Brexit Dissertation

Hey guys,

I am heading into my final year of my law degree - and it's dissertation time! I've been toying with various ideas, and I was thinking of doing my dissertation on Brexit - it's current, relevant and interesting.

However, my only concern is that since it is such a new topic and is constantly changing, there will be very few secondary, authoritative sources to draw upon (i.e. journal articles), making it difficult to achieve a high level of quality critical analysis.

Are my concerns well-founded?

Also, i'm still open to other potential dissertation topics - feel free to share if you think there's one better than Brexit!

Cheers :smile:

Reply 1

username2585877

15

Sounds alright, although depending on your professor, you might be marked harsher if it seems to express an opinion on a topic that many feel strongly about.

Reply 2

Dewsy

11

Doing your dissertation on a very new topic at undergrad is a risk. I did it, and it paid off - there was only 1 journal article on the topic and I disagreed with it, but ended up with a decent first. On the other hand, a friend in a similar position ended up falling flat on his face in a similar scenario.

My gut says that Brexit may not be the best option simply due to what frankielogue above says.*

Reply 3

cliffg

7

Original post by wasteman1

Hey guys,

I am heading into my final year of my law degree - and it's dissertation time! I've been toying with various ideas, and I was thinking of doing my dissertation on Brexit - it's current, relevant and interesting.

However, my only concern is that since it is such a new topic and is constantly changing, there will be very few secondary, authoritative sources to draw upon (i.e. journal articles), making it difficult to achieve a high level of quality critical analysis.

Are my concerns well-founded?

Also, i'm still open to other potential dissertation topics - feel free to share if you think there's one better than Brexit!

Cheers :smile:

One of the first things a potential supervisor is likely to ask you is; what is the research question which your dissertation will attempt to answer? Coming up with that question will begin to focus your suggestion away from the very broad topic of Brexit towards much more specific issues within the whole general debate.

There are certainly many issues involved but I would suggest that many of them are essentially economic or political as opposed to strictly legal. That doesn't mean, of course, that they cannot come into play in an LLB dissertation, especially if you make it clear from the outset that you are adopting a socio-legal approach as opposed to a Black Letter legal analysis. I would just keep a wary eye on being drawn to far towards questions where the answer is ultimately political/economic as opposed to legal.

A significant number of academics have been writing and blogging about various aspects of Brexit over the past few months and much of it has focused on UK Constitutional Law - the role of referenda within the UK's constitutional arrangements, Parliamentary Sovereignty, Prerogative Power to trigger Art 50, the extent of powers (or lack of them) of the devolved administrations, especially Scotland and Northern Ireland. If those issues interest you then I certainly think there is a good dissertation to be written around them using the EU referendum as the lens through which they can be examined. A very simple research question might be along the lines of : 'Is the use of a referendum to decide on major constitutional change compatible with the doctrine of Parliamentary Sovereignty?'

If you do a little quick 'Google' research, I think you'll find that many EU countries have held referenda on numerous EU matters over the years - I think Ireland have held 8 - those countries, of course, have written constitutions requiring the consent of the people for constitutional change, eg the ratification of the Lisbon treaty - we have Parliamentary Sovereignty (or do we, in the light of a Brexit result?). You get the idea of the types of debate which could be opened here.

The other major area of debate among EU scholars has been about how Art 50 should be read. Eventually this might end up as a question for CJEU, of course. Not sure if there enough mileage in that area for an entire dissertation though, although it might serve as jumping off point for discussion of the entire law/treaty making/interpretation/enforcement of EU law in general.

I think there is also a lot of mileage in using the Brexit vote as a jumping off point for a discussion of many of the current issues surrounding migration law and policy. Did terms such as 'migration crisis', 'swarms of refugees' etc. become conflated with 'freedom of movement' as it exists within EU law?

The good news is that many writers, so far, disagree with each other and there are conflicting views being voiced about all of these issues. Although it may take the journals a few months to catch up with the current events there is a lot of good material about - especially if you use Brexit to lead you into a deeper discussion of the fundamental principles underlying the current debate - then there'll be a wealth of published material. This approach might also insulate you from the situation changing suddenly (by a statement from the PM or from the EU) which could suddenly make a lot of your research redundant and alter the whole picture. Wouldn't be good if that happened 4 weeks before submission deadline.

Reply 4

MarinaMSilva

I'm also doing my dissertation on Brexit, love the ideas :smile:

Reply 5

airmyonne

2

Hello there !

Studying Brexit seems a good thing for master's dissertation, what about for a PhD Thesis ?

(edited 6 years ago)

Reply 6

cliffg

7

Original post by airmyonne

Hello there !

Studying Brexit seems a good thing for master's dissertation, what about for a PhD Thesis ?

If you look at the post above which I submitted a little over 11 months ago you'll see that a lot of it now reads like redundant nonsense. Brexit is a moving target. One thing this week,maybe another next week. I'd steer clear of it in terms of any long term legal study - at the moment anyhow.

Reply 7

airmyonne

2

Original post by cliffg

If you look at the post above which I submitted a little over 11 months ago you'll see that a lot of it now reads like redundant nonsense. Brexit is a moving target. One thing this week,maybe another next week. I'd steer clear of it in terms of any long term legal study - at the moment anyhow.

Yes so it is difficult for now to choose a subject that would have a long term interest !
What a pity ! It would please me so much !

(edited 6 years ago)

Reply 8

anonymous 19

3

I have a dissertation on the constitutional implications of brexit. i'm really struggling with the structure can someone help me please :frown:

(edited 6 years ago)

Reply 9

CorinneMem

Hi there everyone! I graduated in July 2017 with a thesis on Brexit (in English) at the university of Modena and Reggio Emilia (Italy) - a bit tough, ehhe! Does anyone know if/where it is possible to publish it, or take part in a contest? Thanks in advance, Corinne

Brexit Dissertation

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