.

Supervisors will not:

• provide detailed guidance on sources or where to access sources from;
• re-write sections of the dissertation;
• tell a student what mark the dissertation will get when marked
• be available for the whole of the summer period. Please be aware that staff take most of their holidays during the summer and so may be away from the country for a few weeks or more.

As to the last issue, please also note that over the summer staff will be presenting conference papers/conducting research abroad, working on their own publications/research to strict deadlines, attending many assessment and administrative meetings and preparing new teaching for the following academic year. Bear all of this in mind when you first meet your supervisor – remember, they are obliged to provide you with meaningful supervision but, to avoid frustration or misunderstanding in the coming months, do find out if you will be able to contact your supervisor for a significant period of time over the summer and also agree with them a timeframe for them to provide feedback on a written chapter (e.g., submit chapter on 4^th July, receive feedback by 18^th July).

F. Format of the dissertation

1. Referencing should follow the ‘Law School’s Citation Guide – OSCOLA Referencing Guidelines’. This document was referred to in induction sessions and is also available from the ‘Assessment’ section of the Law School Student Intranet. You may use footnotes or endnotes and can use continuous referencing throughout the piece or start footnotes afresh for each new chapter.
2. The dissertation is submitted electronically using Vital or Speedgrader (by the same process as submission of coursework). There is no need to submit hard copy or to have your dissertation bound. It is, however, your responsibility to ensure that you keep a copy of your work, so that, for example, any technical problems with electronic submission can be resolved quickly.
3. LLM candidates submitting a dissertation are encouraged to use headings in their work. It is common, although not mandatory, to divide the dissertation into between 3 and 6 chapters.
4. A title page including your title, name, supervisor, and student number.

5.A table of contents page indicating any chapters/heading titles used in the dissertation is helpful to the reader and can be one of the small touches which adds to the overall quality of the finished work.

6. An abstract (word limit: 250 words)
7. There are no prescriptions as to the font that must be used, but the dissertation should be easy to read (such as Times New Roman or Arial). It is therefore recommended that you use at least ‘1.5’ spacing and that the font is not smaller than ‘11’ (preferably 12).

In summary, there are few restrictions as to the format of the dissertation and its presentation but, in order to achieve a high mark, the piece must be written and presented to a professional standard. This requires the candidate to put in a lot of hours towards the end of the dissertation to proof-read, edit and polish the dissertation so that it meets this benchmark. You should be aspiring to produce something worthy of consideration for publication in a good quality law journal.

H. Word limits

1. The word limit for the dissertation is 15,000 words. There is a minimum word limit of 12,000 words, although note that a submission of only 12,000 words is unlikely to score very highly.
2. This word limit not includes the bibliography or appendices (but note that appendices should be used sparingly).
3. The Assessment Code of Practice allows students to submit a dissertation which exceeds this limit by 5% without any penalty being applied. This means that a dissertation may extend to 15,750 words without a penalty being applied for exceeding the word limit. Once the dissertation exceeds 15,750 words, a penalty will be applied in accordance with the Assessment Code of Practice.
4. The Code of Practice states that, where work exceeds the stated word limit, examiners will deduct 1 percentage mark for every 100 words (or part thereof) in excess of the word length (and the 5% tolerance). However, the mark will not be reduced below the pass mark for the assessment. Work assessed as below the pass mark will not be penalised for exceeding the word limit.

K. Marking of the dissertation/distinctions

1. Dissertations are marked twice internally and, where possible, the first marker will be the dissertation supervisor. The dissertation may then be sent to an External Examiner from a comparable institution, who will confirm the mark or suggest that it be varied.
2. Where disagreement arises regarding the mark to be awarded, the marking team endeavour to reach an agreement which will benefit the student.
3. Remember that an award of Merit or Distinction is only available where the Dissertation has been awarded Merit or Distinction at first attempt (i.e., it would not be available to any student who has failed the Dissertation: para. 4.2(b) of Appendix C to the Code of Practice on Assessment).
4. In order to achieve an award of Distinction, students must achieve at least 70% for the Dissertation, at least 70% in modules accounting for half the credit of the overall award (including the Dissertation, i.e., 40 credits in taught modules and the Dissertation), and an overall average of at least 70% (para. 4.2(b) of Appendix C to the Code of Practice on Assessment).

L. Failure of the dissertation component

1. As with any LLM assessment, students are only permitted to resist a failed component once (para. 7 of Appendix C to the Code of Practice on Assessment). In the unlikely event that a student fails the dissertation component of the LLM, there are two options. One option is to accept the award of Postgraduate Diploma in Law. This is a qualification which recognises the student’s achievements where they have passed all taught elements of the course totalling 120 credits.

The other option is to resubmit the dissertation. Students who opt to resubmit are given twelve

2. A student planning to resubmit is encouraged to contact their supervisor with a view to meeting them to discuss where their original submission went wrong.
3. The ‘resubmission’ involves submitting an improved version of their original dissertation and does not require the student to submit a dissertation under a different title.
4. A student who graduates after resubmitting a dissertation has the pass mark recorded on their transcript, but the transcript will indicate that this was achieved after a resubmission (para. 7 of Appendix C to the Code of Practice on Assessment).