What the LL.M. Is For

The marks. The dissertation carries 100 marks, of which 80 are for the dissertation and 20 for the viva. The interdisciplinary project carries 100, split 50 for the project report and 50 for the viva.

The scale. The body of the dissertation is to run to a minimum of 100 to 150 pages, besides the pre-body and post-body matter; the project report is a minimum of 75 pages.

The evaluation criterion is printed and is worth memorising. The notice says that evaluation will be done on the basis of the content of the chapterisation, the proving of the hypothesis, and the suggestions and recommendations made by the researcher.

And there are conditions. Citation is to be in APA style with footnotes throughout, a bibliography and a webliography arranged alphabetically, plagiarism below ten per cent checked on Turnitin with the report enclosed as an appendix, and the use of artificial intelligence tools such as ChatGPT is prohibited.

Read that list again beside the syllabus of this paper. Topic 6 is the identification of the research problem and the formulation of a hypothesis; topic 7 is the preparation of the research design. MU is examining in Semester IV exactly what it teaches in Semester II, and Module IV of this book teaches each of those seven components under MU's own names.

The specialisation groups

The MU LL.M. runs on four foundation papers taken by everyone and one optional group of six papers. The reader is sitting a foundation paper now, which is why every LL.M. student in Semester II sits this one on the same day whichever group they chose.

The groups are the six specialisations: constitutional and administrative law; business law; the law of intellectual property and information technology; human rights law; criminal law and criminal administration; and environment and legal order.

Semester IV has no taught paper. It is the dissertation and the project, which is the point of the degree arriving at the end of it.

A worked example

Sana is in Semester II of the LL.M., in the criminal law group. She is reading this paper because it is compulsory, and she thinks it is the least useful thing on her timetable.

In Semester IV she has to write 100 to 150 pages of original work. She has to state a research problem, frame research questions, formulate a hypothesis, review the literature, choose a methodology, chapterise, keep her similarity below ten per cent, cite in APA and defend it all at a viva.

Nothing else in her degree teaches her any of that. Her group papers teach criminal law. The four foundation papers teach the frame, and this one teaches the method.

So the answer to what the LL.M. is for, from her side, is this. It is the degree in which she stops being a person who is told what the law is and becomes a person who can find out something about it that nobody had established before. Whether that happens depends almost entirely on the two modules that follow this one.

What this does NOT mean

It does not mean the LL.M. is only for academics. Specialised practice, policy work and regulatory work all use it, and the research training is what makes an opinion on an unsettled question worth paying for.

It does not mean the dissertation is a formality. It carries 100 marks and is examined on the proving of the hypothesis, which is a substantive standard.

And it does not mean research is a Semester IV activity. A problem chosen in Semester IV with no preparation is chosen badly, which is the whole argument of chapter 1090.

Quick revision

The LL.M. adds depth in one group instead of coverage of the field; method instead of doctrine alone; production instead of consumption; and access to teaching, research, policy and the doctorate.

MU's Semester IV requires a dissertation (80 plus 20 viva, body of 100 to 150 pages) and an interdisciplinary project (50 plus 50 viva, minimum 75 pages).

MU's seven printed research design components: introduction; aims and objectives; scope of study; review of literature; sources of information; research methodology including the research problem and research questions; and chapterisation.

MU's printed evaluation criterion: the content of the chapterisation, the proving of the hypothesis, and the suggestions and recommendations.

MU's conditions: APA citation with footnotes, bibliography and webliography, plagiarism below ten per cent on Turnitin with the report in an appendix, and artificial intelligence tools prohibited.

Test yourself

1. State three things the LL.M. adds to the LL.B. Depth in a chosen specialisation instead of coverage of the whole field; training in research method rather than doctrine alone; and a requirement to produce original work rather than only to consume it.

2. List the seven research design components MU requires in an LL.M. dissertation. Introduction; aims and objectives of the study; scope of study; review of literature; sources of information; research methodology, including identification of the research problem and the research questions; and chapterisation.

3. On what three things does MU say the dissertation will be evaluated? The content of the chapterisation, the proving of the hypothesis, and the suggestions and recommendations made by the researcher.

4. Why are legal education and research methodology taught in the same paper? Because both describe what a master's degree in law is for: it is the degree that reproduces the discipline, by training the people who will teach law and the people who will investigate it, so the study of legal education and the acquisition of research method belong together.