RESEARCH ESSAY Common Law Reasoning and Institutions

Researching and writing one essay from a choice of six titles provided (see below) is a compulsory part of the Common Law Reasoning and Institutions (CLRI) subject. You must also be prepared to answer a series of reflective questions on your research essay in the May/June CLRI examination. Your completed essay must be uploaded using the assignment handling tool on the Laws VLE by 1st May 2012 (Midnight UK time). SUBMISSION IS MANDATORY. You will receive a mark of zero (0) for Part B of Question 1 of the CLRI examination paper if you do not submit your essay. For further information, please go to Chapter 5 of your CLRI subject guide. The 2011-12 questions can be found on the CLRI VLE page. We repeat them here, by way of reminder. They are: Assess the validity of one of the statements in questions 1-3 1. The approach of the Law Lords to statutory interpretation has been radically changed by the Human Rights Act. Judges now see themselves as legislating human rights through their interpretation of Acts of Parliament. 2. From the perspective of the UK Coalition Governments austerity measures, the approach of the governments of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown to legal aid funding appears both principled and generous. 3. Although the Human Rights Act 1998 has impacted on the judicial understanding of precedent, the underlying features of the doctrine remain unchanged. Assess the validity of one of the statements in questions 4-6 with particular reference to at least one Jurisdiction other than England and Wales. 4. The issues highlighted in the debate over miscarriages of Justice in England and Wales are not specific to that jurisdiction; they are of concern to all jurisdictions. 5. Apart from England and Wales all common law systems are a mixture of concepts, processes and principles inherited from contact with the United Kingdom but blended with local customs and other sources of law. 6. Attaining a representative judiciary is difficult but necessary to ensure public confidence in the rule of law and to avoid decision partial to one particular segment of society.

Important Requirements
The essay must be between 1,500 and 2,000 words; the bibliography does not count towards this word limit. A short bibliography must be included at the end of the essay. We recommend the essay be written using 1.5 line spacing. The essay should be written using a word processing package eg. Microsoft Word, Open Office, Word Pad, WordPerfect etc. The completed essay must be saved using your examination candidate number as the filename. If you have not received your 2012 examination candidate number by mid-April please contact ulp@london.ac.uk before Friday 27th April, providing us with your full name and 9 digit student registration number. The essay front page must be laid out as follows :

University of London Common Law Reasoning and Institutions Essay Title: _____________ Student Number: ____________ Candidate Number: ____________ Please do not add your name to any part of your essay

Before Uploading Your Essay

1. Ensure you can login to the Student Portal using your username and password provided. If you have any difficulties please contact uolia.support@london.ac.uk as soon as possible and at least two weeks before the deadline date. Please do not leave it until the last minute to upload your essay through this assignment handling tool in case you have difficulties which need to be resolved before the final submission date. If you have not received your 2012 examination candidate number by mid-April, please contact ulp@london.ac.uk before Friday 27th April, providing us with your full name and 9 digit student registration number. We cannot guarantee answering emails after this date in time for the deadline. If you have any problems with the upload of your essay, please email lawsonline@london.ac.uk explaining precisely what difficulties you are experiencing before the deadline date. Note, that you can upload your essay at any time up to the date for submission and, should you wish, you can alter and amend it until the due date. Ensure that you keep a copy of your essay safely on your own computer. If you wish to make any amendments, make them on this copy and then upload it.

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Uploading Your Essay

1. Login to the Student Portal (https://my.londoninternational.ac.uk) using your personal login details. If you have not yet received these details please contact uolia.support@london.ac.uk providing them with your full name and student registration number.

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Once you have logged into the student portal select the VLE tab.

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Select Common Law Reasoning and Institutions from the list under My subjects which will take you to the CLRI homepage.

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Scroll right down to the bottom of this page where you will see the heading 'Upload Your CLRI Research Essay'.

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Click on the link which will take you to a page which will enable you to upload your essay. All you need to do is click on 'Browse' and this will allow you to search through the files on your computer to locate your essay. Please save your completed essay using your 2012 exam candidate number as the filename. When you have located the file, double click its link and this link will appear in the box.

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Click on 'Upload this file'. Your essay will then automatically upload to the VLE. This can take up to a minute or two, so be patient.

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When your file has uploaded you will see that there is now a link to it which you can click on to open it or you can click on the red cross to delete it.

Please Note: The assignment handling tool on the Laws VLE is the only method by which we will accept your essay No further amendments may be made to the essay once the final date for submission has passed.