Most members of staff offer to supervise individually. Where supervision may initially be offered through the medium of a seminar this is indicated. In general, supervisors are not expected to supervise more than 10 students each so it may prove necessary for students to select a supervisor other than the one they initially approach to discuss their essay.
Dr Ingrid Boccardi
EU Free Movement of Persons; EU Asylum and Immigration Policies;
EU Citizenship
Professor Robert Chambers
Property Law; Restitution; Trusts
Dr Iris Chiu
I am willing to supervise essays on UK and EU corporate law, and theoretical and legal perspectives in corporate governance and corporate social responsibility. Another area I am willing to offer supervision in is UK and EU financial regulation, including banking and credit regulation, regulation of investment products, markets and intermediaries, alternative capital, theoretical and economic perspectives of financial regulation and selfregulation, and issues particular to the EU, such as harmonisation, convergence and the completion of the Internal Market in financial services. I would certainly be interested in supervising essays that may wish to deal with the relationship between financial regulation and corporate law, governance or responsibility.
Dr Nicola Countouris
Labour Law (National, Comparative, EU, and International); EU law;
Public Law and the Welfare State
I am willing to supervise essays in most areas of labour law, individual and collective, and employment-related equality law. I should be particularly happy to supervise essays with a comparative or supranational/international component.
I am also willing to supervise students researching in most areas of EU law, both substantive and institutional.
I can also provide supervisions on selected topics of domestic public law, particularly on research focusing on the reform of the welfare state.

Professor Ian Dennis
Criminal Law
Most topics in substantive criminal law and criminal law theory. Particular research interests include the law of defences (especially justification and excuse theory, duress and necessity, self-defence), the principle of legality, and liability for omissions.
Criminal Process
Most topics in the law of criminal procedure (but not evidence) and theories of criminal process. Particular research interests include human rights in criminal procedure, alternatives to prosecution (cautioning, preventive orders such as
ASBOs, control orders), double jeopardy.
Professor Alison Diduck
Family Law; Child Law; Feminist Legal Theory
Feminist legal theory offers a challenge to conventional ways of understating the form, meaning and function of law; it offers a critique of foundational assumptions about law. It is different from a feminist critique of laws. While they write from many different political perspectives, feminist scholars share the assumption that sex/gender is important; it matters in ways not accounted for in orthodox jurisprudence and liberal law.
You may wish, for your dissertation, to assess a specific legal principle or area of law from a feminist perspective, or you may wish to look at the legal regulation of a cultural practice such as the concepts of merit, success and promotion in business or politics. Or you may wish to evaluate aspects of the feminist project itself, such as the criticism offered by lesbian or non-white women to feminism’s claims to be inclusive. In general you will be encouraged to explore the relevant of feminist theory for any aspect of law, legal theory or legal practice, but you will have to be specific and clear about your topic.
Dr Matthew Fisher
I am happy to provide supervision on any subject under the broad umbrella of intellectual property law (patents, trade marks, copyright, designs, etc) but particularly welcome dissertations within the broad confine of patent law.
Students taking the LLB course in IP will, obviously, have to avoid overlap with taught material to any significant degree. This can be achieved by selecting a topic that will not be covered on the course (please consult the schedule of lectures for information), by conducting research from an international/comparative perspective or through examination of a legal theory and how it applies to intellectual property (eg, economics of IP, human rights and IP).

Ms Elaine Genders
Criminal Justice (seminar-based supervision)
Students may choose an area within the broad field of crime and criminal justice. The sorts of areas that students may choose their topics from include the following:
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• specific types of crime eg, violence, murder, white collar crime; social dimensions of crime eg race, gender, mentally disordered offenders, domestic violence;
• aspects of crime control and the criminal justice process eg
• sentencing; aspects of punishment, eg imprisonment, capital punishment, etc.
Dr Jane Holder
Environmental Law
Regulation of decision making concerning land use and development
(renewables projects, village greens), EU environmental law (particularly environmental assessment and territorial cohesion policy), the environmental protection of commons, ‘green’ legal theory, environmental citizenship, and advertising on environmental issues. I am happy to discuss supervising other subject areas in the field of EU and environmental law.
Dr George Letsas
Jurisprudence; Human Rights
I am willing to supervise essays on any area of Jurisprudence and Human
Rights. I welcome approaches for supervision on topics regarding the caselaw under the ECHR and the HRA 1998 as well as on the theory of human rights in general. Students interested in w4riting an essay on mainstream
Anglo-American Jurisprudence (utilitarianism, legal positivism, objectivity, etc) are also welcome to approach me for supervision.
Professor Andrew Lewis
Legal History
I am willing to supervise essays in the general fields of English and European legal history. It will be an advantage to have studied some legal history previously but I am prepared to listen to persuasive argument from any who wish to write historically about some area of law with which they already have acquaintance.
Jurisprudence
I am willing to supervise essays within the field of jurisprudence, particularly within the area of traditional or new natural law as well as within the area of the history and development of legal theory.
Dr Ioannis Lianos
Competition Law; Law and Economics;
Comparative Regulatory/Administrative Law

Dr Tobias Lock
EU Law; Comparative Public Law; German Law
I am willing to supervise essays in EU constitutional, EU external relations, and EU human rights law. I find the following areas worth exploring: the relationship between the EU and the ECHR; the EU Charter of Fundamental
Rights, especially the difference between rights and principles and potential future conflicts with the ECHR; the content of certain rights (human dignity, etc); the Tory sovereignty bill. In EU external relations law: the new institutional framework of the CFSP; the Common Security and Defence
Policy; the competences after Lisbon (mainly implied powers, but also Art 352
(ex 308); the “last remaining” pillar (Art 40 TEU). Some of these topics can (or have to) be combined with a comparative legal analysis. In addition, I can supervise essays on (comparative) German law (mainly public law).
Professor John Lowry
Company Law; Insurance Law
Dr Marc Moore
I am willing to supervise essays on any area of company law or corporate governance including (but not restricted to): the rights and/or responsibilities of institutional shareholders; the monitoring functions of non-executive directors; regulation of executive pay (especially in the UK banking sector); directors’ liability for financial risk mismanagement; comparative corporate governance; regulation of takeovers; corporate theory.
Professor Dawn Oliver
Constitutional Law; Human Rights; Common Law Fundamental
Principles
I am willing to supervise essays on topics such as reform of the electoral system, House of Commons procedure, the House of Lords, the legislative process, the horizontal effect of human rights, the public law/private law divide, standards in public life, comparative constitutional law. All of these areas are topical, I have myself written on them, and there are plenty of issues about which students could find new things to say.
Professor James Penner
Property Law; Philosophy of Property; Trusts Law; Jurisprudence.
I am willing to supervise essays on any topic of trusts law and most areas of the law of property (though not, for example, intellectual property), and any essay on the philosophical foundations of any area of private law. I will also supervise essays on any topic within jurisprudence, legal theory, or the philosophy of law.
Professor Philip Rawlings
Commercial Law

Professor Richard Rawlings
Administrative Law; EU Administrative Law; Devolution in the UK
Dr Arad Reisberg
Company Law; Regulation of Financial Markets
Professor Catherine Redgwell
International Law
Topics in general public international law are welcome. Subject areas of preference are international environmental law (eg conservation of the natural heritage, biodiversity, trade and environment, global warming) and international energy law (eg carbon emissions trading, legal issues of carbon capture and storage, and legal regulation of nuclear, renewables and/or biofuels). Law-making (eg role of non-State actors), implementation (eg problem of translating treaty obligations into domestic law), and liability/responsibility (especially of non-State actors for breach of environmental/human rights obligations) are broad issue areas of interest.
Dr Jonathan Rogers
Criminal Law and Procedure
1. Abuse of process. Criminal courts may stay prosecutions where their
“sense of justice and propriety” is so offended that they cannot continue to entertain the prosecution. When this happens, even those defendants against whom there is compelling and admissible evidence will not stand trial. But should the courts have any power to do this —and if so, is it possible to identify what sort of cases should be covered by this remedy? This is an area which has mushroomed over the last fifteen years and there at least three books which treat the subject.
2. The criminal appeal system. One can choose what to concentrate upon here —the success (or otherwise) of the Criminal Cases Review Commission and its relationship with the Court of Appeal, or the discrepancies between appeals from the magistrates’ courts and the Crown Courts, or “double jeopardy” appeals by the prosecution in serious cases, or the relationship between “safe” convictions and fair trials under Art 6 ECHR, and/or the government’s proposals to restrict the Court of Appeal’s power to quash a conviction to cases where there is doubt of the defendant’s guilt ... In short, criminal appeals is another area of topical interest and a substantial reading list could be found in whichever area interests you most.

3. Criminal attempts. One can be criminally liable for attempting any activity which is intended to result in the commission of an indictable offence, and which is “more than merely preparatory” towards its commission. But the notions of intention and “more than merely preparatory” are unclear, and there are also debates surrounding the extent to which we should punish for attempts, the interplay between attempts and specific conduct crimes (such as carrying an offensive weapon in a public place) and the treatment of cases where the intended crime would in fact have been impossible to commit. A dissertation in this area will appeal to anyone who is interested in an application of philosophy to the substantive criminal law, and the publication of a Law Commission Consultation paper in November 2007 provides a topical flavour.
4. Use of force in self-defence/crime prevention. This is a subject which may interest those with concurrent interests in civil liberties and tort, as well as criminal law theory. Possible topical questions: (1) to what extent may a defence (to an action for trespass against the person) in tort match the equivalent defence (to murder, manslaughter, assault as the case may be) in criminal proceedings? (The House of Lords recently held that there is a difference as far as mistakes are concerned). And does the Human Rights Act affect both tortious and criminal actions similarly? (2) Should there be different rules depending upon whether an ordinary citizen or a police officer/other agent of the state is using the force?
Dr Prince Saprai
Contract Law; Contract Theory; Private Law Theory
I am willing to supervise essays on any topic in the undergraduate contract law course and in particular on issues to do with fairness in contracting, eg, consideration, duress, undue influence, unconscionable dealing, illegality, exemption and penalty clauses, and frustration. I would also welcome essays on the philosophical foundations of contract law and private law theory more generally, topics might include: the source and distinctiveness of contractual obligations; the limits of freedom of contract; the justifiability of strict liability; and the reasonableness of duties to pay compensation for breach of contract or tort.
Dr Ilanah Simon Fhima
Intellectual Property
I am willing to offer supervision on any aspect of intellectual property law (eg, trade marks, copyright, patents, geographical indications, etc).
Students taking LLB IIP for examination: While in principle I am happy to offer supervision on intellectual property subjects, students will have to avoid overlapping with the LLB course. This can be achieved by selecting a topic that will not be covered on the course (please consult the schedule of lectures and/or me (i.fhima@ucl.ac.uk) for information), conducting international and/or comparative research, examining a legal theory and how it applies to intellectual property (eg, economics of IP, human rights and IP).

Ms Joan Small
I am happy to supervise papers on legal aspects of education, from a human rights or regulatory perspective. Issues in this area would include questions concerning state obligations in relation to education, accommodating educational differences/exceptions on the basis of human rights claims, rights and freedoms in the classroom, such as students’ rights to free speech, etc, and aspects of the right to education in international an comparative law. I am also happy to supervise on international and comparative human rights, particularly concepts of equality.
Dr Fiona Smith
Any aspect of Contract Law; International Trade Law
Professor Philip Schofield
Jeremy Bentham
Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832), the utilitarian philosopher and reformer, is a major figure in our intellectual heritage. The Bentham Project is producing a new critical edition of Bentham’s works. I am the General Editor of the new edition, and I am willing to supervise essays on any aspect of Be ntham’s life, thought and contemporary relevance.
Professor Robert Stevens
Restitution (both remedies for wrongs and unjust enrichment)
Contract (except insurance)
Commercial Law (for example assignment and agency)
Personal Property
Torts, Equitable Wrongs, Rights and Remedies (except defamation)
Insolvency (particularly cross-border)
Secured Transactions
Conflict of Laws (except family law aspects)
Professor Bob Sullivan
Criminal Law and Criminal Law Theory
Supervision is available in any sphere of the substantive criminal law.
Particular interests of the tutor are corporate criminal liability, fraud, corruption and homicide. In criminal law theory, supervision is available for theoretically inclined essays on general doctrines of the criminal law including forms of culpability and defences. A current research interest of the tutor is the theory and doctrine of complicity
Mrs Olga Thomas
EU Constitutional Law; Enforcement of EU Law in National Courts;
Judicial Protection against Member States for Breach of EU Law

Dr Florian Wagner-von Papp
Competition Law
All topics in the area of European, UK or German Competition Law. Possible
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 topics include:
 private enforcement of competition law;
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 criminal sanctions in competition law; peculiarities in the national competition law regimes; the interplay of regulation and competition law; structural remedies in competition law and/or regulation; the definition of agreement and concerted practice; exchange of information between competitors; minority stakes in competitors; access to competitors’ facilities.
Law & Economics
All topics concerning the use of economic analysis (including behavioural law
& economics; law & neuroeconomics) in general (epistemology) or its application in the areas of competition, contract or tort law, or sector-specific regulation.
Comparative Contract Law
The second legal system should preferably include a jurisdiction in France,
Germany, the US, New Zealand, Australia or Canada (it may make sense to combine a Common Law jurisdiction and a Civil Law jurisdiction, but this is not a requirement).
European Contract Law
Essays under this heading could examine the influence of European Union
Law on contract law (eg, anti-discrimination directives, directive on the sale of consumer goods).
Convention on the International Sales of Goods (CISG)
Dr Ian Williams
Legal History before 1700
I am happy to supervise students for topics on legal history before 1700. My personal research interests are in the period c.1500-c.1650, covering the history of legal thought, legal literature and education and related substantive developments in both private and public law. Due to the availability of material, most projects will need to focus on English legal history, but research featuring some European elements would be possible.