Law Dissertations (2^nd Ed.) A Step-by-Step Guide

Law Dissertations: A Step-by-Step Guide provides law students with all the guidance and information they need to complete and succeed in their LLB, LLM or law-related dissertation. Written in an accessible, clear format and with plenty of tools to help put the theory into practice, Laura Lammasniemi will show students how to make writing a law dissertation easy, without compromising intellectual rigour.

The primary aim of this book is to tackle the issues that cause anxiety to law students undertaking a dissertation so that they can focus on the research that you find exciting. As well as explaining the process of research and outlining the various legal research approaches, the book also provides practical, step-by-step guidance on how to formulate a proposal, research plan, and literature review. The second edition expands guidance to LLM and Masters students, and provides up-to-date guidance on how to complete your project using both online resources and remotely. Unlike other law research skills books, Law Dissertations: A Step-by-Step Guide includes a section on empirical research methodology and ethics for the benefit of students who are studying for a Masters in law.

Packed full of exercises, worked examples, and tools for self-evaluation, this book is sure to become an essential guide for law students, supporting them on every step of their dissertation journey.

Chapter 1: Introduction

Chapter 2: Finding and perfecting your topic

Chapter 3: From a topic to a question

Chapter 4: Creating a good research proposal

Chapter 5: Planning the project

Chapter 6: Creating a research plan

Chapter 7: Online research

Chapter 8: Legal research methods and approaches

Chapter 9: Empirical research

Chapter 10: Assessing literature

Chapter 11: Literature review

Chapter 12: Writing the dissertation

Chapter 13: Referencing

Chapter 14: Structuring the dissertation

Chapter 15: Navigating supervision

Chapter 16: Aiming for a first and avoiding fails

Chapter 17: Preparing for submission

Bibliography

Index

Laura Lammasniemi is an Assistant Professor at Warwick School of Law. She has convened dissertation modules in several institutions and her teaching focuses on dissertations and on criminal law. Lammasniemi has published extensively in the areas of criminal law and gender, mainly from a historical perspective. In 2020, she was awarded the Leverhulme Research Fellowship to work on a project exploring the history of sexual consent in criminal courts, 1870–1950. Lammasniemi has spoken at the House of Commons on the issue of human trafficking and has participated in BBC TV and radio shows as a legal history expert.