How to structure your LLM dissertation

In my work as an assessor of LLM dissertations, I see that some students who were adept at writing law essays on either the LLB or GDL, tend find the format of a dissertation difficult. Or even intimidating, despite having the skills and ability.

I am writing to provide guidance to students who are required to write a “practice focussed” dissertation for an LLM. This type of dissertation is set on the BVS LLM. Although there are other LLM courses which set similar dissertation projects. Please check your module/course handbook to ensure that this advice complies with what is being expected of you. 

Always remember – a dissertation is the distillation of the researching, reading and analysing process. So you are not writing up to the word limit. You are attempting to answer a current and relevant question relating to a contemporary legal topic which is connected to the practice of law in England and Wales. Your thoughts, analysis and reasoning should (if written down) exceed the word limit, and require crafting and editing to bring it into the prescribed word limit. It needs to be concise, incisive and free from padding. Students who write up to the word limit tend to waffle and use padding to reach the limit. The padding usually involves long quotations, long recitation of the facts of a case, description of the law.

Dissertation – structure

An LLM practice faced dissertation needs to have a structure and layout appropriate to legal academia. This involves certain formal requirements and other items I would suggest would show a well-researched, complete and well presented piece of legal academic research, analysis and writing.

The introductory pages

Title page – course, title, candidate number, word count, some people include the university logo

Abstract – 300-400 word summary of the dissertation – do not write this until you’ve finished the whole dissertation or it could conflict with the rest of the content

Optional: acknowledgments

Contents – doing this accurately takes a lot of effort, checking and double checking. Do not leave this to the last minute.

Table of statutes – include the sections relied on, the full name of the Act of Parliament and the year

Table of statutory instruments – include the regulations relied on, the full name of the SI, the year and the SI number

Table of cases – include full case names and citations

The dissertation

Chapter 1: Introduction chapter, including:

- Introductory remarks addressing why the topic is important/relevant - reasons for choice, questions being addressed

- Methodology – what it is, why it has been chosen, why it is appropriate to title/subject matter

- Research methods used – keep this brief

- Scope of the research/dissertation – including a justification of any limits

- Overview of structure (if space allows - if you are running out of words, leave this out).

Chapters – 2/3/4 etc – these should usually address the sub-questions you identify. Or your can use the approach below:

Chapter 3 Case Study Examples/Comparative element (with caveats)/critical analysis of key issues/ statistical analysis (with caveats)*

Chapter 4 Evaluation of the law - or Proposal of reforms - Or analysis on the legal doctrine from a critical perspective

Conclusions and recommendations – you should not introduce any new analysis or legal provisions here. But you need to draw together the conclusions which answer the main question here.

At the end

Bibliography – you should be adding to this every time you find a new source, or you may find you miss something. This can lead to allegations of plagiarism because the sources have not been properly credited and cited, so this can be a serious error to make.

Identify: books, practitioner texts, journal articles, newspaper/magazine sources, government reports, Law Commission reports, other reports, websites (give the date of access for these and the URL).

Things to think about

Using subheadings within chapters.

Using sub-sections within the chapters – 1.1, 1.2, 1.3 etc.

Don’t repeat yourself – use cross references to let the reader know where to look back or ahead when necessary.

Ensuring there are not lots of long paragraphs of text. Any single paragraph of, say, more than half a side of A4 (single spaced) is probably too long.

Avoiding setting out long quotations from cases, statute or journals with no good reason. Try to pick out what is essential and keep it brief. Remember that TurnItIn measures the content against other sources for similarity.

Avoid setting out long explanations of the facts of a case – only use the facts where they directly influence the reasoning of the court and help illustrate an important point.

Keeping quotations from sources separate from your analysis to avoid any possibility of being accused of plagiarism. This means careful use of quotation marks and ensuring as you compile your notes it is clear what comes from the course and what is your analysis or commentary.

Accurate pagination is a must. This means you must not leave your work until the last minute as this is when things are most likely to go wrong.

The caveats

*Caveats: Comparative analysis is very difficult to do successfully. It usually ends up being nothing more than padding, with descriptive writing of the jurisdiction being compared. CLS sets a limit on comparative analysis in the LLM dissertation. I would avoid it as far as possible. Statistical analysis should be based on information already available (eg; Employment tribunal statistics, Office of National Statistics information). You cannot do data collection on a dissertation of this type. Unless you are just using the figures from other studies, you will need statistical analysis skills and you will need to explain your methods. Proper statistical analysis is a skill in itself, which you must be able to carry out accurately.

The dissertation files

You might find these other posts helpful:

Dissertation tips: https://snigsclassroom.blogspot.com/2020/02/llm-dissertation-tips.html

Methodology matters: https://snigsclassroom.blogspot.com/2020/07/methodology-matters.html

My recommended book on LLM dissertations is “Law Dissertations: A step-by-step guide” by Laura Lammasniemi.

For guidance on research methods and methodology in particular, I would recommend “Research Methods In Law” by Dawn Watkins and Mandy Burton, Routledge.

For guidance on critical thinking [because your writing must not be descriptive, it must be critical in nature] I would recommend “Critical Thinking: The Basics” by Stuart Hanscomb, Routledge.

Your dissertation will need to use OSCOLA referencing and the guide to this system can be found here: oscola_4th_edn_hart_2012.pdf (ox.ac.uk)

I strongly encourage students to draw up a timeline for your research and writing, please see: https://explorationsofstyle.com/2017/04/18/can-you-have-too-much-writing-time/

Good luck with your work!

Snigdha Nag

June 2021