LL7003 - Legal Research Methodology (2017/18)
| Module specification | Module approved to run in 2017/18 | ||||||||||||
| Module title | Legal Research Methodology | ||||||||||||
| Module level | Masters (07) | ||||||||||||
| Credit rating for module | 20 | ||||||||||||
| School | Guildhall School of Business and Law | ||||||||||||
| Total study hours | 200 | ||||||||||||
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| Assessment components |
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| Running in 2017/18(Please note that module timeslots are subject to change) |
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Module summary
The module provides a critical grounding in legal research and theory. It includes teaching and learning opportunity on all aspects of legal research including information retrieval, critical use of legal data bases, legal sources and reference and relevant practice in structuring, writing and editing proposals for legal research.
Module aims
To provide students with a critical and historically grounded introduction ot contemporary legal research
To introduce students to diverse and problematic conceptual and formative issues in current legal research
To provide students with the research tools and skills necessary to undertake and engage successfully in independent legal research study at M level
To enable students to present legal issues, disputes and attendant intellectual argument in a structured and comprehensible manner sufficient to embark upon preparation for a M level dissertation
Syllabus
Legal theories as they impact on the contemporary environment of legal research
Professional and academic expectations of the legal researcher
Ethical issues in legal research
Scoping and orientating the direction of a research project
Techniques and methods of research
Socio-legal research
Modes of researching statutes, case law and other legislative and judicial material
Learning and teaching
This will comprise lectures (2 hours) and workshops (1 hour) per week. This pattern will vary after week 7 allowing students more workshop time and more individual contact with the tutor. The formal lecture programme is therefore front-loaded to provide students with an initial theoretical framework within which to develop and comprehend research methodologies suitable for own substantive legal disciplines and anticipated projects.
Learning outcomes
Students will have a critical grounding in legal research
Students will understand diverse intellectual traditions and contexts of current legal research
Students will obtain research skill sufficient to undertake an independent M level research project
Students will be able to present structured argument sufficient for M level law dissertations
Assessment strategy
An essay in the theory/practice of legal research, 40%
A proposal for a legal research project, 60%
Bibliography
Bix, B., Jurisprudence: Theory and Context, Sweet & Maxwell, 2002
Simmonds N.E., Central Issues in Jurisprudnce, Sweet & Maxwell, 2003
Stott D, Legal Research, Cavendish Press, 2003