A graduation requirement for each Harvard Law School LLM student is to research and write a paper on a legal topic, of at least 25 pages (short paper) or at least 50 pages (long paper) in length, under the supervision of an HLS faculty member.
Our LLM students are currently deep in the process of finding faculty supervisors and preparing their LLM paper proposals, which are due October 22.
The HLS Graduate Program has created LLM paper writing groups, organized by topic and led by experienced and knowledgeable SJD students, to provide the LLMs with a supportive and encouraging workshop-like environment for the process of completing this rigorous academic requirement.
Each LLM paper writing group has an assigned research librarian. I have been assigned to help out three groups this year:
(1) Constitutional & Administrative Law (generally known as “public law” and also includes people writing about legal theory and philosophy)
(2) Private Law (includes contractual obligations, legal remedies, law and technology, and health law/bioethics)
(3) Trade and Private International Law (includes international investment law, international trade law, antitrust, and arbitration)
This year, I decided to create extensive research guides for each of my groups. These guides include pre-populated searches of Harvard’s HOLLIS library catalog, using specialized subject terms. They also include information about using the HLS Library’s subscription databases for law journal research.
The good news is that these research guides are freely available online and can be used by anyone! Feel free to check them out and let me know what you think:
- Research Guide: Constitutional & Administrative Law LLM Long Paper Writing Group
- Research Guide: Private Law LLM Long Paper Writing Group
- Research Guide: Trade and Private International Law LLM Long Paper Writing Group
I also completely overhauled our International Arbitration Research Guide this fall. Several members of the Trade and Private International Law Group have found to be especially helpful. It includes information about the many arbitration-related databases to which the HLS Library subscribes.
TIP:
Did you know that the HLS Library has published more than 150 research guides? You can access them online at https://guides.library.harvard.edu/law.