Master's thesis

General

Every master programme is concluded by the writing of a Master's thesis. In this Master's thesis, a student should show his/her command of academic skills in such a way that he/she, with the knowledge provided during the programme, is able to:

• formulate a scientific phrasing in the legal field;
• set up a research in a responsible scientific manner;
• assemble, classify, analyse, correlate and value the relevant data;
• draw relevant conclusions on the basis of the conducted research and to formulate defendable solutions;
• reproduce the research, the conclusions and solutions in a clear and orderly manner.

The study load of the Master's thesis is arranged for in the Teaching and Examination Regulations of your programme and can also be found in the Thesis Regulation.

Per 1 September 2023, the size of the Master’s thesis has been reduced from 18 ECTS to 12 ECTS and a Law in Practice module is added to each of the English-taught programmes. You can find more information about this in the Transition Regulation. The old set-up of the programmes can be completed until August 2024. Therefore, if you are not completing your LLM programme old style before 1 September 2024, you will have to change to the new set-up of the LLM programmes and as such write a 12 ECTS Master’s thesis and participate in a Law in Practice module.

Thesis enrolment and compulsory elements

In order for all students to have all necessary information about writing a Master’s thesis, all students are required to enrol for the Master’s thesis writing process in the semester before they start the actual research. There are two starting moments for the Master’s thesis writing process each academic year. The enrolment and writing periods are as follows:

• Start per 1 February: enrolment in enrolment period block 2 (October/November)
• Start per 1 September: enrolment in enrolment period block 4 (March/April)

The Master’s thesis writing process consists of several elements:

• participate in the Thesis class;
• participate in the Library instruction;
• participate in the introduction meeting per LLM programme;
• participate in the library workshop per programme.

The Thesis class is offered twice a year and can be found in the list of courses available in the schedule generator. At the start of each academic year, the International Office arranges for all students to participate in a library instruction. Only students who have taken their bachelor’s degree at the Faculty of Law of the University of Groningen can be exempt from this library instruction.

Students will have to stick to all deadlines in the Thesis writing process to be able to finish their Master’s thesis within the stated time. The time lines per starting moment are set.

Time line starting moment 1 February

Time line starting moment 1 September

The thesis writing process takes careful planning. Feel free to contact a study adviser at the International Office to help you plan.

Please be aware that the LLM Governance and Law in Digital Society has a Thesis Project for 20 ECTS and as such does not follow the timelines mentioned above. Separate information about the Thesis Project will be provided by the Thesis Coordinator of the programme.

Thesis coordinators

Each LLM programme has its own thesis coordinator:

• Energy and Climate Law: Prof. drE. Woerdman
• European Law in a Global Context: Prof. dr R.A. Wessel
• Global Criminal Law: Dr W. Geelhoed
• Governance and Law in Digital Society: Dr B. Brink
• Health and Technology Law: Prof. dr B.C.A. Toebes
• International Commercial Law: to be announced
• International Human Rights Law: Dr A.G. Hallo de Wolf
• Public International Law: Dr A.G. Hallo de Wolf
• Technology Law and Innovation: Dr J. Milaj-Weishaar

Thesis Regulations

The Faculty has set Thesis Regulationwhich amongst others hold guidelines for thesis writing and information about:

• The compulsory elements of the thesis writing process, e.g. Thesis class, Library instruction, introduction meeting per programme, etc.;
• Choosing a topic;
• Thesis supervision;
• The size;
• The assessment;
• The way of handing in the thesis, etc.

Paper

A student can choose to write a paper instead of taking an optional course. All arranged for above is not applicable to such a paper. Please contact a lecturer with a supervision request if you wish to write such a paper. The paper should at least be 3 ECTS and can be 7 ECTS maximum. The Thesis Regulation indicates which articles are applicable to the writing of a paper.

Last update: 21-6-2024