Graduate Research Unit

A research paper may be taken as part of a Juris Doctor, Master of Laws, Master of Financial Management and Law, and Master of International Law and Diplomacy program. The course, LAWS8301, is worth 12 units and involves the completion of a 12,000-16,000 word research thesis.

Further information can be located within the Research Paper Guidelines

Course Guidelines

Course Guidelines

Ensure the minimum program requirements are met

Juris Doctor:

have completed or be completing five 1000 or 6100 level LAWS courses; and
have completed LAWS8800 Advanced Introduction to Legal Methods and Legal Writing¹; and
have a distinction (70%) average across 24 units including a minimum of two LAWS8000.

Master of Laws, Master of Financial Management and Law, and Master of International Law and Diplomacy:

have completed or be completing or exempt from completing LAWS8586 Law and Legal Institutions (Summer and Winter); and
have completed LAWS8800 Advanced Introduction to Legal Methods and Legal Writing¹ (First Semester); and
a distinction (70%) average across 24 units of LAWS8000 courses.

¹ Students undertaking LAWS8301 Graduate Research Unit in First Semester 2023 or First Semester 2024 may undertake LAWS8800 Advanced Introduction to Legal Methods and Legal Writing concurrently.

Topics and Supervision

Students are required to nominate two academic staff members as potential supervisors for the course. This can be actioned by preparing:

One topic and two prospective supervisors OR
Two topics with a different supervisor for each topic.

Begin thinking about the proposed topic and prepare an outline

The outline should comprise of:

the proposed research topic and its boundaries;
the key issues to be addressed;
the methodology adopted to address the issues;
Propose a timetable for writing the thesis;
preliminary literature review and a bibliography; and
the list of literature consulted.

The outline must be such as to convince a supervisor that the topic is sufficiently developed and refined and that the paper can be successfully completed within the semester. It is expected that the outline is a maximum of 2000 words in length.

If empirical research is to be carried out, students must indicate that any relevant ethics approval has been sought. In practice, ethics clearance is required at least 6 to 8 weeks before the research is scheduled to occur. The feasibility of completing the research in time to enable on-time submission must be a primary consideration.

Approaching a potential supervisor

The proposed research topic/s must be discussed with two ANU College of Law academic staff members. Students should approach supervisors that have the appropriate knowledge in the relevant field of research. The Second Semester 2023 Supervisors List document provides a list of potential supervisors' availability and their field/s of expertise. Whilst every effort will be made to assign students with their preferred supervisor, circumstances may require the allocation of another supervisor.

Research Paper - Supervisors list Sem Two, 2023

Submitting an application

Once supervisors have confirmed that they are willing to supervise you, please obtain an approval email from them and upload it when you submit your online application. Please note that the allocation of supervisors is based on academic availability. Whilst every effort will be made to assign you to one of the two supervisors selected, circumstances may require you to be allocated to another supervisor.