LAW STUDENT ADVISE

As a law student you have already studied the basic principles of law in various subject

fields. You might perhaps have used research skills in research assignments during your

previous years of study. You have completed the module LME3701 which serves as a

foundation for RRLLB81. In LME3701, you were provided with a synoptic overview of

essential legal research themes specifically for the novice legal researcher in the legal

research planning stage. At its core, LME3701 is grounded on research methodology and

includes reference to the legal research conventions needed to execute basic academic

legal research in preparation for writing up a research report in your fourth year of study as

part of RRLLB81. While LME3701 is designed to communicate general aspects of the

research process and to demonstrate the planning phase connected to research in the

field of law, RRLLB81 is designed to culminate in the eventual writing up of a research

report. So, while LME3701 focused on the legal research methodology necessary for

drafting a research proposal, RRLLB81 focuses on the process that follows upon

the research proposal. Every research project in RRLLB81 presupposes a research

proposal, but you will not be required to submit a research proposal for purposes of

RRLLB81, and whatever planning you have done in the form of a research proposal will

not be assessed in RRLLB81. It is presumed that you know how to do a research

proposal, and that you have done the necessary research planning in accordance with

what you have learned in LME3701. Since an acceptable research report cannot be

produced without planning, we will briefly touch upon certain aspects of the planning

phase of your research without repeating everything that you were taught in LME3701.

We realise that you are not yet an established researcher, or, at least, an established legal

researcher. Research can be done at various levels. At the lowest level, you might get a

basic question to which you must find a rather straight-forward answer. At the other end of

the spectrum, an established researcher has almost full autonomy over the research

process, from identifying the topic to getting the results published without any supervision

or content-related advice. The current research project (RRLLB81) is situated between

these two extremes, but much closer to the former than to the latter. Hence, you are given

a list of topics that experts consider viable. To further assist you, the problems to be
investigated are described in some detail. You are not required to start at ground zero.

You are presented with some information, pointers, a few initial sources and some

instructions. While this is certainly a great help, it simultaneously narrows the scope of

what you are allowed to do. Read the topics very carefully, noting the set parameters, the

limitations and the focus of the enquiry, and what you are expected to do and not to do.

In an attempt to lay the groundwork for a systematic approach to the writing of your

research report, we will describe the process of doing research from choosing a topic to

submitting the final portfolio (Assessment 3). We will split the process in two phases, the

first stretching from selecting a topic to the submission of a draft research report

(Assessment 2), and the second stretching from that point to the submission of your final

research report (Assessment 3)