Third year focus

The optional dissertation seminar

Undergraduates in their final year may write a dissertation in place of one of their five papers. This currently involves writing a 12,000 word dissertation – which typically works out as about twenty to thirty pages. This may sound a daunting prospect, but every year, students find that after they have read and thought about a topic which interests them all year, the difficulty is not coming up with 12,000 words but keeping down to the word limit!

Students preparing a dissertation work within a supportive seminar group structure. Students will have personal contact with a member of academic staff (one of the seminar leaders) who provides them with guidance about reading and on the structure and content of their work, reading and commenting upon a partial draft. The seminar group structure also allows the opportunity to give a work-in-progress presentation to the group on their own research, receiving feedback from the seminar leaders as well as from other students.

The seminar options are intended to be broad umbrellas, giving students scope to choose, from within an expansive field, any topic which particularly sparks their interest.

The seminar courses on offer vary slightly from year to year so it is important to check the Faculty website for precise details.

Most undergraduates who choose the dissertation option find it one of the most rewarding elements of their Law degree, because they get to study in depth some aspect of the law which they themselves have selected. It is also enormously valuable in educational terms, giving students experience not only in producing a sustained piece of legal writing, but also in researching a topic independently. After all, when you start work at a law firm, you won’t be handed a reading list!