School of Law

GUIDELINES FOR DISSERTATION

A Law Graduate from UPES is intended to:

 demonstrate conceptual knowledge in core areas of law.
 effectively apply their learnings to practical legal issues.
 exhibit effective law professional skills, employing oral and written communication,
legal research, analysis, rationalization and critical-thinking.
 demonstrate ability to evolve alternative solutions from dynamic socio-economic and
techno-legal perspectives.
 exhibit commitment, teambuilding, networking, leadership and lifelong learning
skills to excel in legal world

A Dissertation in the penultimate semesters exposes the students to work in specialized areas of
law and demonstrate their learning by way of a substantial written assignment showing their
expression in clear, concise and persuasive manner. This also provides an opportunity to the
student to take his/her flight of ideas, cement it with strong background research and evolve
alternative solutions to the legal/social problems of the present times. Dissertation course which
is offered in two parts (synopsis stage and final dissertation stage) also provides an opportunity to
the students to work on an emerging legal issue with their faculty mentor and come up with a legal
research worth publishing. With the aforesaid objective, the students shall opt for their
Dissertation Area as per the requirements of the Program they have opted for, i.e.
 B.A., LL.B. (HONS.) Energy /Criminal/Labour/Constitutional Laws
 B.B.A., LL.B. (Hons.) Corporate /Banking, Insurance and Finance / International Trade and Investment Laws
 B.COM.,LL.B. (Hons.) Taxation/ Media & Entertainment Laws / Legal Compliance & Secretarial Practices
 B.Sc., LL.B. (Hons.) Intellectual Property Rights/Food, Health and Environment Law/Medical and Forensic
Law
 B.TECH.(CSE), LL.B. (Hons.) specialization in Cyber Laws / IPR

1. Credit Requirements: Dissertation is of 8 credits and thus involves a minimum of 96

class hours of work (24 + 72) from the students, which includes attending expert sessions,
consultation with the mentor and time spent in preparing the Dissertation in the following two
phases:
1.1 Synopsis Stage – 2 credits
1.2 Final Dissertation Stage – 4 credits

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2. Mentor/Supervisor: Each student has to first opt for an area/topic/theme of dissertation

as per the published schedule. Based on the area/topic/theme chosen by the student, a team of
senior faculty members, in consultation with Dean SOL, would allocate mentors to the students.
Students are advised to choose their area/topic/theme of dissertation preferably in their area of
Honors Program and/or interdisciplinary in nature. Once the student gets his/her mentor, the next
stage would be working on the synopsis of the dissertation. While students are free to seek
consultations/guidance from any of the faculty members, subject to their availability (including
professionals outside); for all administrative purposes, allotted Mentor shall be the
mentor/supervisor for the student.
2.1 Change in Mentor: No request for change in mentor shall be entertained from the
students. Mentors would only be changed for administrative reasons on the directions of Dean
SOL.

I. SYNOPSIS STAGE

3. SYNOPSIS: Preparation of synopsis is the most important stage of dissertation. A well

planned and drafted synopsis would ease the work to be done during writing the final dissertation.
3.1 Contents/structure of the Dissertation Synopsis: Student shall prepare a synopsis in
consultation with the mentor and shall have the following components.
A. Cover-page (As per the format provided in Annexure C)
B. Proposed Title (subject to approval/modification of the viva-voce/presentation panel)
C. Statement of the Problem
D. Review of Literature
E. Research Objectives
F. Key Research Questions (minimum 3)/Hypothesis
G. Research Methods
H. Scheme of Chapters
I. References and Bibliography

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3.2 Format of Dissertation Synopsis

 The seminar paper shall be typed on A4 size with font Times New Roman 12 (footnotes
text size to be 10).
 Line Spacing: 1.5. Margins: Top 1.0”, Bottom 1.0”, Left 1.5”, Right 1.0”. Character
spacing: Normal.
3.3 Length of Dissertation Synopsis: 4000-8000 words including footnotes.

4. Consultation Record: Every student shall maintain a consultation record with their
mentor in the format provided in Annexure A to these guidelines. It is desirable that the students
shall take a minimum of five consultations (online/offline) with their mentor. Final submission
shall mandatorily accompany the consultation record. Consultations taken over e-mail/Learning
Management System (LMS), if any, shall also be recorded in this sheet and must be endorsed by
the mentor. Students have also to submit a declaration of originality along with the consultation
record in the format provided in Annexure B.

5. Final Submission of Dissertation Synopsis: The students are advised to submit their final
synopsis paper before the scheduled date and time to avoid any penalty for late submissions. We
are moving towards sustainability and in an attempt to support this cause, submissions of
dissertation synopsis shall be made electronically as per communicated modalities by the mentor.
In terms of record, we would only keep consultation record and declaration of originality in
hard copy. All other documents will be maintained in soft copy.

6. Academic Integrity: “Academic Integrity” is the intellectual honesty in proposing,

performing and reporting any activity, which leads to the creation of intellectual property and it
includes a student. Mentor shall run the final submissions through anti-plagiarism software and
make assessment on similarity index. Dissertation synopsis with plagiarized content (similarity
index of more than 30% and from single source more than 3%) will be rejected by the viva-
voce/presentation panel and the student shall be directed to re-submit the synopsis with
modifications within a stipulated time.

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7. Late submissions: Mentor may reject any late submissions from the students. In case a
mentor chooses to accept the late submissions, a deduction of 5 marks per day shall be done in
the final award of marks/grades.

8. Evaluation Scheme: Dissertation synopsis shall be evaluated on 100 marks. The marks/
grades will be awarded based on submission of the synopsis with all the requirements mentioned
above followed by a presentation/viva-voce. Bifurcation of the marks would be as follows:

Written Submission (50 Marks) Mentor (10 marks) Presentation/Viva-Voce*

 Content/structure
mentioned in para 3.1
To be evaluated by another faculty
other than mentor who would be
part of the viva-voce panel.
Average of two evaluations
*A presentation/viva-voce would be taken by a panel other than the faculty Mentor/Outside
Expert(s).
(40 Marks)
Adherence to timeline Clarity on title, research
Quality of work problem and research
Number of consultations questions/hypothesis
Richness of review of
literature
Critical thinking

Written
Submission Mentor Presentation /Viva-Voce Panel
Mentor 50 10
Neutral
Evaluator 50 40
Outside Expert 40
Average of 2 50 10 40
Total Marks 100

8.1 Guidance on Award of Grades: The evaluators of seminar paper shall be guided by the
following scale of grading:
85 and above O*

75-84 A+ **

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65-74 A
55-64 B+
45-54 B
40-44 C+
35-39 C
Less than 35 F#

* Exceptional Work and similarity index is less than 15%

** Very Good work and similarity index is less than 20%
# Also when similarity index of the submitted paper is more than 30%

9. Communication of Approval of Synopsis: The final dissertation title with synopsis as

approved by the expert panel shall be published and would not be changed in any circumstances.
Students shall begin work on their final dissertation immediately after communication of their
approval of synopsis.

II. FINAL DISSERTATION

10. DISSERTATION: Student shall be guided by the approved synopsis for writing the final
dissertation. This stage would require regular consultations from the mentor and students may
also consult outside experts/professionals.
10.1 Contents/structure of the Dissertation Synopsis: Student shall prepare a synopsis in
consultation with the mentor and shall have the following components.
A. Cover-page (As per the format provided in Annexure C)
a. Students may choose to write an acknowledgment/preface
B. Declaration /Undertaking of Originality
C. Approved Title (student shall carry the original approved synopsis during final viva-
voce/presentation)
D. Introduction
E. Research Methodology (shall be based on however enhanced from synopsis in particular
review of literature)
a. Statement of the Problem
b. Review of Literature

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c. Research Objectives
d. Key Research Questions (minimum 3)/Hypothesis
e. Research Methods
F. Main Text (Chapters – Not More Than 7)
G. Limitation of Research
H. Conclusion and Recommendations
I. References and Bibliography
J. Consultation Record

10.2 Format of Dissertation

 The seminar paper shall be typed on A4 size with font Times New Roman 12 (footnotes
text size to be 10).
 Line Spacing: 1.5. Margins: Top 1.0”, Bottom 1.0”, Left 1.5”, Right 1.0”. Character
spacing: Normal.
10.3 Length of Dissertation: 20000-25000 words including footnotes.

11. Consultation Record: Every student shall maintain a consultation record with their
mentor in the format provided in Annexure A to these guidelines. It is desirable that the students
shall take a minimum of five-seven consultations (online/offline) with their mentor. Final
submission shall mandatorily accompany the consultation record. Consultations taken over e-
mail/Learning Management System (LMS), if any, shall also be recorded in this sheet and must be
endorsed by the mentor. Students have also to submit a declaration of originality along with the
consultation record in the format provided in Annexure B.

12. Final Submission of Dissertation: The students are advised to submit their Final
Dissertation before the scheduled date and time to avoid any penalty for late submissions. We are
moving towards sustainability and in an attempt to support this cause, submissions of dissertation
synopsis shall be made electronically as per communicated modalities by the mentor. For the
purposes of record, students have to submit only one hard copy (including consultation record
and declaration of originality) of the Dissertation along with the final soft copy of the dissertation
at the scheduled date.

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13. Academic Integrity: “Academic Integrity” is the intellectual honesty in proposing,

performing and reporting any activity, which leads to the creation of intellectual property and it
includes a student. Mentor shall run the final submissions through anti-plagiarism software and
make assessment on similarity index. Dissertation with plagiarized content (similarity index of
more than 20% and from single source more than 2%) will be rejected by the Mentor and the
student shall be directed to re-submit the seminar paper as a last chance with his/her grading being
capped to B+. If the re-submitted paper does not meet the requirements of Academic Integrity as
above, the students shall be awarded with ‘F’ grade.

14. Late submissions: Mentor may reject any late submissions from the students. In case a
mentor chooses to accept the late submissions, a deduction of 5 marks per day shall be done in
the final award of marks/grades.

15. Evaluation Scheme: Dissertation synopsis shall be evaluated on 100 marks. The marks/
grades will be awarded based on submission of the synopsis with all the requirements mentioned
above followed by a presentation/viva-voce. Bifurcation of the marks would be as follows:

Written Submission (50 Marks) Mentor (10 marks) Presentation/Viva-Voce*

 Content/structure
mentioned in para 10.1
To be evaluated by another faculty
other than mentor who would be
part of the viva-voce panel.
Average of two evaluations
Adherence to timeline
Quality of work
Number of consultations
(40 Marks)
Clarity on title, research
problem and research
questions/hypothesis
Conclusions and
recommendations
Research methodology
Critical thinking

*A presentation/viva-voce would be taken by a panel other than the faculty Mentor/Outside

Expert(s).
Written
Submission Mentor Presentation /Viva-Voce Panel

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Mentor 50 10
Neutral
Evaluator 50 40
Outside Expert 40
Average of 2 50 10 40
Total Marks 100
15.1 Guidance on Award of Grades: The evaluators of seminar paper shall be guided by the
following scale of grading:
85 and above O*

75-84 A+ **
65-74 A
55-64 B+
45-54 B
40-44 C+
35-39 C
Less than 35 F#

* Exceptional Work and similarity index is less than 10%

** Very Good work and similarity index is less than 15%
# Also when similarity index of the submitted paper is more than 40%

16. Review of Guidelines and Removal of Difficulties

These guidelines may be reviewed in a meeting with Dean and Head of the Departments whenever
a need arises. Dean, School of Law may remove any difficulties which may arise in
implementation of these Guidelines by way of an amendment to these Guidelines.

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ANNEXURE A

CONSULTATION RECORD

Full Name of the Student:………………………………………………………

Enrolment Number:……………………………………………………………
SAP Id:………………………………………………………………………….

SN Date Particulars of Consultation Sign of Mentor

*additional rows may be added

Signature
[Name of the Mentor]

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Annexure B

DECLARATION/UNDERTAKING OF ORIGINALITY

I, …………………………………………………………… having Enrolment No

…………………………. SAP ID………………………… declare that the Dissertation /Synopsis
titled “_________________” is the outcome of my original work conducted under the supervision
of Ms. / Mr ./Dr./Prof._______________ at School of Law, University of Petroleum and Energy
Studies, Dehradun.

I undertake full responsibility of the contents of this Dissertation/Synopsis complying with the
‘Academic Integrity’ policy of UPES and I understand that if this work is found in violation of the
same, this may result in rejection of Synopsis/Dissertation and entail appropriate disciplinary
proceedings as per Rules of the University.

Word Count of Synopsis/Dissertation ……………………

Signature
[Name of the Student]
Date……………
Place…………….

Endorsement by the Mentor:

Date of final Submission:………………………..
Antiplagiarism Check /Similarity found: ………..
Late Submission………………………………….

Signature
[Name of the Mentor]
Date……………

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Annexure C
FORMAT- COVER PAGE

DISSERTATION
SEMESTER & PROGRAM:

TITLE (IN ALL CAPITAL LETTERS)

Name of the Student(s) (Name as per UPES Records, Complete Enrollment

no., Complete SAP ID)

Submitted under the guidance of: Ms./ Mr./Dr./Prof.- Name of the Mentor
(Write the correct and complete Name of the Mentor)

School of Law
University of Petroleum and Energy Studies
Dehradun

(Month, Year)

Issued from the office of Dean, School of Law on 27th August, 2019

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