how to structure a law dissertation

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Law: Proposal and Dissertation Writing

Structure of the proposal.

• Conventions of Scholarship
• Dissertation Writing
• Getting started
• Generate Research Ideas
• Brainstorming
• Scanning Material
• Suitability Analysis
• Difference between a topic and a research question
• Literature Review
• Referencing

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A proposal should proceed along the following steps:

(1) a clear problem statement is formulated;

(2) the significance of the problem is explained;

(3) a clear research question is formulated;

(4) an answer or solution to the problem is suggested;

(5) the originality of the answer or solution is indicated through a literature survey;

(6) the way in the which the argument will be substantiated in the bulk of the dissertation is outlined;

(7) the method used (and its suitability) to answer or solve the problem is explained;

(8) any definitional issues are clarified; and

(9) a bibliography of materials used is supplied.

• Step 1: Problem Statement
• Step 2: Significance of the Problem/Issue
• Step 3: Research Question
• Step 4: Argument/Answer
• Step 5: Originality of Argument(Literature Survey)
• Step 6: Substantiating the Argument (Chapter Outline)
• Step 7: Methodology
• Step 8: Defining Concepts (Optional)
• Step 9: Bibliography

A proposal commences with a clear problem statement.

• What is the problem that intrigues you?
• What is the issue that you want to deal with?
• What is the question that you want to answer?
• It is often useful to state in your first paragraph as clearly and succinctly as possible what is the problem that you are addressing. Once that is done, the problem is unpacked.
• What is the background to the problem?
• What are the logical building blocks in law and practice that lead to the problem?

These building blocks are very important because they are again reflected in the chapters, where argument is substantiated. Vital to a successful dissertation is a narrowly defined problem. As a research paper is confined to 18 000 words, the issue must be much more limited than that for a mini-dissertation (30 000), full thesis (50 000) or a doctoral dissertation (100 000).

As you will be spending a considerable amount of time on the dissertation, you have to justify this endeavour to yourself, your supervisor and your examiners. Moreover, if the problem is significant, the solution or answer to the problem will be equally important. The significance of the problem may lie in a number of areas. In the case of divergent judgments on an issue, the conflict creates confusion and conflict in practice. The importance could lie in poor service delivery because of badly designed governance structures. Overall, the aim is to state the importance of the research that you will be doing.

Given the problem outlined and having shown its significance, a research question must be formulated that it captures the problem statement. What is the issue or problem that you want to answer? This is a short, concise statement that hones the problem statement into one or more questions.

Very important is that this research question must have a legal focus. It is the legal question you want to answer. Although sub-questions may include issues of development, etc., the main focus must be on some form of law/regulation,etc.

This should also be a measurable question. Indicating your research question as "Examining the effectiveness of insider trading legislation" is not feasible. How will you measure the effectiveness of this legislation?

Having done the reading of the relevant materials you have by now developed a tentative argument or an answer to the problem. You need to state upfront how you will be addressing the problem, what will be the answer or solution. This argument is what binds the dissertation together – providing the central measuring rod in deciding whether any material is relevant or not.

When you start off the proposal writing, you will have some idea of what the answer / argument will be. However, as you develop and substantiate the argument in the various chapters through your thorough engagement with the materials, you may find that the argument is refined, adapted, or changed. This is totally acceptable and even expected. Therefore, while the proposal signals the commencement of the dissertation (and is chapter 1 of the dissertation), it may also be last piece that you write in order to reflect the refinement and reshaping of the argument that occurred along the way.

The criterion by which you will be measured is whether your dissertation has added or contributed to knowledge on the topic. What is the point of the dissertation if the problem has already been solved or the issue addressed?

You must demonstrate the originality of the argument by showing how it compares with the existing literature on the issue. This is done by reading extensively around the issue to determine what other authors have written. In some cases, when you have described the literature on the topic (who wrote and what did they say – not a listing of article or book titles!), you may conclude that no one has yet addressed the particular issue, and therefore, you will provide a unique contribution. Even if you find that the issue has been addressed, you may conclude that it was wrongly or inadequately done. You may argue, for example, that the academic interpretation of a line of court judgments was wrong. The academic enterprise is about challenging accepted views and doctrines.

The focus in the literature survey is on “literature”, namely what other scholars have written. This is not the place to describe the Constitution, legislation or court cases.

The main purpose of the literature survey is to:

(A) Indicate what has been written on the subject and

(B) What will your contribution be? ie, What has not been covered by the literature? How will you contribute?

The bulk of the dissertation is devoted to substantiating the argument. This is done through breaking down your argument into its basic components and devoting a chapter to each component. In the proposal the chapters are outlined, showing how each form part of the argument and contributes to the answer or solution. This is not done by just providing chapter headings. You have to indicate whatthe purpose is of each chapter and what will be argued in that chapter. The emphasis falls on the logical flow of the argument and how each chapter contributes to that flow.

This should be done by way of a brief paragraph description of what will be covered in each proposed chapter.

Having outlined how the argument will be substantiated in the various chapters, you have to show how you will go about this task. What are the materials that you will rely on? What is the methodology that you will follow? If you are analysing court judgments, your primary source of information are case reports. A further primary source of information is legislation, official documents, policies, notices, etc. A secondary source is what other authors have written about the same cases or legislation in the relevant field. As all these materials are found in a library or the internet you may refer to it as a desktop study.

You may want to use empirical data in substantiating your argument. There are a variety ways of collecting such data. Official sources may be used. Newspapers may also be referred to. You may even venture out and collect your own data by, for example, conducting interviews, or inspecting court records. In the case of interviews you need ethical clearance from the University’s Senate Research Committee.

If you are going to do a comparative research, you must explain why, indicate your comparators (comparative countries, etc.) and you must explain why you are using these specific comparators.

In the context of your proposal (and later in chapter 1 of the dissertation), it may be necessary to define some key concepts that will be used in the chapters. This is done to provide the necessary clarity when confusion and ambiguity may be present.

All the materials referred to in the proposal must be listed alphabetically in the bibliography. Use the following main headings:

• Laws, regulation and other legal instruments
• Other government publications: policies, reports, etc.
• Books, chapters in books, articles, reports, internet sources
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Sep 20, 2019

Written By Billy Sexton

LLB Law Dissertation

So, you've picked your final modules, consolidated your favourite library seat, and are finally feeling like a big fish in the university pond. But you've got one more challenge on the horizon—the dissertation... 

The final year of your LLB is here, which means it’s time to put together a lovely 10,000 or so word law dissertation.

Gone are the days of first year where a casual 2,000-word essay would be enough to secure 50% of your module marks. Even the tougher second-year essays, where word counts were raised up to 3,500 words, now seem like a walk in the park when faced with the mammoth dissertation.

Many law students before you have faced this, so don’t worry. If they do it, you can too!

A dissertation is a marathon, not a sprint (so no last minute late nights) and working on your dissertation should be treated like eating salami (bear with us on this). You wouldn’t eat a whole salami at once as it’s much tastier in thinner slices.

Therefore, you shouldn’t do your whole dissertation at once. Put it together bit-by-bit, and it will be a much stronger piece of work!

Law dissertation ideas

What you base your law dissertation on is entirely your choice… to a certain extent. You will need to find a supervisor for your dissertation so you won’t be able to do a dissertation on a specific issue if there’s no lecturer at your university who specialises in that topic!

However, presuming there is a lecturer to guide you along the long and bumpy dissertation path, you have free choice over what you’d like to study. Usually, first class dissertations carry originality and research depth.

If you’re stuck for ideas or broad topic areas, let us help you out. We can’t cover every individual area of law  but here are ideas for some of the core areas:

Contract Law – The influence of the EU on contract law, including anti-discrimination directives, a comparison of contract law in different jurisdictions or penalty clauses in contracts.

Criminal Law – Philosophical issues surrounding criminal law, human rights in criminal procedure or social dimensions of crime.

EU Law – Immigration and the law, the law of the European Convention for Human Rights and how this affects human rights within national borders or the impact of the EU on environmental legislation.

Public Law – Public understanding or law and education, state responsibility or historical developments in public law.

These are just a handful of suggestion and may or may not tickle your fancy. It’s best to talk to a range of potential supervisors to get a feel for how they could help you. Start looking early though, as supervisors get snapped up pretty quickly!

Law dissertation structure

Your university should tell you how to structure your dissertation, but usually an introduction highlighting the objectives of the dissertation should also put forward any issues or knowledge the reader will need to be aware of in order when they progress.

Next up is your methodology and literature review. This basically means pointing out what you’re going to research and how and summarising the key arguments already out there.

Then comes the juicy bit—the evidence. This should be what you discovered from your research and a detailed analysis of this.

Finally, the conclusion should outline what you discovered and your conclusion of this.

Writing a law dissertation can be stressful and it’s highly likely you might lose a bit of sleep over it. But at the same time it’s a great opportunity to stick your teeth into a subject you’re really passionate about and gain some good marks that will contribute significantly toward your overall degree mark. 

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