CESL MASTER THESES: 2021 GUIDELINES
Please read the following guidelines carefully.
1. After choosing one of the macro-topics indicated during last months, please let me know the specific aspect on which you want to focus. This will be the subject matter of your thesis (e.g. free movement of services -> digital services; non-financial barriers to free movement of goods -> consumer protection).
2. My suggestion is to focus on something that you would like to deal with in your future career. I will be happy to accept your proposals, provided that they are connected with the EU internal market. However, please remember that I cannot assign the same subject matter to more than one student; therefore in case of overlaps the “first come, first served” rule applies.
3. When you have chosen the subject matter of your thesis I will provide you with some reading materials. Nevertheless, please consider that in general it will be up to you to search for relevant sources: books and book chapters, peer reviewed journal contributions (articles, notes, comments, analyses, reflections, etc.), working papers, judgments, hard and soft law acts, and so on. To put it simply, research activities are part of your work, thus I cannot replace you (I will just help you getting started).
4. Please take note of every deadline established by your University. Please also consider that each time you send me something it will take about 10 days to me to make corrections and get back to you. If someone fails to respect CESL’s deadlines, needless to say, I will give priority to the other students.
5. As for the submission of the final version of your work, please be informed that I will not be available from 10 to 20 August 2021 due to summer holidays. It means that if you all send me your thesis at the beginning of August I will not be able to assess some of them on time. In any case, the “first come, first served” rule will keep applying.
6. Your thesis shall be complete and accurate but it does not need to be too long. The number of pages is not important to me, I am interested in what you write. After introducing the topic that you are going discuss, please avoid writing a long historical contextualization and go straight to the heart of your work.
7. Your thesis shall not be merely descriptive (e.g. “art. 1 states that...; art. 2 adds that…; according to art. 3…”). Please try to develop a good legal reasoning any time you can, especially in the last part of the thesis. You may also put forward a critical approach, if you like. However, always make sure that your theories rest on solid legal sources (norms, judgments, scholars’ opinions, etc.).
8. Please try to indicate a “sufficient” amount of sources in your thesis. If you always mention the same 2 or 3 sources page after page, your thesis is not likely to be considered a good one.
9. When you read your materials remember to have a look at the bibliography provided by every author (e.g. footnotes). You may find other useful sources to read with a view to completing your analysis.
10. Do not copy and paste anything, unless you wish to quote some short extracts or in case you have to report the details of the sources you want to indicate. Remember that your thesis will be subject to anti-plagiarism control systems.
