LLB FINAL YEAR DISSERTATION
2021-22 Handbook
for LEVEL 5 students
Brunel Law School
Dissertation Tutor: Dr. Eduardo Álvarez-Armas
eduardo.alvarez-armas@brunel.ac.uk
Assistant Dissertation Tutor: Dr. Elena Abrusci
Elena.Abrusci@brunel.ac.uk
IMPORTANT NOTICE:
This handbook is relevant ONLY for
LEVEL 5 students
during academic year 2021-22
(This handbook does not apply to students in
level 6 during academic year 2021-22)
Brunel Law School
Dissertation Tutor: Dr. Eduardo Álvarez-Armas
eduardo.alvarez-armas@brunel.ac.uk
Assistant Dissertation Tutor: Dr. Elena Abrusci
Elena.Abrusci@brunel.ac.uk
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Contents
1. Intro ............................................................................................................................................. 4
2. Submitting a dissertation proposals form .................................................................................. 4
3. Choosing topics ........................................................................................................................... 5
TAGS: FINAL YEAR DISSERTATION SUBJECT AREAS ........................................................................ 6
4. Special rules for the general LL.B and the Graduate-entry LL.B…………………………………………..… 6
5. Timetable………………………………………………………………………………………….………………………..….……. 8
6. Preparatory materials…………….………………………………………………………………………………..…………… 8
7. Penalties for late and/or incorrect submission of proposals form ……….………………………..…….. 8
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1. Intro
A core element of the third year of Brunel´s LL.B program is the undergraduate dissertation.
The primary aim of the dissertation is to assess a student’s ability to undertake independent
research under the supervision of an academic member of staff. Students have the opportunity
of exploring a topic in-depth and writing an original essay where they will critically analyse the
legal issues arising therefrom.
Work on the dissertation starts during the second term of the L5 year: students are required to
identify topics of their interest in order to prepare and submit a “proposals form”, upon the basis
of which they will be allocated to a supervisor who will provide guidance to their independent
research during their final year of studies.
Level 5 students are expected to submit their dissertation proposals by 12:00 (noon) on 24th
June 2022 on Wiseflow, following the instructions provided in this handbook.
The dissertation carries 40 credits of the overall assessment on which your degree classification
is based. The written dissertation is worth 100% of the marks (the dissertation outline is not an
assessed element of the module, even though students have to pass it).
2. Submitting a dissertation proposals form
•
•
Students are required to submit three alternative dissertation proposals in their form, listed
in order of preference. Moreover:
-
Students in the general LL.B & Graduate-entry LL.B: proposals must come from 3
different disciplines, amongst those listed in section 3 of this handbook. Additionally,
they must comply with the “special rules for the general LL.B and the Graduate-entry LL.B”
in section 4.
-
Students in the Law with Criminal Justice LLB: proposals must only come from the realm
of criminal law broadly defined: criminal law, criminal justice, evidence, sentencing and
penology, and similar disciplines.
-
Students in the International Arbitration & Commercial Law LLB: proposals must only
come from their areas of specialization: international commercial arbitration,
international investment law and arbitration, banking law; company law; competition
law; intellectual property law; consumer law and employment law.
To submit their dissertation proposals students must use the proposals form, which may be
found at the end of this handbook. This form must be submitted electronically on Wiseflow
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(notice that students need to export their Word document to PDF before being able to upload
it on Wiseflow). The deadline for submitting the proposals is 12:00 (noon) on 24th June 2021.
•
Once submitted, forms cannot be amended (only students effectively going on work
placement in 2022/2023 will be given the opportunity to amend their forms in Spring 2023).
•
The Dissertation Tutor will allocate each student a supervisor. The Tutor will do his best to
offer students supervision in a topic ranked as highly as possible in their proposals form. Note,
however, that this is by no means guaranteed:
Students need to be prepared to work in ANY of the alternative proposals they
submit.
•
Allocation results (topic and the name of their supervisor) will be communicated by email
(and/or students will be informed by appropriate means) around mid-July. Once students
have been allocated a topic, they will be expected to work on them during the summer to
refine the research through advanced literature review.
•
Students must contact their supervisors as soon as term starts in September to have feedback
on their proposal. Supervisors will inform students about approval, rejection or required
amendments regarding the topic allocated. Supervisor may indeed suggest changes to the
topic if needed.
•
The supervisor that students are allocated cannot be changed under any circumstance
(notwithstanding the student’s possibility of negotiating with their supervisor a change of
topic within the supervisor’s areas of specialization. However, the supervisor’s decision is
final).
3. Choosing topics
• Notwithstanding the indications in section 2 above, and further rules found in section 4
below, students should suggest topics for their dissertation in accordance with their research
interests and what they consider deserves further investigation. They can draw inspiration
from recent legal developments, and may look at law journals, judgments delivered by
national and international courts, newspapers and online resources.
•
Proposals focusing on comparative law or foreign law projects will not be accepted.
•
Students are advised to avoid choosing general topics for their proposals. They should focus
on specific legal issues in the subject areas of their interest. Students will finalise their
research question with their allocated supervisor during their first meeting. Supervisors will
be able to help students narrow down the dissertation topic and may also require
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modifications to ensure that the dissertations can be carried out in accordance with
academic standards.
•
To help with the identification of the research topic, students are strongly encouraged to
read Chapters 2, 3 and 4 of Laura Lammasniemi, Law Dissertations: A Step-By-Step Guide
(Routledge,
2021)
available
open
access
on
the
Library
website
(https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/brunelu/detail.action?docID=6798535). Students
are also encouraged to read other chapters as they deem appropriate.
•
Irrespective of the programme students are following, each of the proposals put forward in
their proposals form needs to be tagged using the following tags:
TAGS: FINAL YEAR DISSERTATION SUBJECT AREAS
Banking Law
Company Law
Competition Law
Consumer Law
Contract Law
Criminal Law / Evidence / Sentencing and Penology
English Legal Institutions and Methods
Employment Law
Family Law / Children and the Law
Intellectual Property Law
(International) Human Rights
International Law
International Investment Law and Arbitration
International Sales Law and International Commercial Arbitration
Jurisprudence
Land Law
Law of the European Union
Public Law
Taxation of Income
Tort
Trusts
4. Special rules for the general LL.B and the Graduate-entry LL.B
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As already explained in section 2, due to their “programme specifications”, students in the Law
with Criminal Justice LLB can only put forward proposals that come from the realm of criminal
law broadly defined; and students in the International Arbitration & Commercial Law LLB can
only put forward proposals that come from their areas of specialization.
Therefore, the rules in this section only apply to students in the general LL.B and the Graduateentry LL.B.
•
Proposals must come from 3 different disciplines/modules, amongst those listed in
section 3 above (“tags list”).
• You may use as many tags as needed for a single proposal, if it comes within several
modules, BUT you may only use each tag once.
• In principle you can choose and rank your three proposals freely, BUT due to overdemand, the following rules apply to “Family Law/Children and the law” and “Criminal
Law/Evidence/Sentencing and penology”.
•
Family Law/Children and the law:
o They are a single tag (which, as other tags, may only be used once).
o Only students who are absolutely certain that they have a very strong interest in
working in the field will be considered for allocation: a proposal in this field will
only be accepted if it is placed as a first choice.
o Consequently, forms featuring the "Family Law/Children and the law" tag in 2nd
or 3rd position will be returned to the student, and after resubmission, the new
form will be dealt with last, after all other students have been allocated.
o Students allocated to a “Family Law/Children and the law” topic and supervisor
need to mandatorily enroll in the corresponding L6 module. This will be
monitored, and if not respected, the student will lose the allocation and be reallocated to another topic and/or supervisor in the remaining spots available.
•
Criminal Law/Evidence/Sentencing and penology:
o They are a single tag (which, as other tags, may only be used once).
o After students in the Criminal Justice LL.B are allocated, there will be many places
left for students in the General LL.B and GE LL.B. However, demand is very
significant, so only people who have a very strong interest in working in the field
will be considered for allocation. This means that, a proposal in this field will only
be accepted if it is placed as a first choice (or as a second choice if your first
choice is Family Law/Children and the law).
o Consequently, forms featuring the "Criminal Law/Evidence/Sentencing and
penology" tag in 3rd position, or in 2nd position (unless your first choice is Family
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Law/Children and the law) will be returned to the student, and after resubmission,
the new form will be dealt with last, after all other students have been allocated.
5. Timetable
These are the relevant dates for Level 5 students in relation to the dissertation module. Respect
of the timetable is required to successfully complete the module.
24th June 2022 (12:00): Deadline for submitting the dissertation proposals on Wiseflow.
Submissions which do not comply with the deadline will be automatically set aside and dealt
with last, after all other students have been allocated, notwithstanding any other academic
consequences that may be relevant.
Mid-July 2022: Allocation of topics and supervisors. Once you receive notification of your
allocated topic and supervisor, you are expected to start working on refining your research
proposal as well as conducting an initial literature review on the topic.
September 2022: Initial meeting with supervisor and review of proposals. (As already
explained) students will be expected to arrange a meeting with their supervisors as soon as
possible after the begin of Term 1 (19 September 2022). In this meeting, the supervisor will
provide initial guidance with regards to the topic. If the need arises, the supervisor may check
the allocated proposal and inform the student about approval, rejection or required
amendments. The supervisor may also suggest alternative topics. Students will have the
opportunity to re-submit an amended version directly to their supervisor.
6. Preparatory materials
Students are warned that they must keep a file of all the work and notes for their dissertation
(starting from the moment they prepare the proposals form). These may be required for
production until the summer Graduation Ceremony of their graduation year (which is usually
convened in early/mid July). Being asked to produce preparatory materials does not necessarily
mean that one is under suspicion of plagiarism, as such checks are made on a random basis.
However, failure to produce materials promptly on request will obviously require an explanation,
notwithstanding any other academic consequences that may become relevant.
7. Penalties for late or incorrect submission of proposals form
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•
If you miss the deadline or we need to send the form back to you because it is incorrectly
filled in (i.e. it does not comply with the rules), your form will be dealt with last, after all
other students have been allocated (notwithstanding any other academic consequences
that may become relevant).
•
Per the module specifications, 3 weeks after the deadline, any student not having
submitted their form will have failed the L6 dissertation module automatically.
Dissertation proposals form
Student ID number
2126056
KHAN
AITZAZ AHMAD
Mr
General
International Law
with
LLB
Arbitration
Criminal
(Please indicate whether you are in the
general LL.B, or in one of the specialized
&
Justice LLB
programmes)
Commercial
Law LLB
Please place X in appropriate X
Surname
First name
Title (Please indicate: Mr, Ms etc.)
Programme
box
Subject area(s) / Tag(s) of topic 1 (Please see the “tag” list in the handbook)
(INTERNATIONAL) HUMAN RIGHTS
Title of topic 1
WOMEN RIGHTS VIOLATION
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Briefly specify the main issues that you will examine in this topic
Women rights are being violated in private domain of the family life because of the
cultural restrictions and religion which does not comply with International Human
Rights. For example, CEDAW (Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against
Women) has provided provisions to protect women’s rights however, there are some
exceptions such as Islamic Sharia Law which in accordance with west law plays an
imperative role in violation of women rights. Some outdated cultures and also even in
some countries they made reservations to some of the articles of the convention. In this
modern era women are still deprived of basic rights such as education, employment,
freedom of speech (no say in marriage) and health care (e.g. Afghanistan). This essay will
discuss how women rights are being violated in some countries and different cultures,
what are the main reasons and how it can be protected while keeping the cultures and
religious norms safe.
Subject area(s) / Tag(s) of topic 2 (Please see the “tag” list in the handbook)
CRIMINAL LAW/ EVIDENCE / SENTENCING AND PENOLOGY
Title of topic 2
MONEY LAUNDERING
Briefly specify the main issues that you will examine in this topic
Money laundering is disguising of the illegal gains by criminal activity and passing them
off as legitimate ones, indeed it has existed throughout the history and has always been
synonymous with illicit and perhaps criminal financial transactions. It can be carried out
in three stages such as placement, layering and integration as it not only threatens the
financial systems of a country by tackling the command of an economic policy from the
government but also deteriorates the moral and social stance of the society by
introducing it to activities such as drug trafficking, smuggling and other international
criminal activities such as terrorism. The essay will discuss whether an anti-money
laundering legislations is effective in reducing the actual money laundering?
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Subject area(s) / Tag(s) of topic 3 (Please see the “tag” list in the handbook)
LAW OF THE EUROPEAN UNION
Title of topic 3
Tech Companies and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)
Briefly specify the main issues that you will examine in this topic
Nowadays, in this modern era big tech companies use tracking of how people use their
phones or any social media platforms and then target them with specific advertisement
to generate capital. However, this is being manipulated to the extent where the
companies collect personal information other than what is necessary, and public have
realised to not give consent to their personal data being shared with these big tech
companies. Following this, legislation GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation have
been brought to minimise the data being collected by these companies nevertheless,
since the introduction of this legislation companies have changed the way, they collect
user’s data. They have introduced new consent forms to comply with GDPR but they
often use manipulative techniques to stop data subjects from being able to consider the
information being provided to them. How companies interpret the law has been varied
with many companies adopting the approach of using the legitimate interest. In fact,
they have been using this as a loophole to avoid asking the data subjects for their
consent. This essay will discuss what is the breadth of huge tech companies gathering
and processing of personal data and how does this relate to the obligations of the GDP
privacy policy?
By submitting this form, I declare that:
i) I have read the 2021-2022 L5 handbook in its entirety;
ii) I have fully attended or watched in their entirety the recordings of the L5 dissertation lecture;
iii) I fully accept all terms, rules and instructions contained/stated in the 2021-2022 L5 handbook
and the L5 dissertation lecture.
I moreover specifically agree that:
i)
once submitted, my form cannot be amended (unless I go on work placement in 2022/2023)
and;
ii)
the supervisor I will be allocated cannot be changed under any circumstance
(notwithstanding the possibility of negotiating with my supervisor a change of topic within
their areas of specialization).
(Please insert your initials and student number here in lieu of signature, followed by the text "read, understood,
accepted and agreed" and the date).
AITZAZ AHMAD KHAN
24/06/2022
-------------------------------(Signature of Student)
------------------------(Date)
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