Course Resources Archive

Postgraduate study is by definition different from undergraduate study and gives rise to a new set of challenges for those undertaking it. The most obvious difference, although by no means the only one, is the extent to which such students are responsible for their own education through individual research.

The main themes of the Research Methods module are:
1.     Postgraduate learning: the what and how of learning at this level
2.     Locating appropriate research sources, both paper based and internet
3.     Critical reading skills
4.     Essential writing skills, including referencing and avoiding plagiarism
5.     Planning research
6.     Ethics in research
7.     Selecting suitable approaches and methodologies to legal research – legalistic, empirical, comparative and theoretical
8.     Qualitative and quantitative legal research
9.     Sociolegal approach to legal research
10.   Comparative and historical approaches to legal research
11.   The research proposal
12.   Personal development and Employability

On completion, you should be able to demonstrate these learning outcomes:

Knowledge and understanding of:

1. the fundamental principles of the postgraduate learning environment;
2. the importance of crucial contemporary issues and / or new insights;
3. the major values and principles of the system;
4. the differing approaches and methodologies to legal research;
5. the comparative context of your studies.

Intellectual/ thinking skills – able to:

1. analyse, interpret and critically evaluate complex legal issues systematically and creatively;
2. make sound judgments of the evidence, whether fully present or in the absence of complete data, whether in concurrence or competing, to arrive at logical conclusions;
3. evaluate approaches and methodologies, develop critiques of them, and where appropriate, to propose new hypotheses;
4. continue to advance your knowledge and understanding of the law.

Subject specific / Practical and professional skills – able to:

1. comprehensively understand the techniques applicable to your own research and to advanced scholarship to create and interpret knowledge in the relevant areas;
2. apply legal knowledge learnt with originality;
3. demonstrate self-direction and originality in tackling and solving problems, and act autonomously in planning and implementing tasks at a professional or equivalent level;
4. communicate your conclusions clearly to both specialist and non-specialist audiences;
5. continue to develop skills to a higher level.

Transferable/key skills – able to:

1. exercise initiative and personal responsibility;
2. make decisions and provide solutions in complex and unpredictable situations;
3. learn independently;
4. read complex materials;
5. communicate;
6. make effective use of numerical and statistical information, as the basis of an argument;
7. work with information technology;
8. work with others.

Total Learning Hours = 300
Staff/Student Contact Time = 12%
Student Independent Study Time = 88%

The Library Catalogue contains full details of the current reading list for this module. Further details may also be found in the Module Guide.