Assessment

The module is assessed by one compulsory research paper of 3000 words worth 100% of the final mark. The deadline and submission instructions for the assessment can be found on the module’s Moodle page.

The research paper must be empirical in nature. This means the research has to rely on observable evidence to answer a question about an aspect of judicial politics. The research design devised to answer the research question can be quantitative, qualitative or mixed.

Each research paper must include one section discussing theory and one section discussing research design. The theory section sets out the researcher’s expectations about the studied phenomenon on the basis of existing academic literature and typically ends with a testable hypothesis. The research design section describes how the research question will be answered and must include a discussion of the information (data) and the method (e.g. process tracing or regression analysis) used to produce evidence in support of a hypothesis. Other sections are optional but “introduction” and “findings” (or equivalent) are encouraged to also feature in the paper.

Papers are expected to use an author-year (in-text) citation system. Citation and reference formatting should follow the Chicago or Harvard style. The list of references at the end of the document are not counted towards the word limit (but the in-text citations are). Any footnotes or endnotes count towards the word limit. Compliance with university plagiarism policies is a must.

General assessment criteria

The markers will consider the following criteria when assessing your essay:

  • Structure and organisation

  • Extent of research work completed

  • Use of evidence

  • Development and consistency of arguments

  • Evidence of critical analysis

  • Overall insight and originality

  • Adequacy and presentation of bibliographic information

  • Accuracy and appropriateness of referencing

  • Overall presentation

An excellent essay will be strong on each criterion.

Use of artificial intelligence tools

No part of the work submitted for assessment is allowed to have been generated or otherwise produced by artificial intelligence tools. Failure to abide by this requirement will be treated as academic misconduct and trigger the relevant procedures and penalties. Standard academic misconduct regulations apply at all times.