JDOC1011

General Course Information

1.1 Course details

Course code: JDOC1011
Course name: Dissertation
Programme offered under: JD Programme
Semester: Full year
Prerequisites / Co-requisites: No
Credit point value: 6 credits

1.2 Course description

An individual research project on an approved topic carried out under the supervision of an assigned teacher, resulting in the submission of a research paper not exceeding 8,000 words (excluding tables of cases and statutes, notes, appendices and bibliographies. Footnotes or endnotes should not exceed 1,000 words.). While comparative perspectives are permitted, the topic must be primarily on common law and/or HK legal issues.

1.3 Instructions

It is the responsibility of each student to find a full-time member of the academic staff to act as the supervisor of their dissertation. Different faculty members have different considerations and requirements on the decision to supervise a student, but it is typically expected that the student when approaching the faculty member should have a reasonably viable research topic/proposal that falls into the research/teaching interest of the faculty member.

Instructions will be given on the principles of legal writing and in legal research methodology.

For students who achieved grade A- or above in dissertation, the General Office will approach for their consent to make their dissertation accessible in the Scholars Hub under the licensing of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. More information about ETD can be found at etd.lib.hku.hk.

1.4 Course teachers

Name E-mail address Office Consultation
Course convenor Stefan Lo stefanlo@hku.hk CCT 301A By email

Learning Outcomes

2.1 Course Learning Outcomes (CLOs) for this course

CLO 1 be able to identify, and engage in, good legal scholarship;

CLO 2 have developed advanced skills in legal research;

CLO 3 have refined their legal writing skills; and

CLO 4 demonstrate their ability to combine advanced legal research skills with the ability to write clearly in order to produce a sophisticated piece of legal scholarship.

2.2 JD Programme Learning Outcomes (PLOs)

Please refer to the following link: https://course.law.hku.hk/jd-plo/

2.3 Programme Learning Outcomes to be achieved in this course

PLO A PLO B PLO C PLO D PLO E PLO F
CLO 1 ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
CLO 2 ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
CLO 3 ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
CLO 4 ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓

Assessment(s)

3.1 Assessment Summary

Assessment task Due date Weighting Feedback method* Course learning outcomes
Classwork N/A 10% 2, 3, 5 1, 2, 3, 4
Dissertation 7 July 2023 90% 2, 3 1, 2, 3, 4
*Feedback method (to be determined by course teacher)
1 A general course report to be disseminated through Moodle
2 Individual feedback to be disseminated by email / through Moodle
3 Individual review meeting upon appointment
4 Group review meeting
5 In-class verbal feedback

3.2 Assessment Detail

To be advised by course convenor(s).

3.3 Grading Criteria

Please refer to the following link: https://www.law.hku.hk/_files/law_programme_grade_descriptors.pdf

Learning Activities

4.1 Learning Activity Plan

Seminar 1 meeting in seminar 1 and 2 meetings in seminar 2
Private study time: 9.5 hours / week for 12 teaching weeks in each of semester 1 and 2

Remarks: the normative student study load per credit unit is 25 ± 5 hours (ie. 150 ± 30 hours for a 6-credit course), which includes all learning activities and experiences within and outside of classroom, and any assessment task and examinations and associated preparations.

4.2 Details of Learning Activities

To be advised by course convenor(s).

Learning Resources

5.1 Resources

Reading materials: The reading guide and selected reading materials will be posted on Moodle
Core reading list: TBA
Recommended reading list: TBA

The Graduate School has a number of publications which you may find useful during the preparation phase:

5.2 Links

Please refer to the following link: http://www.law.hku.hk/course/learning-resources/