Tags
IJ
Admissions requirements
At least one of the following courses:
Advocacy and Litigation
Legal Methods Lab
Qualitative Research Methods
Description
In the International Justice major at LUC, students learn about international law, human rights and society, and statehood and integration. Courses in these tracks introduce core concepts and theories, while often shedding less light on how the studies have reached their conclusions — and what difference it would have made for their findings had the authors, for example, phrased their question differently or drawn on other data and sources.
If a student were to conduct your own research on a theme addressed in the IJ major, how would you do it? How would you identify gaps in the literature, and translate that into a good research question? What kinds of question could be addressed, and what data and sources would allow you to develop arguments in response to them? How would you collect the data and evaluate the sources? Which ethical considerations might that imply?
This course introduces students to various strategies for research that are used in legal and socio-legal studies. The course provides hands-on training in research design for IJ students, so as to give you a solid foundation for your Capstone.
Course objectives
Skills:
By completing this course, students should be able to:
Formulate research questions in their chosen field, relating these to relevant theories and methods;
Write a proposal for a research project that could be carried out on a question within one of the fields covered by the International Justice major.
Knowledge:
By completing this course, students should be able to:
Discuss theories and concepts in research design;
Explain the distinction between doctrinal and empirical research on law;
Find and classify relevant sources, identify strategies for collecting relevant data, and discuss opportunities and limitations that come with different such strategies;
Critically evaluate research designs.
Timetable
Once available, timetables will be published in the e-Prospectus.
Mode of instruction
The 14 two-hour seminars will be interactive and give opportunities to discuss how questions related to law, justice and rights can be done research on, and to apply these ideas. Students will be expected to participate by raising questions based on course material, discussing in plenary and smaller groups, and by writing an individual journal.
An essay, due in Week 7 or 8, will allow students to discuss questions related to doctrinal and empirical research. Students will further be expected to write a research proposal, the aim of which is to flesh out ideas about how research could be conducted on a relevant question. The outline of this proposal will be due in Week 4. In Week 6 and part of Week 7, classes will consist of workshops where each student will present their outline and get feedback from peers and the lecturer. On this basis, the research proposal itself will be due towards the end of the course.
Assessment
Journal (3 entries, deadlines at various points during the course): 15%
Research proposal, outline: 15%, final version: 40%
Essay: 30%
Blackboard
There will be a Blackboard site available for this course. Students will be enrolled at least one week before the start of classes.
Reading list
The reading list will be made available upon commencement of the course.
Registration
This course is open to LUC students and LUC exchange students. Registration is coordinated by the Education Coordinator. Interested non-LUC students should contact course.administration@luc.leidenuniv.nl.
Contact
Dr Ingrid Samset
Email: i.samset@luc.leidenuniv.nl