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PhD Dissertations

Dissertations from 2022 2022.

British Empire, Land Tenure and the Search for an Ideal Proprietor: 1868-1875 , Preetmohinder Singh Aulakh

The old people are the song, and we are their echo: resurgence of w̱ sáneć law and legal theory , Robert Justin Clifford

A Critical Approach to the Regulation of a Public Corporation's Purchase of Its Own Shares on the Open Market: Lessons from The Transatlantic Comparison , Alper Cohaz

The Norm Life Cycle Theory and The Role of INSOL International in Shaping the Uncitral Model Law on Cross-Border Insolvency , Anthony Ikemefuna Idigbe

Judicial Depictions of Responsibility and Risk: The Erasure of State Accountability in Canadian Sentencing Judgments Involving Indigenous People , Sarah Jane Nussbaum

Regulating the Corporation from Within and Without: Corporate Governance and Workers’ Interests , Vanisha Hemwatie Sukdeo

Dissertations from 2021 2021

Just Greening the Gulf: Sustaining Justice for Migrant Workers , Asma Atique

Ongoing crimes and the unlikelihood of punishment - Syria as a case study , Ghuna Bdiwi

Lawyering from Below: Activist Legal Support in Contemporary Canada and the US , Irina Ceric

Measuring Access to Civil Justice: An Empirical Study of Ontarios Reform Initiatives , Matthew Dylag

Refugee Camps: In Search of the Locus of the Accountability of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Under International Law , Zachary Lomo

Epistemological Justice in Strategic Challenges to Legislation under Section 7 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms , Dana Erin Phillips

The Potential for a Family Law Tribunal , Patricia Lynn Robinson

Settling the Law: An Empirical Assessment of Decision-Making and Judicial Review in Canada's Refugee Resettlement System , Pierre-Andre Theriault

The Regulation of Paralegals in Ontario: Increased Access to Justice? , Lisa Danielle Trabucco

How Will I Know? An Epistemology of Lawyering , Emanuel Raul Tucsa

Regional Economic Community Courts and the Advancement of Environmental Protection and Socio-economic Justice in Africa: Three Case Studies , Rahina Bukar Zarma

Dissertations from 2020 2020

A Corporative Theory of Corporate Law and Governance , Phillip Granville Bevans

Re-Visiting the 'Resource Curse': Law and Mining Governance in Southern African Developmental States , Sara Ghebremusse

Mining Conflict, Indigenous Peoples and Environmental Justice: The Case of Phulbari Coal Project in Bangladesh , Mohammad Mahmudul Hasan

The Transnational Mining Justice Social Movement: Indigenous Right to Consultation & Right to Remedy Law Reform Activism in Canada and Latin America From 1999-2019 , Charis Kamphuis

Hryniak, the 2010 Amendments, and the First Stages of a Culture Shift?: The Evolution of Ontario Civil Procedure in the 2010s , Gerard Joseph Kennedy

A Comparative Study of Judicial Safeguards in Relation to Investor-State Dispute Settlement , Pavla Kristkova

Disability's Encounter with Legislation and Governance: Long-Term Care Homes in Ontario , Po Land Lai

The Nexus Standard and its Implications for International Tax Competition and Soft Law , Huaning Li

Towards Development Justice: Re-Visiting the Accountability of the World Bank and the IMF from a Right to Development Perspective , Maxwel Owuor Miyawa

Assessing Canada's Copyright Law in the Digital Context: Digital Locks, Open Licenses, and the Limits of Legislative Change , Justice Ifeonukwu Ogoroh

Regulatory Transgression? Drivers, Aims and Effects of Money Laundering and Terrorism Financing Regulation in Pakistan , Ahmed Sanaa

Resisting Obsolescence: A Comprehensive Study of Canada's Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner and the Office's Efforts to Innovate While Strategically Asserting Greater Independence , Ian Norris Kellner Stedman

Dissertations from 2019 2019

Narrowing the Gap between Tax Law and Accounting , Humayun Rashid Chaudhary

Artificially Intelligent Copyright: Rethinking Copyright Boundaries , Aviv Hertzel Gaon

Beyond the Habitual: Legal Argument Upon the Use of Force and During the Conduct of Hostilities , David Michael Hughes

The Right to Support: Severely Disabled Children & Their Mothers , Sheila Kathleen Jennings

Attracting Foreign Investments for Green Energy Projects in Sub-Saharan Africa: Climate Change Policy & Innovation in International Legal Compliance , Leslyn Ann Lewis

Recognizing the Assemblage: Palestinian Bedouin of the Naqab in Dialectic with Israeli Law , Victor Nasser Rego

If You Love Something, Set it Free? Open Content Copyright Licensing and Creative Cultural Expression , Giuseppe Roberto Tarantino

Dissertations from 2018 2018

Intersectional Human Rights at CEDAW: Promises Transmissions and Impacts , Amanda Barbara Allen Dale

International Criminal Law and Limits of Universal Jurisdiction in the Global South: A Critical Discussion on Crimes Against Humanity , Nergis Canefe

Translating Trademarks: Towards the Equal Treatment of Foreign- Language Marks , Ung Shen Goh

The Pomegranate Tree has Smothered Me: International Law, Imperialism & Labour Struggle in Iraq, 1917-1960 , Ali Hammoudi

Law, Autonomy, and Local Government: A Legal History of Municipal Corporations in Canada West/Ontario, 1850-1880 , Mary Margaret Pelton Stokes

The Transnational Judicial Dialogue of the Supreme Court of Canada and its Impact , Klodian Rado

Is Genetic Use Restriction Technology (GURT) a Viable Alternative to the Utility Patent for the Protection and Promotion of Innovation in Genetically Engineered Agricultural Seeds? , Joseph Rosenblat

Law, Culture, and the City: Urban Legal Anthropology, the Counterhegemonic Use of Hegemonic Legal Tools, and the Management of Intangible Cultural Heritage Spaces Within Toronto's Municipal Legal Frameworks , Sara Gwendolyn Ross

Dissertations from 2017 2017

The Role of Colonialism and Neo-Colonialism in Shaping Anti-Terrorism Law in Comparative and International Perspectives: Case Studies of Egypt and Tunisia , Fatemah Alzubairi

Re-Imagining Local Governance: The Landscape of "Local" in Toronto , Alexandra Elizabeth Flynn

'Pyrates' of the Lyceum: Big Pharma, Patents, and Academic Freedom in Neoliberal Times , James McGillivray

The Place of Private Property in Land Use Law: A Relational Examination of Ontario's Quarry Conflicts , Estair Suarez Van Wagner

Dissertations from 2016 2016

When Insider Trading and Market Manipulation Cross Jurisdictions: What Are the Challenges For Securities Regulators and How Can They Best Preserve the Integrity of Markets? , Janet Elizabeth Austin

Geographical Indications and Development in the Third World: Towards a Strategic Approach of Intellectual Property Rights in Jamaica - The Case of Blue Mountain Coffee , Marsha Simone Cadogan

The Rules of Engagement: Self-Defense and the Principle of Distinction in International Humanitarian Law , Tracey Leigh Dowdeswell

The Limits of Regulation: A Case Study of Virtual and Intangible Harm , Nachshon Goltz

Mandated Ethics: Regulatory Innovation and its Limits in the Governance of Research Involving Humans , Igor Gontcharov

Confronting (In)Security: Forging Legitimate Approaches to Security and Exclusion in Migration Law , Angus Gavin Grant

Legal Anarchism: Does Existence Need to Be Regulated by the State , Sirus Kashefi

Having a Say: Democracy, Access to Justice and Self-Represented Litigants , Jennifer Ann Leitch

Social Protests as Constitutional Interpretation , Domingo Andreas Lovera-Parmo

The Nature and Value of Access to Information Laws in Canada and the EU: Ideals, Practices and Perspectives , Irma Spahiu

The Colliding Vernaculars of Foreign Investment Protection and Transitional Justice in Colombia: A Challenge for the Law in a Global Context , Marco Alberto Velasquez

Dissertations from 2015 2015

Rethinking the Law of Interrogations and Confessions in Canada , Fariborz Davoudi

Governing Water in Canada: The Legislative Experiments in New Governance , Patricia Hania

Changing Our Tune: A Music-Based Approach to Teaching, Learning, and Resolving Conflict , Linda Marie Ippolito

Reputational Privacy and the Internet: A Matter for Law? , Elizabeth Anne Kirley

Unionization at Justice Canada: A Case Study , Andrij Roman Kowalsky

Tracking Queer Kinships: Assisted Reproduction, Family Law and the Infertility Trap , Stewart Donnell Marvel

Through The Looking Glass: Transparency in the WTO , Maria Panezi

Increasing Innovation in Legal Process: The Contribution of Collaborative Law , Martha Emily Simmons

False Universalism of Global Governance Theories: Global Constitutionalism, Global Administrative Law, International Criminal Institutions and the Global South , Sujith Xavier

Dissertations from 2014 2014

Creating a Cultural Analysis Tool for the Implementation of Ontario's Civil Mental Health Laws , Roby Dhand

Rights and Responsibilities: What are the Prospects for the Responsibility to Protect in the International/Transnational Arena? , Carolyn Helen Filteau

Unanimous Shareholder Agreements , Nicolas William Juzda

Coercing Justice? Exploring the "Aspirations and Practice" of Law as a Tool in Struggles Against Social Inequalities , Karen Schucher

Adjudicating Human Rights in Transitional Contexts: A Nigerian Case-Study, 1999-2009 , Basil Emeka Ugochukwu

Safe Havens or Dangerous Waters? A Phenomenological Study of Abused Women's Experiences in the Family Courts of Ontario , Lois Shereen Winstock

Dissertations from 2013 2013

Securities Regulation of Ontario Venture Issuers: Rules or Principles? , John Pearson Allen

What it is-What it Should Be: An Empirical Analysis of the Effect of Procedures and Substantive Arguments on Adjudicative Tribunal Resource Allocation Decisions , Lydia Christine Stewart Ferreira

"The Rise and Fall of Welfare Health Legislation in 20th Century Chile: A Case Study in Political Economy of Law" , Jaime Llambias-Wolff

Exemptions for the non-performance of contractual obligations in cisg article 79 and the quest for uniformity in international sales law , Peter J. Mazzacano

"That Indispensable Figment of the Legal Mind": The Contract of Employment at Common Law in Ontario, 1890-1979 , Claire Isabel Mummé

Law, the American Corporation, and Society , Fenner Leland Stewart Jr.

Dissertations from 2012 2012

The Art of Persuasion: International/Comparative Human Rights, The Supreme Court of Canada and the Reconstitution of the Canadian Security Certificate Regime , Graham Hudson

"I smooth'd him up with fair words": Intersocietal law, from fur trade to treaty , Janna Beth Promislow

Dissertations from 2001 2001

The Constitution of Canada and the Conflict of Laws , Janet Walker

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Law thesis and dissertation collection

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Presented here is a selection of theses and dissertations from the School of Law. Please note that this is not a complete record of all degrees awarded by the School.

This material is presented to ensure timely dissemination of scholarly and technical work. Copyright and all rights therein are retained by authors or by other copyright holders. All persons copying this information are expected to adhere to the terms and constraints invoked by each author's copyright. In most cases, these works may not be reposted without the explicit permission of the copyright holder.

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Out of place and out of time: older prisoners in chile , mind the gap: an empirical study of terrorism offences, law-making, and discretion , challenges and limitations of granting legal personality to distributed/decentralized autonomous organizations , development of international shipping standards under the auspices of the imo and their implementation in practice: a case study of thailand , adequacy of the ex post armed attack framework of the jus ad bellum in relation to the evolving means and methods of warfare , governing disputed maritime areas , what we say when we criminalise: a metanormative inquiry , testamentary law in england, c. 1450-1540 , sovereign immunity from execution of foreign arbitral awards in the 21st century , conceptualizations of addiction in harm reduction strategies for effective and ethical uk drug policy , liminality and the lived experience of law in medicine: the legal consciousness of physicians in encounters with people living as undocumented migrants , contested citizenship and statelessness in question: an anlysis of cases of overseas taiwanese people and tibetan exiles in taiwan , eternity and the constitution: the promise and limits of eternity clauses , hate speech in the british press: a theoretical and practical assessment of the case for broader regulation , liberty versus security under illiberal constitutionalism: the legality of criminalising humanitarian assistance in hungary and greece , operationalising ‘publicness’ in data-intensive health research regulation: an examination of the public interest as a regulatory device , worldmaking powers of law and performance: queer politics beyond/against neoliberal legalism , development of law of the sea by unclos dispute settlement procedures: towards a coherent jurisprudence , evaluating the european union's response to online misinformation and disinformation: how to address harm while maximising freedom of expression , reconciling reverse burdens of proof with the presumption of innocence: a new approach .

Legal Dissertation: Research and Writing Guide

About this guide, video on choosing a topic, tools on westlaw, lexis and bloomberg, circuit splits, research methodologies, additional methodology resources, conducting a literature review, beginning research, writing style guides, citation guides, ask a librarian.

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About This Page

Choosing a topic can be one of the most challenging aspects of writing an extensive paper. This page has resources to help you find topics and inspiration, before you get started on the in-depth research process.

Related Guides

Citation and Writing Resources

Legal Research Tutorials

Secondary Sources for Legal Research

Methods of Finding Cases

Methods of Finding Statutes

Current Awareness and Alerting Resources

Compiling State Legislative Histories

Locating International and Foreign Law Journals

This guide contains resources to help students researching and writing a legal dissertation or other upper-level writing project. Some of the resources in this guide are directed at researching and writing in general, not specifically on legal topics, but the strategies and tips can still be applied.

The Law Library maintains a number of other guides on related skills and topics that may be of interest:

The Wells Library also maintains guides. A few that may be helpful for managing research can be found here:

Choosing a Topic

This video discusses tips and strategies for choosing a dissertation topic.

Note: this video is not specific to legal dissertation topics, but it may still be of interest as an overview generally.

The Bloomberg/BNA publication United States Law Week can be a helpful resource for tracking down the major legal stories of the day.  Log into Bloomberg Law, in the big search box, start typing United States Law Week and the title will appear in the drop down menu beneath the box. This publication provides coverage of top legal news stories, and in-depth "insight" features.

If you have a general idea of the area of law you wish to write about, check out the Practice Centers on Bloomberg. From the homepage, click the Browse link in the top left-hand corner. Then select Practice Centers and look for your area of law. Practice Centers are helpful because they gather cases, statutes, administrative proceedings, news, and more on the selected legal area.

Bloomberg has other news sources available as well. From the homepage, click the Browse link in the top left-hand corner. Then select News and Analysis, then select News or Analysis, and browse the available topics.

If you know what area of law you'd like to write about, you may find the Browse Topics feature in Lexis Advance helpful for narrowing down your topic. 

Log into Lexis Advance, click the Browse Topics tab, and select a topic.  If you don't see your topic listed, try using the provided search bar to see whether your topic is categorized as a sub-topic within this list. 

Once you click on a topic, a box pops up with several options.  If you click on Get Topic Document, you'll see results listed in a number of categories, including Cases, Legislation, and more.  The News and Legal News categories at the right end of the list may help you identify current developments of interest for your note.  Don't forget about the filtering options on the left that will allow you to search within your results, narrow your jurisdiction, and more.

Similar to Lexis Advance, Westlaw Edge has a Topics tab that may be helpful if you know what area of law you'd like to write about.

Log onto Westlaw Edge, and click on the Topics tab.  This time, you won't be able to search within this list, so if you're area is not listed, you should either run a regular search from the main search bar at the top or try out some of the topics listed under this tab - once you click on a topic, you can search within its contents.

What is great about the Topics in Westlaw Edge is the Practitioner Insights page you access by clicking on a topic.  This is an information portal that allows you quick access to cases, legislation, top news, and more on your selected topic.

In United States federal courts, a circuit split occurs whenever two or more circuit courts of appeals issue conflicting rulings on the same legal question. Circuit splits are ripe for legal analysis and commentary because they present a situation in which federal law is being applied in different ways in different parts of the country, even if the underlying litigants themselves are otherwise similarly situated. The Supreme Court also frequently accepts cases on appeal that involve these types of conflicted rulings from various sister circuits.

To find a circuit split on a topic of interest to you, try searching on Lexis and Westlaw using this method:

in the search box, enter the following: (circuit or court w/s split) AND [insert terms or phrases to narrow the search]

You can also browse for circuit splits on Bloomberg. On the Bloomberg homepage, in the "Law School Success" box, Circuit Splits Charts appear listed under Secondary Sources.

Other sources for circuit splits are American Law Reports (ALR) and American Jurisprudence (AmJur). These publications provide summaries of the law, point out circuit splits, and provide references for further research.

"Blawgs" or law-related blogs are often written by scholars or practitioners in the legal field.  Ordinarily covering current events and developments in law, these posts can provide inspiration for note topics.  To help you find blawgs on a specific topic, consider perusing the ABA's Blawg Directory or Justia's Blawg Search .

Research Methodology

Types of research methodologies.

There are different types of research methodologies. Methodology refers to the strategy employed in conducting research. The following methodologies are some of the most commonly used in legal and social science research.

Doctrinal legal research methodology, also called "black letter" methodology, focuses on the letter of the law rather than the law in action. Using this method, a researcher composes a descriptive and detailed analysis of legal rules found in primary sources (cases, statutes, or regulations). The purpose of this method is to gather, organize, and describe the law; provide commentary on the sources used; then, identify and describe the underlying theme or system and how each source of law is connected.

Doctrinal methodology is good for areas of law that are largely black letter law, such as contract or property law. Under this approach, the researcher conducts a critical, qualitative analysis of legal materials to support a hypothesis. The researcher must identify specific legal rules, then discuss the legal meaning of the rule, its underlying principles, and decision-making under the rule (whether cases interpreting the rule fit together in a coherent system or not). The researcher must also identify ambiguities and criticisms of the law, and offer solutions. Sources of data in doctrinal research include the rule itself, cases generated under the rule, legislative history where applicable, and commentaries and literature on the rule.

This approach is beneficial by providing a solid structure for crafting a thesis, organizing the paper, and enabling a thorough definition and explanation of the rule. The drawbacks of this approach are that it may be too formalistic, and may lead to oversimplifying the legal doctrine.

Comparative

Comparative legal research methodology involves critical analysis of different bodies of law to examine how the outcome of a legal issue could be different under each set of laws. Comparisons could be made between different jurisdictions, such as comparing analysis of a legal issue under American law and the laws of another country, or researchers may conduct historical comparisons.

When using a comparative approach be sure to define the reasons for choosing this approach, and identify the benefits of comparing laws from different jurisdictions or time periods, such as finding common ground or determining best practices and solutions. The comparative method can be used by a researcher to better understand their home jurisdiction by analyzing how other jurisdictions handle the same issue. This method can also be used as a critical analytical tool to distinguish particular features of a law. The drawback of this method is that it can be difficult to find material from other jurisdictions. Also, researchers should be sure that the comparisons are relevant to the thesis and not just used for description.

This type of research uses data analysis to study legal systems. A detailed guide on empirical methods can be found here . The process of empirical research involves four steps: design the project, collect and code the data, analyze the data, determine best method of presenting the results. The first step, designing the project, is when researchers define their hypothesis and concepts in concrete terms that can be observed. Next, researchers must collect and code the data by determining the possible sources of information and available collection methods, and then putting the data into a format that can be analyzed. When researchers analyze the data, they are comparing the data to their hypothesis. If the overlap between the two is significant, then their hypothesis is confirmed, but if there is little to no overlap, then their hypothesis is incorrect. Analysis involves summarizing the data and drawing inferences. There are two types of statistical inference in empirical research, descriptive and causal. Descriptive inference is close to summary, but the researcher uses the known data from the sample to draw conclusions about the whole population. Causal inference is the difference between two descriptive inferences.

Two main types of empirical legal research are qualitative and quantitative.

Quantitative, or numerical, empirical legal research involves taking information about cases and courts, translating that information into numbers, and then analyzing those numbers with statistical tools.

Qualitative, or non-numerical, empirical legal research involves extracting  information from the text of court documents, then interpreting and organizing the text into categories, and using that information to identify patterns.

Drafting The Methodology Section

This is the part of your paper that describes the research methodology, or methodologies if you used more than one. This section will contain a detailed description of how the research was conducted and why it was conducted in that way. First, draft an outline of what you must include in this section and gather the information needed.

Generally, a methodology section will contain the following:

• Statement of research objectives
• Reasons for the research methodology used
• Description and rationale of the data collection tools, sampling techniques, and data sources used, including a description of how the data collection tools were administered
• Discussion of the limitations
• Discussion of the data analysis tools used

Be sure that you have clearly defined the reasoning behind the chosen methodology and sources.

• Legal Reasoning, Research, and Writing for International Graduate Students Nadia E. Nedzel Aspen (2004) A guide to American legal research and the federal system, written for international students. Includes information on the research process, and tips for writing. Located in the Law Library, 3rd Floor: KF 240 .N43 2004.
• Methodologies of Legal Research: Which Kind of Method for What Kind of Discipline? Mark van Hoecke Oxford (2013) This book examines different methods of legal research including doctrinal, comparative, and interdisciplinary. Located at Lilly Law Library, Indianapolis, 2nd Floor: K 235 .M476 2013. IU students may request item via IUCAT.
• An Introduction to Empirical Legal Research Lee Epstein and Andrew D. Martin Oxford University Press (2014) This book includes information on designing research, collecting and coding data, analyzing data, and drafting the final paper. Located at Lilly Law Library, Indianapolis, 2nd Floor: K 85 .E678 2014. IU students may request item via IUCAT.
• Emplirical Legal Studies Blog The ELS blog was created by several law professors, and focuses on using empirical methods in legal research, theory, and scholarship. Search or browse the blog to find entries on methodology, data sources, software, and other tips and techniques.

Literature Review

The literature review provides an examination of existing pieces of research, and serves as a foundation for further research. It allows the researcher to critically evaluate existing scholarship and research practices, and puts the new thesis in context. When conducting a literature review, one should consider the following: who are the leading scholars in the subject area; what has been published on the subject; what factors or subtopics have these scholars identified as important for further examination; what research methods have others used; what were the pros and cons of using those methods; what other theories have been explored.

The literature review should include a description of coverage. The researcher should describe what material was selected and why, and how those selections are relevant to the thesis. Discuss what has been written on the topic and where the thesis fits in the context of existing scholarship. The researcher should evaluate the sources and methodologies used by other researchers, and describe how the thesis different.

The following video gives an overview of conducting a literature review.

Note: this video is not specific to legal literature, however it may be helpful as a general overview.

Not sure where to start? Here are a few suggestions for digging into sources once you have selected a topic.

Research Guides

Research guides are discovery tools, or gateways of information. They pull together lists of sources on a topic. Some guides even offer brief overviews and additional research steps specifically for that topic. Many law libraries offer guides on a variety of subjects. You can locate guides by visiting library websites, such as this Library's site , the Law Library of Congress , or other schools like Georgetown . Some organizations also compile research guides, such as the American Society of International Law . Utilizing a research guide on your topic to generate an introductory source list can save you valuable time.

Secondary Sources

It is often a good idea to begin research with secondary sources. These resources summarize, explain, and analyze the law. They also provide references to primary sources and other secondary sources. This saves you time and effort, and can help you quickly identify major themes under your topic and help you place your thesis in context.

Encyclopedias provide broad coverage of all areas of the law, but do not go in-depth on narrow topics, or discuss differences by jurisdiction, or  include all of the pertinent cases. American Jurisprudence ( AmJur ) and Corpus Juris Secundum ( CJS ) have nationwide coverage, while the Indiana Law Encyclopedia focuses on Indiana state law. A number of other states also have their own state-specific encyclopedias.

American Law Reports ( ALR ) are annotations that synopsize various cases on narrow legal topics. Each annotation covers a different topic, and provides a leading or typical case on the topic, plus cases from different jurisdictions that follow different rules, or cases where different facts applying the same rule led to different outcomes. The annotations also refer to other secondary sources.  

Legal periodicals include several different types of publications such as law reviews from academic institutions or organizations, bar journals, and commercial journals/newspapers/newsletters. Legal periodicals feature articles that describe the current state of the law and often explore underlying policies. They also critique laws, court decisions, and policies, and often advocate for changes. Articles also discuss emerging issues and notify the profession of new developments. Law reviews can be useful for in-depth coverage on narrow topics, and references to primary and other secondary sources. However, content can become outdated and researchers must be mindful of biases in articles. 

Treatises/Hornbooks/Practice Guides are a type of secondary source that provides comprehensive coverage of a legal subject. It could be broad, such as a treatise covering all of contract law, or very narrow such as a treatise focused only on search and seizure cases. These sources are good when you have some general background on the topic, but you need more in-depth coverage of the legal rules and policies. Treatises are generally well organized, and provide you with finding aids (index, table of contents, etc.) and extensive footnotes or endnotes that will lead you to primary sources like cases, statutes, and regulations. They may also include appendices with supporting material like forms. However, treatises may not be updated as frequently as other sources and may not cover your specific issue or jurisdiction.

Citation and Writing Style

• Legal Writing in Plain English Bryan A. Garner University of Chicago Press, 2001. Call # KF 250 .G373 2001 Location: Law Library, 3rd Floor Provides lawyers, judges, paralegals, law students, and legal scholars with sound advice and practical tools for improving their written work. The leading guide to clear writing in the field, this book offers valuable insights into the writing process: how to organize ideas, create and refine prose, and improve editing skills. This guide uses real-life writing samples that Garner has gathered through decades of teaching experience. Includes sets of basic, intermediate, and advanced exercises in each section.
• The Elements of Legal Style Bryan A. Garner Oxford University Press, 2002. Call # KF 250 .G37 2002 Location: Law Library, 1st Floor, Reference This book explains the full range of what legal writers need to know: mechanics, word choice, structure, and rhetoric, as well as all the special conventions that legal writers should follow in using headings, defined terms, quotations, and many other devices. Garner also provides examples from highly regarded legal writers, including Oliver Wendell Holmes, Clarence Darrow, Frank Easterbrook, and Antonin Scalia.
• Grammarly Blog Blog featuring helpful information about quirks of the English language, for example when to use "affect" or "effect" and other tips. Use the search feature to locate an article relevant to your grammar query.
• Plain English for Lawyers Richard C. Wydick Carolina Academic Press, 2005. Call # KF 250 .W9 2005 Location: Law Library, 3rd Floor Award-winning book that contains guidance to improve the writing of lawyers and law students and to promote the modern trend toward a clear, plain style of legal writing. Includes exercises at the end of each chapter.
• The Chicago Manual of Style University of Chicago Press, 2010. Call # Z 253 .U69 2010 Location: Law Library, 2nd Floor While not addressing legal writing specifically, The Chicago Manual of Style is one of the most widely used and respected style guides in the United States. It focuses on American English and deals with aspects of editorial practice, including grammar and usage, as well as document preparation and formatting.
• The Chicago Manual of Style (Online) Bryan A. Garner and William S. Strong The University of Chicago Press, 2017. Online edition: use the link above to view record in IUCAT, then click the Access link (for IU students only).
• The Bluebook Compiled by the editors of the Columbia Law Review, the Harvard Law Review, the University of Pennsylvania Law Review, and the Yale Law Journal. Harvard Law Review Association, 2015. Call # KF245 .B58 2015 Location: Law Library, 1st Floor, Circulation Desk The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation is a style guide that prescribes the most widely used legal citation system in the United States. The Bluebook is taught and used at a majority of U.S. law schools, law reviews and journals, and used in a majority of U.S. federal courts.
• User's Guide to the Bluebook Alan L. Dworsky William S. Hein & Co., Inc., 2015. Call # KF 245 .D853 2015 Location: Law Library, Circulation Desk "This User's Guide is written for practitioners (law students, law clerks, lawyers, legal secretaries and paralegals), and is designed to make the task of mastering citation form as easy and painless as possible. To help alleviate the obstacles faced when using proper citation form, this text is set up as a how-to manual with a step-by-step approach to learning the basic skills of citation and includes the numbers of the relevant Bluebook rules under most chapter subheadings for easy reference when more information is needed"--Provided by the publisher.
• Legal Citation in a Nutshell Larry L. Teply West Academic Publishing, 2016. Call # KF 245 .T47 2016 Location: Law Library, 1st Floor, Circulation Desk This book is designed to ease the task of learning legal citation. It initially focuses on conventions that underlie all accepted forms and systems of legal citation. Building on that understanding and an explanation of the “process” of using citations in legal writing, the book then discusses and illustrates the basic rules.
• Introduction to Basic Legal Citation (Online) Peter W. Martin Cornell Legal Information Institute, 2017. Free online resource. Includes a thorough review of the relevant rules of appellate practice of federal and state courts. It takes account of the latest edition of The Bluebook, published in 2015, and provides a correlation table between this free online citation guide and the Bluebook.
• Last Updated: Oct 24, 2019 11:00 AM
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Access to theses and dissertations from other institutions and from the University of Cambridge

This guide provides information on searching for theses of Cambridge PhDs and for theses of UK universities and universities abroad. 

For information and guidance on depositing your thesis as a cambridge phd, visit the cambridge office of scholarly communication pages on theses here ., this guide gives essential information on how to obtain theses using the british library's ethos service. .

On the last weekend of October, the British Library became the victim of a major cyber-attack. Essential digital services including the BL catalogue, website and online learning resources went dark, with research services like the EThOS collection of more than 600,000 doctoral theses suddenly unavailable. The BL state that they anticipate restoring more services in the next few weeks, but disruption to certain services is now expected to persist for several months. For the latest news on the attack and information on the restoration of services, please follow the BL blog here:  Knowledge Matters blog  and access the LibGuide page here:  British Library Outage Update - Electronic Legal Deposit - LibGuides at University of Cambridge Subject Libraries

A full list of resources for searching theses online is provided by the Cambridge A-Z, available here .

University of Cambridge theses

Finding a cambridge phd thesis online via the institutional repository.

The University's institutional repository, Apollo , holds full-text digital versions of over 11,000 Cambridge PhD theses and is a rapidly growing collection deposited by Cambridge Ph.D. graduates. Theses in Apollo can be browsed via this link . More information on how to access theses by University of Cambridge students can be found on the access to Cambridge theses webpage.   The requirement for impending PhD graduates to deposit a digital version in order to graduate means the repository will be increasing at a rate of approximately 1,000 per year from this source.   About 200 theses are added annually through requests to make theses Open Access or via requests to digitize a thesis in printed format.

Locating and obtaining a copy of a Cambridge PhD thesis (not yet available via the repository)

Theses can be searched in iDiscover .  Guidance on searching for theses in iDiscover can be found here .   Requests for consultation of printed theses, not available online, should be made at the Manuscripts Reading Room (Email:  [email protected] Telephone: +44 (0)1223 333143).   Further information on the University Library's theses, dissertations and prize essays collections can be consulted at this link .

Researchers can order a copy of an unpublished thesis which was deposited in print form either through the Library’s  Digital Content Unit via the image request form , or, if the thesis has been digitised, it may be available in the Apollo repository. Copies of theses may be provided to researchers in accordance with the  law  and in a manner that is common across UK libraries.  The law allows us to provide whole copies of unpublished theses to individuals as long as they sign a declaration saying that it is for non-commercial research or private study.

How to make your thesis available online through Cambridge's institutional repository

Are you a Cambridge alumni and wish to make your Ph.D. thesis available online? You can do this by depositing it in Apollo the University's institutional repository. Click here for further information on how to proceed.    Current Ph.D students at the University of Cambridge can find further information about the requirements to deposit theses on the Office of Scholarly Communication theses webpages.

UK Theses and Dissertations

Electronic copies of Ph.D. theses submitted at over 100 UK universities are obtainable from EThOS , a service set up to provide access to all theses from participating institutions. It achieves this by harvesting e-theses from Institutional Repositories and by digitising print theses as they are ordered by researchers using the system. Over 250,000 theses are already available in this way. Please note that it does not supply theses submitted at the universities of Cambridge or Oxford although they are listed on EThOS.

Registration with EThOS is not required to search for a thesis but is necessary to download or order one unless it is stored in the university repository rather than the British Library (in which case a link to the repository will be displayed). Many theses are available without charge on an Open Access basis but in all other cases, if you are requesting a thesis that has not yet been digitised you will be asked to meet the cost. Once a thesis has been digitised it is available for free download thereafter.

When you order a thesis it will either be immediately available for download or writing to hard copy or it will need to be digitised. If you order a thesis for digitisation, the system will manage the process and you will be informed when the thesis is available for download/preparation to hard copy.

See the Search results section of the  help page for full information on interpreting search results in EThOS.

EThOS is managed by the British Library and can be found at http://ethos.bl.uk . For more information see About EThOS .

World-wide (incl. UK) theses and dissertations

Electronic versions of non-UK theses may be available from the institution at which they were submitted, sometimes on an open access basis from the institutional repository. A good starting point for discovering freely available electronic theses and dissertations beyond the UK is the Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations (NDLTD) , which facilitates searching across institutions. Information can also usually be found on the library web pages of the relevant institution.

The DART Europe etheses portal lists several thousand full-text theses from a group of European universities.

The University Library subscribes to the ProQuest Dissertations and Theses  (PQDT) database which from August 31 2023 is accessed on the Web of Science platform.  To search this index select it from the Web of Science "Search in" drop-down list of databases (available on the Documents tab on WoS home page)

PQDT includes 2.4 million dissertation and theses citations, representing 700 leading academic institutions worldwide from 1861 to the present day. The database offers full text for most of the dissertations added since 1997 and strong retrospective full text coverage for older graduate works. Each dissertation published since July 1980 includes a 350-word abstract written by the author. Master's theses published since 1988 include 150-word abstracts.

IMPORTANT NOTE: The University Library only subscribes to the abstracting & indexing version of the ProQuest Dissertations and Theses database and NOT the full text version.  A fee is payable for ordering a dissertation from this source.   To obtain the full text of a dissertation as a downloadable PDF you can submit your request via the University Library Inter-Library Loans department (see contact details below). NB this service is only available to full and current members of the University of Cambridge.

Alternatively you can pay yourself for the dissertation PDF on the PQDT platform. Link from Web of Science record display of any thesis to PQDT by clicking on "View Details on ProQuest".  On the "Preview" page you will see an option "Order a copy" top right.  This will allow you to order your own copy from ProQuest directly.

Dissertations and theses submitted at non-UK universities may also be requested on Inter-Library Loan through the Inter-Library Loans department (01223 333039 or 333080, [email protected] )

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Home > Student Papers > SJD_DISSERTATIONS

SJD Dissertations

Submissions from 2023 2023.

Uncovering the Trade Secrets Laww and Practice in China: Potential Cases for Softening Current Rules , Yang Chen

Taking Soldiers' Intuitions of Justice Seriously: Mobilizing Criminal Law's Empirical Insights to Rethink International Humanitarian Law Compliance, Interpretation, and Reform , Ilya Rudyak

Submissions from 2022 2022

Reframing Educational Equality: Constitutional Evolution and Global Neoliberalism , Mengyun Ma

Submissions from 2021 2021

New Perspectives in Corporate Law , Asaf Raz

Submissions from 2020 2020

Papers on Constitutional Courts in Developing Democracies , Amal Sethi

Submissions from 2019 2019

The Triple-C Impact: Responding to Childhood Exposure to Crime and Violence , Michal Gilad Gat

Implementation of International Standards on Secured Transactions into Thai Legal System: Possibilities and Proposals for Law Reform in Civil Law Countries , Parawee Kasatinon

Submissions from 2015 2015

Creative Copyright: Tailoring Intellectual Property Policies and Business Strategies for Creative Content Industries in the Digital Age , Bhamati Viswanathan

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Law Theses and Dissertations

This collection contains theses and dissertations from the Department of Law, collected from the Scholarship@Western Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Theses/Dissertations from 2024 2024

The Psychology of Effective IEAs: Beyond Rational Choice Theory , Kieley Forsey

Theses/Dissertations from 2023 2023

An Examination of the International Court of Justice’s Approach to Customary International Law , Janet Adewumi Bamigbose

A Corrective Justice Account of Building Authority Liability in Canadian Negligence Law , Jonathan de Vries

Re-Imagining Indigenous Consultation: An Examination of Canada’s Duty to Consult , Paul Hansen

THE HUMAN RIGHT TO DEVELOPMENT: Historical and Contemporary Linkages to Colonialism , Norman R. Kimber

The Development of an Expectations Theory of Patent Law by Creating a Nexus with John Locke's Theory of Private Property , Jason D. Newman

Theses/Dissertations from 2022 2022

Legal Representation for Complainants of Sexual Violence in the Criminal Justice System: A Proposal to Advance Women's Equality , Karen M. Bellehumeur

Care and Social Justice: Developing a Right to Basic Income in Canada , Stephanie Gellatly

Meaning of Accountability Under Section 72 of the Youth Criminal Justice Act , Brenda Kobayashi

Can Novel Findings from Emerging Neuroscientific Technologies be Incorporated into Trademark Law in Canada? , Pankhuri Malik

Community Development Agreements: The Hardening and Evaluation of a Norm , Luka G. Petrusevski

Himalaya Clauses in Sea Carriage Contracts: Closing the Pandora’s Box , Mary Ppasiou

Reputation as the Key Link Amongst Moral Rights, Prohibited Marks, and Geographical Indications , Darinka Tomic

Theses/Dissertations from 2021 2021

A 'Critical Mass' Approach to Negotiations in the WTO: A Case Study Analysis , Temitope O. Adeyemi

The Measure of a Monitor's Role , Alejandro E. Gonzalez

Interpreting UNDRIP: Exploring the Relationship Between FPIC, Consultation, Consent, and Indigenous Legal Traditions , Jeffrey Warnock

Theses/Dissertations from 2020 2020

Before the Ice Disappears: Pursuing Climate Justice for Inuit Women in the Context of Mining in Nunavut , Angeline Bellehumeur

The Circumstances of the Offence: The Post-Ipeelee Sentencing of Indigenous Offenders for Manslaughter in the Superior Courts , Conal Calvert

Privacy and Surveillance in the Workplace: Closing the Electronic Surveillance Gap , Christina Catenacci

An Anishinaabe Tradition: Anishinaabe Constitutions in Ontario , Leaelle N. Derynck

Safeguarding the Principle of Non-Refoulement in Europe: Counteracting Containment Policies in the Common European Asylum System , Jenny Hiu Kwan Poon

Stewart v. Elk Valley Coal Corp.: The Rehabilitation of Addiction Disability Law in Canada , Nadia Pronych

Can Regulatory Reform Reverse the Decline of Public Markets in Canada? Assessing the Factors Impacting Decisions by Corporate Leaders to Avoid Canadian Public Listings , Louis Daniel Wilson

Theses/Dissertations from 2019 2019

Extending Our Promise: Providing Help to Mentally Ill Accused As Soon As Practicable , Cassandra DeMelo

Minority Shareholders' Protections under Nigerian and Canadian Corporate Law: A Comparative Analysis , Oluwabukola Fadahunsi

Renewable Energy as an Alternative to Fossil Fuel Use: A Legal Framework for Advancing Low Carbon Energy Transition in Nigeria , Ogechi Judith Njokuji

Improving Civilian Protection during War through Conflict-Specific Behavioural Regulation of Combatants , Kirsten MD Stefanik

Theses/Dissertations from 2018 2018

Minding the Gap: Pay Equity and the Role of Law in Narrowing Canada's Gender Wage Gap , Jennifer D. Beaudoin

Theses/Dissertations from 2017 2017

Transfer Pricing Rules in the BRICS World: A Shifting Balance in Global Taxation Governance? , Thassiane Ayres Gossler

Achieving Equality for Women in Labour and Employment – A Comparative Study of Colombia and Canada , Lina M. Hernandez

The Constitutionality of Restrictions on Recreational Cannabis Advertising: Balancing Public Health and Freedom of Expression , Melanie L. McPhail

Implementing Canada's Data Exclusivity Obligations and Protecting Personal Information in Clinical Trials , Alison Wong

Theses/Dissertations from 2016 2016

Accommodating Complex Disabilities: Chronic Pain Disorders in the Canadian Workplace , Maia Abbas

The Copyright Board and Tribunals Process: Users in the Balance , Louis J. D'Alton

Environmental Impact Assessment for Oil and Gas Projects: A Comparative Evaluation of Canadian and Nigerian Laws , Omolola Anuoluwapo Fasina

The Patented Medicines (Notice of Compliance) Regulations: An Examination of the Decision Making Patterns in these Cases at the Supreme Court of Canada , Jason D. Newman

Real Estate Investment Trusts In Canada , Samita Pachai

Regulating for Resilience: Principled Flexibility and Environmental Co-Management in the Mackenzie Valley , Heather L. Potter

Directors and Standards: The Problem of Insufficient Guidance , Nikolas Sopow

Resolving Dilemmas in Canadian Class Actions by Reconsidering Private Law Principles , Stephanie Sugar

Theses/Dissertations from 2015 2015

Canada's Duty to Consult: Communicative Equality and the Norms of Legal Discourse , Matthew J. Glass

Re-imagining the Principle of National Treatment: Addressing Private International Law Issues in Copyright Infringement in the Internet Era , Ragavi Ramesh

The Clarity of Reasonableness Since Dunsmuir: Mission (Mostly) Accomplished , Ryan D. Robb

Theses/Dissertations from 2014 2014

Shifting Grounds: Judicial Review under NAFTA Chapter 11 and the Ratification of ICSID , Nolan Downer

Hearing Voices: Judicial Consideration of Ontario’s Social Assistance Legislation , Teri Muszak

Transnational Corporate Regulation through Sustainability Reporting: A Case Study of the Canadian Extractive Sector , Navraj S. Pannu

Theses/Dissertations from 2013 2013

Emissions Trading: A Policy Option for Fighting Climate Change in Africa , Gbenga Akinwande

What is the scope of competition law in the UAE? - A comparative study with developed and developing nations , Alisha Ansari

Corporate Social Responsibility in Canadian Banking a Case Study on the Equator Principles , Ian Osellame

The Applicability of Co-Operative Federalism: Lessons Learned from the Assisted Human Reproduction Act , David A.M. Seccareccia

Restoring Humanity to Humanitarian Law: Borrowing from Environmental Law to Protect Civilians and the Environment , Kirsten MD Stefanik

The Porous Boundary Between Legal and Business Advice, An Empirical Approach , Amy M. ter Haar

Highway Tolls in Brazil and the Lawfulness Principle , Fabio C. Theophilo

Victims’ Opportunities to Review a Decision not to Prosecute made by the Crown Prosecutor , Li Tian

Theses/Dissertations from 2012 2012

An Insightful Study of the Oppression Remedy under South African and Canadian Corporate Law , Natasha A. Abbey

The History of Animal Welfare Law and the Future of Animal Rights , Marie Blosh

Canada's Marihuana Medical Access Regulations: Up In Smoke , Carolynn Conron

Electronic Health Record Regulation in Canada: What the Patient Experience Reveals about the Pursuit of Legislative Harmonization , Patricia M. Goodman

The Codex: Labelling of Food Derived from Modern Biotechnology , Sowmya Latha Hemanahally Vishwanatha

Trademarks and Geographical Indications: Conflict or Coexistence? , Melissa A. Loucks

Indigenous Peoples under International Law: An Asian Perspective , Tashi Phuntsok

Directors' Duties to Creditors - Mapping the Twilight Zone , Mehreen Rehman

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HLS Dissertations, Theses, and JD Papers

S.j.d. dissertations, ll.m. papers, ll.m. theses, j.d. papers, submitting your paper to an online collection, other sources for student papers beyond harvard, getting help, introduction.

This is a guide to finding Harvard Law School (“HLS”) student-authored works held by the Library and in online collections. This guide covers HLS S.J.D Dissertations, LL.M. papers, J.D. third-year papers, seminar papers, and prize papers.

There have been changes in the HLS degree requirements for written work. The library’s collection practices and catalog descriptions for these works has varied. Please note that there are gaps in the library’s collection and for J.D. papers, few of these works are being collected any longer.

If we have an S.J.D. dissertation or LL.M. thesis, we have two copies. One is kept in the general collection and one in the Red Set, an archival collection of works authored by HLS affiliates. If we have a J.D. paper, we have only one copy, kept in the Red Set. Red Set copies are last resort copies available only by advance appointment in Historical and Special Collections .

Some papers have not been processed by library staff. If HOLLIS indicates a paper is “ordered-received” please use this form to have library processing completed.

The HLS Doctor of Juridical Science (“S.J.D.”) program began in 1910.  The library collection of these works is not comprehensive. Exceptions are usually due to scholars’ requests to withhold Library deposit. 

• HLS S.J.D. Dissertations in HOLLIS To refine these search results by topic or faculty advisor, or limit by date, click Add a New Line.
• Hein’s Legal Theses and Dissertations Microfiche Mic K556.H45x Drawers 947-949 This microfiche set includes legal theses and dissertations from HLS and other premier law schools. It currently includes about 300 HLS dissertations and theses.
• Hein's Legal Theses and Dissertations Contents List This content list is in order by school only, not by date, subject or author. It references microfiche numbers within the set housed in the Microforms room on the entry level of the library, drawers 947-949. The fiche are a different color for each institution.
• ProQuest Dissertations and Theses @ Harvard University (Harvard login) Copy this search syntax: dg(S.J.D.) You will find about 130 SJD Dissertations dated from 1972 to 2004. They are not available in full text.
• DASH Digital Access to Scholarship at Harvard Sponsored by Harvard University’s Office for Scholarly Communication, DASH is an open repository for research papers by members of the Harvard community. There are currently about 600 HLS student papers included. Unfortunately it is not possible to search by type of paper or degree awarded.

The Master of Laws (“LL.M.”) degree has been awarded since 1923. Originally, the degree required completion of a major research paper, akin to a thesis. Since 1993, most students have the option of writing the LL.M. "short paper."  This is a 25-page (or longer) paper advised by a faculty supervisor or completed in conjunction with a seminar.  Fewer LL.M. candidates continue to write the more extensive "long-paper." LL.M. candidates holding J.D.s from the U.S. must write the long paper.

• HLS Written Work Requirements for LL.M. Degree The current explanation of the LL.M. written work requirement for the master of laws.

The library generally holds HLS LL.M. long papers and short papers. In recent years, we require author release in order to do so. In HOLLIS, no distinction is made between types of written work created in satisfaction of the LL.M. degree; all are described as LL.M. thesis. Though we describe them as thesis, the law school refers to them solely as papers or in earlier years, essays. HOLLIS records indicate the number of pages, so at the record level, it is possible to distinguish long papers.

• HLS LL.M. Papers in HOLLIS To refine these search results by topic, faculty advisor, seminar or date, click Add a New Line.

HLS LL.M. Papers are sometimes available in DASH and Hein's Legal Dissertations and Theses. See descriptions above .

The HLS J.D. written work requirement has changed over time. The degree formerly required a substantial research paper comparable in scope to a law review article written under faculty supervision, the "third year paper." Since 2008, J.D. students have the option of using two shorter works instead.

Of all those written, the library holds relatively few third-year papers. They were not actively collected but accepted by submission from faculty advisors who deemed a paper worthy of institutional retention. The papers are described in HOLLIS as third year papers, seminar papers, and student papers. Sometimes this distinction was valid, but not always. The faculty deposit tradition more or less ended in 2006, though the possibility of deposit still exists. 

• J.D. Written Work Requirement
• Faculty Deposit of Student Papers with the Library

HLS Third Year Papers in HOLLIS

To refine these search results by topic, faculty advisor, seminar or date, click Add a New Line.

• HLS Student Papers Some third-year papers and LL.M. papers were described in HOLLIS simply as student papers. To refine these search results, click "Add a New Line" and add topic, faculty advisor, or course title.
• HLS Seminar Papers Note that these include legal research pathfinders produced for the Advanced Legal Research course when taught by Virginia Wise.

Prize Papers

HLS has many endowed prizes for student papers and essays. There are currently 16 different writing prizes. See this complete descriptive list with links to lists of winners from 2009 to present. Note that there is not always a winner each year for each award. Prize winners are announced each year in the commencement pamphlet.

The Library has not specifically collected prize papers over the years but has added copies when possible. The HOLLIS record for the paper will usually indicate its status as a prize paper. The most recent prize paper was added to the collection in 2006.

Addison Brown Prize Animal Law & Policy Program Writing Prize Victor Brudney Prize Davis Polk Legal Profession Paper Prize Roger Fisher and Frank E.A. Sander Prize Yong K. Kim ’95 Memorial Prize Islamic Legal Studies Program Prize on Islamic Law Laylin Prize LGBTQ Writing Prize Mancini Prize Irving Oberman Memorial Awards John M. Olin Prize in Law and Economics Project on the Foundations of Private Law Prize Sidney I. Roberts Prize Fund Klemens von Klemperer Prize Stephen L. Werner Prize

• Harvard Law School Prize Essays (1850-1868) A historical collection of handwritten prize essays covering the range of topics covered at that time. See this finding aid for a collection description.

The following information about online repositories is not a recommendation or endorsement to participate.

• ProQuest Dissertations and Theses HLS is not an institutional participant to this collection. If you are interested in submitting your work, refer to these instructions and note that there is a fee required, which varies depending on the format of submission.
• EBSCO Open Dissertations Relatively new, this is an open repository of metadata for dissertations. It is an outgrowth of the index American Doctoral Dissertations. The aim is to cover 1933 to present and, for modern works, to link to full text available in institutional repositories. Harvard is not one of the institutional participants.
• DASH Digital Access to Scholarship at Harvard

Sponsored by Harvard University’s Office for Scholarly Communication, this is an open repository for research papers by members of the Harvard community. See more information about the project. 

Some HLS students have submitted their degree paper to DASH.  If you would like to submit your paper, you may use this authorization form  or contact June Casey , Librarian for Open Access Initiatives and Scholarly Communication at Harvard Law School.

• ProQuest Dissertations and Theses (Harvard Login) Covers dissertations and masters' theses from North American graduate schools and many worldwide. Provides full text for many since the 1990s and has descriptive data for older works.
• NDLTD Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations Union Catalog Worldwide in scope, NDLTD contains millions of records of electronic theses and dissertations from the early 1900s to the present.
• Law Commons of the Digital Commons Network The Law Commons has dissertations and theses, as well as many other types of scholarly research such as book chapters and conference proceedings. They aim to collect free, full-text scholarly work from hundreds of academic institutions worldwide.
• EBSCO Open Dissertations Doctoral dissertations from many institutions. Free, open repository.
• Dissertations from Center for Research Libraries Dissertations found in this resource are available to the Harvard University Community through Interlibrary Loan.
• British Library EThOS Dissertation source from the British Library listing doctoral theses awarded in the UK. Some available for immediate download and some others may be requested for scanning.
• BASE from Bielefeld University Library Index of the open repositoris of most academic institutions. Includes many types of documents including doctoral and masters theses.

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• Last Updated: Sep 12, 2023 10:46 AM
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Yale Law School Dissertations

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LEGISLATIVE AND JUDICIAL REORGANIZATIONIN PUERTO RICO.

The Three Faces of Bankruptcy Law

The Constitutional Protection of Property Rights in Argentina: A Reappraisal of the Doctrine of Economic Emergency

A Theory of Domestic Violence in International Law

The Constitution of Japan: An Unfinished Revolution

AT THE TURN OF THE TIDE: A FRAMEWORK FOR A POLICY-ORIENTED INQUIRY INTO STRATEGIES FOR THE TRANSFORMATION OF THE CONSTITUTIVE PROCESS OF AUTHORITATIVE DECISION IN MEXICO

NEGLIGENCE AS OPTIMIZATION PUZZLES: A NEW THEORY OF NEGLIGENCE

The Structure of Norms and Legal Uncertainty: A Framework for the Functional Analysis of Law as Transformed in Multi-Member Decision Mechanisms

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To select a subset of the search results, click "Selective Export" button and make a selection of the items you want to export. The amount of items that can be exported at once is similarly restricted as the full export.

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Stanford Law School's Theses and Dissertations Collection

• Early Thesis and Dissertation of Stanford Law School, 1929 to 1956
• Theses and Dissertations of Stanford Law School,1970-1995
• Stanford Program in International Legal Studies’ Theses, 1996 to 2010
• Stanford Law School’s Dissertations, 1996 to 2010
• Stanford Program in International Legal Studies Theses, 2011 to 2025

Collection Description

This collection contains Stanford Law School Students’ theses and dissertations written to fulfill the academic requirements for advanced degrees.   Historically, the collection of Theses and Dissertations were produced as part of the requirement coursework for receiving a Master of Laws (1933-1969), a Juris Doctor (1906-1932), or a Doctor of Jurisprudence.  

Currently, works received from students are produced under two different graduate programs.  Thesis are works were produced as part of the requirement for the Stanford Program in International Legal Studies (SPILS). SPILS was established in 1995 by Professors Lawrence Friedman and Thomas C. Heller, to educate international students, lawyers, judges, public officials, and other professionals trained in the study of law outside the United States.  Students in the SPILS Program are required to do interdisciplinary research that affects the global community.  The culmination of this program is a research project that each individual student develops over the course of the year under a faculty advisor, after which the earns a Master of the Science of Law degree.  The research project must demonstrate the student's ability to employ empirical methods of investigation and must addresses issues in the international community or within a specific country.  These can cover a large range of topics that analyze legal cultures, legal reforms, or public policy.  

Dissertations are produced under Doctor of Science of Law program or JSD.  The JSD program as we know it was revised for the Doctor of Jurisprudence in 1969 is designed for students who are interested in pursuing an academic career. Doctor of Science of Law Students are selected from the Stanford Program in International Legal Studies and those who have a postgraduate degree in Legal Studies.

All materials in this collection were donated by individual authors to the Stanford Law Library's Special Collections.

Collection Identity Number: LAW-3781

Finding Aid prepared by

Robert Crown Law Library Stanford, CA 94305-8610 Phone: 650.723-2477

• Last Updated: Jun 4, 2024 10:36 AM
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Timo Peeters wins Willem Nagel Prize 2024 with PhD dissertation on social order and violence in Guatemala City

• Wednesday 26 Jun 2024, 14:50

Since 1991, the Dutch Society for Criminology (NVC) has awarded the Willem Nagelprijs biennially for the best dissertation in the field of criminology. Earlier this month, it was announced that Timo Peeters, PhD student at Erasmus School of Law, won the prestigious Willem Nagelprijs 2024 for his dissertation The Unseen: Withdrawal and the social order of violence in Guatemala City.

Peeters received the award during a plenary session of the NVC Congress, held on 6-7 June 2024. His dissertation is an in-depth field study in Guatemala City, where he conducted eight months of ethnographic research. He investigated how people shape their lives in a context of violence and inequality and what role social class plays in it. Peeters selected five groups for his case study - four families and a group of homeless people - each with different social statuses.

An innovative approach

According to the jury, Peeters' thesis is a clear and well-written work that is both empirically descriptive and theoretical in nature. It is distinguished by sharp analyses and a high degree of self-reflection. The field research shows the author's close involvement with his research groups and offers insights into the lifeworlds of people who face violence and injustice on a daily basis.

The central question of Peeters' thesis - how social order emerges in a society where violence prevails - goes to the heart of both sociology and criminology. His innovative approach offers an in-depth understanding of how violence arises and is dealt with from the perspective of those involved themselves.

A compelling and poignant story

The selection committee praised Peeters' work as a detailed and in-depth study that reveals the complex reality of Guatemala City. The jury praised his ability to make readers feel that they themselves were present at the situations studied. Peeters' literary style makes the thesis a compelling and penetrating narrative, which despite its heavy themes never becomes sensational or pathetic.

A potent counter to positivism

Peeters' research offers a powerful counter to the prevailing positivism in criminology, which often emphasises large numbers and statistics without regard for the human side. His work shows that an in-depth analysis of the everyday lives of ordinary people can also yield valuable knowledge. Peeters wrote his dissertation under the supervision of supervisors René van Swaaningen and Richard Staring, both Professor of Criminology at Erasmus School of Law.

As Peeters himself writes in his final chapter: "The work of a social scientist does not differ greatly from that of a novelist: it is to explore beyond the appearance of things." His thesis gives voice to the unseen and often forgotten people of Guatemala City, highlighting their strategies for survival in a violent and unequal society.

• Erasmus School of Law

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