LLM Healthcare Ethics and Law / Course details

The dissertation by independent research is a central component of a taught master’s degree, and it provides candidates with an opportunity to develop a position on a topic of ethical or legal importance that is of particular interest to them.  With a limit of 12 000 words, students will be able to generate an in-depth account of their topic, but will also be forced to maintain focus.  At 60 credits, it represents a third of the whole degree.  A good mark in the dissertation component may indicate suitability for doctoral research.

Students choose their own topic for research, albeit within certain constraints.  Those students registered for the LLM version of the Healthcare Ethics and Law degree are expected to prioritise legal analysis in their project; those on the MA or MSc version do not have the same restriction.  On the other hand, it is to be expected that in practice a law-based dissertation would often involve some analysis of the considerations that underpin the law, some of which will be ethical; by the same token, an ethics-based dissertation may well want to consider particular legal points in the service of the ethical argument (for example, by asking whether a given law is morally sound).  The other restriction is that the work cannot be empirical in nature.  At root, this is because there is no time to ensure that the relevant training and ethics committee approvals would be in place.  Beyond that, though, so long as the topic chosen is within the broad area of biomedical ethics and law, students have a free hand to choose their project.

Students must submit a provisional title and a brief summary of their proposed topic by a specific date, usually around Easter, on the basis of which they will be assigned a supervisor.  They will be entitled to meetings with their supervisor over the writing-period, and for a portion of the draft to be read and commented on before final submission.

Further information about title approvals, the supervision process and submission process will be made available during the taught component of the degree.

• To develop academic skills such as analysis, critical evaluation and argument, sustained over a long piece of work;
• To develop the capacity for individual research;
• To develop skills and knowledge that can usefully be applied in further study, the legal profession, public service or industry.

On completion of the dissertation, successful students will have

• deepened their capacities for independent research, and collation and evaluation of primary and secondary materials;

• developed their capacity for critical analysis and logical thinking, independent learning, and reflection; and

• developed a general range of transferable and generic skills in problem-solving and reasoning as well as written communication.

• The dissertation builds upon the analytic and argumentative skills developed during the taught phase of the degree.

• Unlike the taught phase, all candidates have a right to up to 4 face-to-face meetings with their supervisor.  The point of these meetings is to discuss the progress of work, and they allow supervisors to talk to students about any work that they have sent along for comment as part of the drafting process. The timings and content of meetings will be decided by the student.

Formative feedback, ether written and/or oral, is made available during the supervision process by the supervisor.

Feedback/ comprehensive comments will also be provided on the marked dissertations and will be released with the result.