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Dissertation Topics in Law for LLM Students

• Updated on  
• May 9, 2023

The last academic challenge before the completion of your postgraduate degree is a dissertation or thesis. Many students pursuing LLM are often confused while deciding the correct topic for the dissertation as it requires a lot of research. To help you with the dissertation this blog contains ideal law dissertation topics for LLM in India. Keep reading to know more!

This Blog Includes:

How to choose the best dissertation topic, advantages of choosing a good dissertation topic, criminal law dissertation topics, international law dissertation topics, family law dissertation topics, employment law dissertation topics, international commercial law dissertation topics, law dissertation topics india, intellectual property law topics in dissertation, constitutional law topics in dissertation, sports law topics in dissertation, medical law topics in dissertation, commercial law dissertation topics, company law dissertation topics, tort law dissertation topics, eu law dissertation topics, the english legal system and constitutional and administrative law dissertation topics.

A lot of research and hard work is required to decide what is a correct and valuable topic for the dissertation or thesis. It is seen in various students that before graduation the dissertation is the last hurdle in the way. It is advised to pursue a topic after valuable research and most importantly that goes with the student’s interests.

Also Read: Dissertation Topics

There are an array of benefits when you choose a good and valuable dissertation topic. These advantages include:

• This helps you in the analysis of the topic and deep research.
• Present you with a program to enhance your investigative skills.
• In explaining your subject option, you should be prepared to show how your previous research experiences ended up with great knowledge. 
• You can find a degree of education useful for postgraduate research.

Also Read: Law Entrance Exams: India & Abroad

Criminal law is the body of law regulating crime and criminal activities in India. This proves to be an important topic and is interesting as well. Some of the criminal law dissertation topics are:

• A Significant Study of Struggle against Girls in India
• Case Debate on business trial in India
• An Analysis on Terrorism and Lawlessness Against Infants in India
• A survey on Legislation against private terrorism in India
• Significant Evaluation Of Death Cost In India
• An Analysis of Juvenile Justice System and Order in India
• The appearance of the group is in the criminal law process
• The Root Elements of the Infant Mergers
• White-Collar Crime Law in India
• Criminology and Criminal Justice

Also Read: How to Write a Dissertation?

International law dissertation is another amazing topic where you can add your relevant thoughts. Some of the unique international law dissertation topics are:

• What are the significant aspects of collective civil obligations in now’s global order?
• What are the causes that cause application of foreign order at the state standard also complex?
• Figure out the very important issues encountered by establishing universal rules.
• What are the effects of accelerated market restraints on people? Can such a thing be explained?
• What are global challenges encountered by international businessmen, when installing service projects in third group societies?
• What are the effects of letting offenders continue to their native land for action?
• How seeing abuse as a foreign war case will change the position of African people?
• What are the important challenges encountered by companies that are coming in the global travel industry from the ocean.
• What universal rules regulate copy? How should this case be corrected?
• Which governmental law of the UK is sufficiently sufficient to be carried out universally?

Also Read: What is a Dissertation? Meaning, Projects, Report Work

Some of the most important and unique family law dissertation topics are:

• Separation case for father and female representatives of the group, makes it favour any particular gender or is it merely a sense
• Matrimonial Act and how it affects women who join without their permission. What is the attitude of decisions about made mergers and how can one explain it in the court of decision
• Residential part by stepmothers and offspring, how goes on the case provide everybody has their got right and place
• Youth insurance problems in the unified kingdom, which of the state shows to have very trouble with such arguments and why is it so
• Adolescent abuse-is it important to discipline your children and youths? What is the perimeter between youth abuse and correcting your children for setting their limits
• Internal disorder and its effect on the boy and female representatives personally, which of them picks up a greater claim in the mind of order and how can we get rid of that biasness
• Protection problems for separated mothers, how goes on it go and what goes on the statute have to do about the protection of the child for each mother
• How looks at the proper form thing if a man is incapable to provide and provide his house owing to lack or scarcity of means
• Long-distance communications and their fair significance cut off from the spiritual and artistic attitudes
• Minor job- what are we looking at to abolish it and how goes on our constitutional process set limits and provide that they are found

Employment law dissertation enables you to craft perfect research on your thesis or dissertation. Some of the employment law dissertation topics are:

• The link between trade and morality in the UK. An academic context.
• A study of the relationship between sports departments and their service contracts.
• The effect of variation in the business decisions of the UK after starting the EU.
• The task of infant employment regulations in the UK. How does the judiciary remain fighting developing youth employment?
• The influence of civil responsibility service in UK regulations.
• A study of the market association in the UK study of the business requirements and principles.
• A provisional review of business decisions in the station waggon part of the UK and EU. Who gets the first job benefit and rights insurance systems?
• An in-depth study of justice fees in the validities of UK legislation.

Some of the international commercial law dissertations you can choose from are:

• An assessment of the enemy-pollution bill in the UK. Its origins and effects on the state leaders.
• A strategic study of the joint cloak and how the decision can pass through it.
• The performance of UK legislation in affecting joint difficulties while preserving major human rights.
• A symposium on the differences enveloping the purview of field 33 groups do 2006 in the UK
• The effects of setting reasonable requirements for the principal’s needs. How does the organisation do well under this?
• An in-depth assessment of economic regulation programs at attending institutions in the UK.
• The effect of UNCITRAL’s performance on the unification of universal economic legislation in the UK.

Also Read: How to Write Acknowledgement for Dissertation?

Some of the Indian legal topics you can choose for your dissertation are:

• Handgun Case in India: Provision of a Different Structure
•  Animal investigation: Order in India
• Wire advertising and constitutional structure
•  Joint Civil Power and change
• Moral Orders and Cases in producing societies
• Men Investigations and Indian constitutional practice
•  Improvement of infants and proper conflict

Some of the catchy and interesting dissertation topics that you can choose as a dissertation topic for law assignment:

• Scientific advances and present IP rule in India
• IP rules and the safety of/on Internet
•  New patent statutes and digitalisation

Also Read: University of Law: Eligibility, Application, Courses & More

Here are some of the finest dissertation or thesis topics for constitutional law dissertation topics are:

• Accident plans in India: A study
• Legal exploitation and its interest: An assessment
• Application of International Cases in Indian Legal Structure
• Able expression in virtual life and Indian Custom

Also Read: Dissertation vs Thesis

A constantly fascinating subject, sports provides a large range of fields and issues to judge from to create your analysis report. It can deal with universal order, national order, carrying out parties, power, and often better.

Here are some of the finest dissertation (thesis)points on Sports law:

• Doping and Sports: National and International fair innuendo
• Legalisation of speculating in India: Law and Cons
• Handling sports organisations and their constitutional ramifications
• Transgender animals and Indian Custom

Medical law dissertation is another great topic you can choose from, some of the medical law dissertation topics are:

• Member retention: Fair experts and cons
• Miscarriage in India: A global review
• Made fertilisation: Provision of primary training to find out these matters
• Supported suicide: Fair, honest and therapeutic ethics
• Animal torture: A fair claim research

Also Read: Law Courses

Commercial Law is one such topic where a wide area of study is to be covered because it cannot be described within a single legal jurisdiction. A commercial law dissertation often involves comparisons with other countries. Listed below are some topics for Commercial Law Dissertation:

• A critical assessment of the international commercial arbitration system as a cost-effective and efficient means to administer justice in commercial disputes
• An assessment of security over personal property when it comes to the matter of possessory and non-possessory forms of security and other legal devices
• An investigation of the emergence of new manifestations of international commercial law
• A critical assessment of the passing of risk in the commercial law in England and Wales
• A critical assessment of the Future of consumer protection in England and Wales in the post-Brexit era

There is a great scope of producing an effective Company Law Dissertation as it provides you with potential sources. From the Companies Act 2006 to corporate governance, you have a lot of options to choose from. Listed below are some great Company Law Dissertation Topics:

• A critical analysis of the shareholder versus stakeholder basis of corporate governance
• Arguments for and against ‘stakeholder theory’ and to what extent are they still valid?
• Should the OECD’s Model Tax Convention on Income and on Capital 2010 be ratified into UK Law?
• To what extent has Environmental Law merged together Vicarious and Corporate Liability
• Is the English maintenance of the “internal management” model failing to bring company law in the 21st Century?

The word Tort comes from the Latin term torture which means “Wrong”. In simple terms, Tort Law is supposed to address the civil wrongs done to a person, accidentally or incidentally. The victim/injured/aggrieved party is provided with compensation for the damages.

This area of law is one of the most important aspects of law study as it demonstrates the circumstances through which an individual is held accountable for another party’s injury either done intentionally or omissions or even by accident. Listed below are some topics for a Tort Law Dissertation to make it easier for you to draft an effective dissertation:

• Importance of foreseeability and policy in establishing a duty of care
• Analysis of the rules regarding the recovery of economic losses in tortious actions
• When it comes to matters of occupiers’ liability under the Occupiers Liability Acts of 1957 and 1984 respectively, when is a trespasser, not a trespasser?
• Wrongful Restraint of a man’s Liberty: Meaning, Defense and Remedy
• Why might the duty of care afforded to children be considered to be a step too far regarding the recognition of tortious liability?

Also Read: All About PhD Thesis

EU Law is considered as an expandable area of academic interest, particularly due to the UK’s recent Brexit from the Union. There is a wide range of dissertation topics you can consider for an EU Law Dissertation, from UK’s Brexit to the superiority of EU Law. Listed below are some great dissertation topics to start with your EU Law Dissertation:

• Critical Analysis of the UK’s Separation from the EU.
• Brexit and EU economy: How the UK’s decision has affected EU trade.
• An argument: Is EU Law actually superior?
• Importance of the enforcement actions against EU Member States as part of the European law-making process.
• How has the European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms of 1950 contributed to the recognition of human rights internationally?

The English Legal System and Constitutional and Administrative Law may be classified into 3 key areas-

• The nature of the Constitution may be considered in areas including, but not limited to, the recognition and application of conventions and the rule of law. 
• Evaluation of the roles of the legislature, executive and parliament in the context of the recognition of the separation of powers, which could include legislation’s passage through Parliament, the delegation of legislation, the relationship between Parliament, the crown and the Royal Prerogative, and the executive, legislative and judiciary’s relationship.
• Judicial Review includes the basis for intervention, such as ultra vires and illegality, procedural irregularity, irrationality, proportionality, and the nemo judex rule.

A number of areas can be covered in this dissertation as the English Legal System and Constitutional and Administrative Law is quite different from other legal systems as the role of the judge differs in an adversarial system. The major difference is in how a trial is pursued. Some topics for an English Legal System and Constitutional and Administrative Law Dissertation are as mentioned below:

• The Role of natural justice  in the UK Constitution
• Are conventions still a valid part of the UK Constitution?
• Is the Royal Prerogative an essential part of the British Constitution?
• Are the current models of statutory interpretation fit for purpose, especially as the jurisprudence of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) and European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) infer a more active approach for judges?
• In what ways will the relationship between constitutional and administrative law in England and Wales be affected by Brexit?

The following are the popular law universities in the world: Harvard University Columbia University Stanford University

Here are some of the finest dissertation or thesis topics for constitutional law dissertation topics are: Accident plans in India: A study Legal exploitation and its interest: An assessment Application of International Cases in the Indian Legal Structure Able expression in virtual life and Indian Custom

The average salary of a lawyer in India is 3.5 Lakh per year.

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Law Library Research: Introductory Training for LLM Students

Introduction, the law library website, the hollis library catalog, finding llm papers in hollis, finding a paper topic and preemption checking, bluebooking, perma: creating permanent web links, getting help, about this course.

Welcome to the Harvard Law School Library! We look forward to working with you while you are here. 

This guide contains the following six videos that have been designed to introduce you to the the Library.  You can watch them all in under an hour. 

• The Law Library Website: Library Services and Subscription Database Links (5:05)
• The HOLLIS Library Catalog (5:38)
• Advanced Searching in HOLLIS to Find LLM Papers  (5:04)
• Finding an LLM Paper Topic & Preemption Checking   (4:00)
• The Bluebook Legal Citation System (5:33)
• Perma: Making Permanent Links for your LLM Paper (4:38)

Course Outline

Below is an outline of the the content of the videos with links to relevant resources.

Please download this outline and read it carefully before watching the videos.

• LLM Training Video Outline

Video Controls

All videos are close captioned. Use the controls in the lower right to turn captions on and off and to adjust playback speed. 

Start with the Harvard Law School Library website for information about the Library and access to research materials, including legal databases.  

• Harvard Law School Library

Lexis, Westlaw, and Bloomberg

The video mentions three subscription databases that you need to register for separately: Westlaw, Lexis, and Bloomberg.  You will receive an email from the Library with regsitration instructions about how to register for these databases.

For additional training materials for these databases, see our Westlaw, Lexis and Bloomberg Law Training Guide.

• Lexis, Westlaw & BloombergLaw Training Guide

Intro to HOLLIS

HOLLIS is the library catalog for all of Harvard's libraries, including the law library.  To be an effective researcher at Harvard, you must learn how to use HOLLIS.

• HOLLIS HOLLIS is the main catalog for the Harvard Library system

Finding LLM Papers from Prior Years

Search HOLLIS for LLM papers from previous years in order to:

• See examples of successful topics, subject matters, and scope
• Identify professors who have supervised papers on specific subjects
• Find examples of successfully formatted papers

A note on terminology: 

• LLM papers are not considered "theses." The use of the term "thesis" in HOLLIS is a library cataloging convention.  Contact the Graduate Program if you have questions. 

This video show you how to use HOLLIS ( https://hollis.harvard.edu ) to find prior years' LLM papers in the library's collection.

Why would you want to find these papers?

The ability to find LLM papers submitted by prior HLS students is a very important skill for LLM students to know.  This information can give you ideas about the types of topics that were written about successfully, in terms of both subject matter and scope.  It can also give you a good indication of which professors have supervised which subject areas.

Finding an LLM Paper Topic & Preemption Checking

• Explore methods for finding and developing potential LLM paper topics
• Identify possible faculty advisors
• gain a well-informed idea of what has already been published about your LLM paper topic , and
• ensure that your contribution to the scholarly conversation is original.   

For more information, see our research guides:

• Finding a Paper Topic by Deanna Barmakian Last Updated Aug 20, 2024 1181 views this year
• Preemption Checking for Law Students by Deanna Barmakian Last Updated Aug 9, 2024 186 views this year

Bluebook Legal Citation

Follow the steps in this video to create legal citations using the Bluebook, the primary legal citation method used in U.S. legal scholarship. See our Bluebooking guide for additional information.

• Bluebook Legal Citation System Guide by Mindy Kent Last Updated Jul 18, 2024 30974 views this year

What about content management systems, like Zotero?  

Zotero and other content management systems are great for organizing your research, but they haven't mastered the Bluebook. While Zotero has an option for Bluebook citations, the citations aren't completely accurate. Do not rely on Zotero to create correct citations for your LLM paper.

As a Harvard student, you have free access to  Zotero .  For more information about how to get it and set it up on your computer, see our Zotero Guide. 

• Guide to Zotero for Harvard Law Students by Harvard Law School Library Research Services Last Updated Aug 9, 2024 387 views this year

Perma: Making Permanent Links for Your LLM Paper

Perma is a service provided by the HLS Library's Library Information Lab that allows you to make permanent links for pages on publicly-accessible websites that you cite in your LLM paper.  This video introduces Perma and explains how to use it.

Contact Us!

  Ask Us!  Submit a question or search our knowledge base.

Chat with us!  Chat   with a librarian (HLS only)

Email: [email protected]

 Contact Historical & Special Collections at [email protected]

  Meet with Us   Schedule an online consult with a Librarian

Hours  Library Hours

Classes  View  Training Calendar  or  Request an Insta-Class

 Text  Ask a Librarian, 617-702-2728

 Call  Reference & Research Services, 617-495-4516

• Last Updated: Aug 20, 2024 1:40 PM
• URL: https://guides.library.harvard.edu/law/LLM-Law-Library-Training

Harvard University Digital Accessibility Policy

20 LLM Dissertation Topics Relevant for the XXI Century

Law is such a vast sphere. It encompasses so many smaller branches such as commercial law, tort law, EU law, constitutional law, and many others. Besides that, an LLM dissertation requires great care in locating and citing sources. You have to evaluate these sources carefully so they back up your thesis.

For all these reasons, composing a good LLM dissertation topic is challenging, to say the least. Moreover, quality LLM thesis topics must be specific, examining each topic deeply enough to form a strong foundation for a substantive paper.

To help you, here are 20 possible topics for your LLM dissertation. We’re sure you’ll find here something to your liking! Feel free to adapt one of these topics and make it your own.

• Is Freedom of Speech for the Press Truly in the Best Interest of the Public?
• Explore the Principle of Non-Refoulement as It Applies to the Recent Crisis in Syria
• Discuss the Changes in International Criminal Law in a Post 9/11 World
• Is It Possible or Ethical to Legally Protect Trade Secrets?
• Discuss How Societal Rules Regarding Land Tenure Affect the Availability of Housing in African Countries
• A Study of the Effects of Insider Trading Law as It Affects Corporate Governance Norms in China
• Are Anti-Bribery Laws Effective in Eliminating Corruption in an Economic System?
• What Are the Sexual and Reproductive Rights of Women in Africa?
• What Are the Pros and Cons of Instituting a “Bad Samaritan” Law?
• Which Economic Model Is Preferable, the “Building Block” System of the EU or the “Rule of Reason” Model in the US?
• Explore the Legal Implication of Employee Restructuring
• What Is the Legal Status of the Employment Rights of Agency Workers?
• Should Sex Offender Registries Be Made Public?
• What Are Some of the Implications of Proposed Homicide Reform?
• How Legal Binding Human Rights Treaties Are
• Is It Possible to Fully Enforce the Digital Economy Act?
• What Is an Appropriate Burden of Proof for Complainants in the Criminal Justice System?
• Analyze the Principles of Offender Profiling and Its Legal Implications
• Analyze “Certainty of Intention” Language as It Relates to Trusts
• What Are the Challenges in Identifying the True Scope of a Crime?

The 21st century has brought all kinds of new concerns to the legal field. To make your dissertation more relevant and engaging, you want to incorporate some of the hot issues in today’s legal landscape.

Coming up with a perfect LLM dissertation topic can feel like a lot of pressure, but there’s no need to feel intimidated. These suggested topics will put you well on your way to crafting a brilliant dissertation which will not only build your own knowledge but also enlighten your readers as to the trends and issues that impact the 21st-century legal world.

Posted by Mike Sung

• ← 20 HRM Thesis Topics to Present All the Key Points a True Professional Should Keep in Mind
• 20 Linguistics Thesis Topics to Amaze Every Single Person in Class →

5 Resources to Use to Find Killer Law Dissertation Topics

5 resources to use to find a killer law dissertation topic.

By Christopher Mallon LLB, LLM, PhD Candidate and Private Tutor and Award Winning Dissertation Tutor.

As a law dissertation tutor, I work with many law students who struggle to

find a good law dissertation topic.  It is certainly in top 10 requests

I receive on a weekly basis.

Well never fear – help is here.

The key is to find a topic that is interesting and allows for critical debate.

The good news is that law students already have access to resources

that can help. In this post, I will show you 5 resources to use to find

a law dissertation topic.

• The Law Commission website

The business of the Law Commission is law reform. The Commission is

tasked with ensuring the law is fair, simple and modern.

You can bet their website is a pretty good resource for sparking a

great law dissertation topic idea.

a. The news section

The site’s news section gives regular updates on law reform.

The headlines can provide some current insight into law reform and can ignite ideas for you:

You can see a couple of headlines here.

Using these as inspiration you might consider whether the current law is

capable of providing a definite answer as to whether electronic signatures can

be used to contract or whether legislation should be used.

Or you might investigate financial order reform if you prefer a family law or land law theme.

You can see from the diagram above that there is a search facility on the Law

Commission website.

Just type in a keyword or phrase of a topic that interests you.

Then check out what comes up in the search results. You should come across

some inspiration for a fantastic idea for your law dissertation.

b. The 13th Programme for Law Reform

The Law Commission has recently published its 13th Programme for Law Reform.

What is it?

It is essentially a document indicating what legal reforms the Commission will

consider over the next 2-3 years.

The Commission has ‘focused on reforms which will reduce unfairness for the citizen

and those which will help to enhance the UK’s competitiveness internationally following

our exit from the European Union.’

Some of these topics that the Law Commission will concentrate on include:

• A Modern Framework for Disposing of the Dead
• Administrative Review
• Automated Vehicles
• Electronic Signatures
• Employment Law Hearing Structures
• Intermediated Securities
• Modernising Trust Law for a Global Britain
• Museum Collections
• Registered Land and Chancel Repair Liability
• Residential Leasehold
• Simplifying the Immigration Rules
• Smart Contracts
• Unfair Terms in Residential Leasehold

You can download the full 49-page report here. 

The report gives a small synopsis of each reform project. These can spark a really good

idea in your mind and provide the first shoots of your dissertation project.

In addition, the report also outlines the ‘maybe’ projects. Projects that at present

are not considered a primary focus for the Commission. The Commission’s loss

could be your gain.

Check out those projects and see if any interest you for your law dissertation.

2. Lexis PSL

I admit it.

I love Lexis PSL.

There. I said it.

I know I sometimes sound like I am a shareholder in the company but I am not.

I just think it is a fantastic resource for law students generally and for a law

dissertation project.

But how can it help you come up with a law dissertation topic ?

Lexis PSL is designed for practitioners like solicitors and barristers. However, many law students

have access to these resources.

They are split into sections like family law, employment law, company law and so on.

From the main menu, hover over each subject and you will see many topics that are

related to your law degree and very practical topics also. Finding a good dissertation topic

is also about finding an original dissertation idea. Lexis PSL lets you do that.

LexisPSL is accessible through the homepage of your Lexis subscription. Most if not all

Law Schools have these. Seek help from your law librarian if you need help to

access this resource.

3. The Supreme Court website

The website for the highest court in the land is our next stop.

One part of the Supreme Court website outlines appeals that will be heard

by the Justices over the next few months. You can access a list of upcoming

hearings here.

You should see a list similar to this:

How can this help with my dissertation?

Scroll down the list and spot a case that interests you. You can see a brief synopsis

of the main legal issue in the case under the ‘case summary’ column.  The main

legal issue in the case is usually framed as a question. With some editing this could

become the research question for your dissertation.

Let’s take an example of an upcoming case summary from the site:

Whether non-clinically trained reception staff at an A&E department owed a tortious duty of care

to the appellant to provide him with accurate information regarding waiting times.

With a small adjustment this can become a dissertation topic to do with duty of care

in tort and in the context of medical staff.

Top Tip: start your research question with ‘Ought’ or ‘Should’ and make sure it

can be stated in one sentence to ensure that your research topic is critical and precise.

The great thing about the Supreme Court site is that the legal issue before the court

will be phrased as a question. This can form your research question for your dissertation.

Your research question could become:

Ought non-clinically trained reception staff at an A&E department owed a tortious duty of care when

providing waiting time information to patients?

4.  The “Thesis” PDF trick

This little trick is great.

You are not the first law student to write a law dissertation.

Thousands have come before you.

And the majority of law dissertations tend to find themselves made public at some stage.

This is usually through a University library website.

This method is not a license for you to copy a student’s dissertation.

I repeat. This is not an excuse for plagiarism.

You are merely trying to see what ideas other students have come up with to

help inspire your own idea. This could be extending, challenging, refining

or updating something that you see in a published dissertation.

Let’s say you are interested in a law dissertation about floating and fixed

charges and how they can be reformed.

On the Google Homepage search for:

“floating charge” AND “fixed charge” AND “reform” AND “thesis” pdf

This will return all publicly available dissertations in this area.

If you want to see high-level work at Ph.D. level on your topic area add the

words ‘partial fulfilment’ to your search terms.

All Ph.D. thesis have a title page which states that a thesis is being submitted

as ‘partial fulfilment of the requirements of a Ph.D.’

Including ‘partial fulfilment’ in your Google search means you will pick

these up in your search.

The literature reviews in these pieces can be a really good first step for you

in finding out what the current law/debate/theory is in this area.

5. Guardian Law

Before we begin.

Other UK newspapers do exist.

However, I prefer the Guardian.

First, unlike the Times you do not need to pay for access.

Second, the depth of detail is just about right.

How can the Guardian help you come up with a dissertation topic?

Well – this one is an easy one.

Read the articles and see what interests you.

Then make sure the story reveals a legal element. Good law dissertations will be rooted in law.

Try and find an article that engages an area from your core or optional modules.

I hope this helps. If you have any queries about the dissertation process, 

law dissertation ideas and how to score well, get in touch.

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Ways of studying an LLM program – the research option

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Many LLM programs are to be completed by coursework only; others by a combination of coursework, exams  and thesis. A minority of programs offer the opportunity to skip the coursework entirely and complete the degree via a thesis. An LLM by Research is intended to develop the student's legal research and writing skills by directing them towards planning and executing a large piece of academic research – usually around 30,000-40,000 words – on their chosen field of law. Although this dissertation will be completed under specialist supervision, the student will be expected to demonstrate the ability to work independently. The LLM by Research will develop the student’s ability to present legal arguments by utilising various legal sources and other academic literature.  Although the thesis is the main form of assessment for qualification, many universities also offer the opportunity to participate in taught courses as well, offering the chance to broaden your horizons in the legal fields.

Advantages of studying an LLM by Research

Studying an LLM program by Research is a great option to choose if you want to continue with your legal education to a postgraduate level, especially if you are considering going on to study a doctoral research in law (PhD). It is also a good option if you want to continue working while studying part time for your Master of Laws.

Being part of research community, and meeting eminent researchers, thereby gaining invaluable skills and experience, are other benefits when choosing the research option. As well as developing your research skills, you will also develop other transferable skills that will aid your legal and/or academic career.

Another advantage of a research-only program is that you may be able to do most of your work elsewhere – wherever you have a suitable library or internet connection, for instance. Although many programs have formal residency requirements, they are often not enforced. Make sure you check your eligibility to study, as recent legislation by the UK Border Agency, can affect overseas students in the UK, making them only eligible to apply for full-time study.

Applying for an LLM by Research

Although all universities have different application procedures, if you are applying to do an LLM program by Research, you will have to submit a decent research proposal. This should include the title of your proposed research, a concise introduction, intended methodology, benefits of the research to the wider community, overall summary, as well as details of any supporting supervisors.

There are several factors you will need to consider when choosing where to do your LLM by Research. Obviously the institution’s reputation, specialist fields, and attached professors/specialist researchers will all play an important part in helping you make your decision. Other factors to consider are the funding opportunities available at the law school and, of course, its location.

Almost all of the law schools offering LLMs by Research can be found in current or former British Commonwealth countries: Australia, Britain, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand and South Africa.

In the United States, although a handful of schools offer so-called ‘LLMs by Research’, the typical program, such as that at the University of Michigan, requires one semester of coursework and one of research and writing. The University of Wisconsin is nearly unique in offering a degree that does not require coursework. Unlike most other types of LLM programs, LLMs by Research often allow students to start at different times of year. The University of Bristol, for example, is not unusual in allowing students to start in January, April or October. There are several other LLM by Research programs available in the UK, for example at the Schools of Law at the University of Edinburgh and the University of Glasgow, as well as the Warwick School of Law.

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Home > Dean Rusk Center > LLM Theses and Essays

LLM Theses and Essays

Submissions from 2013 2013.

Some Important Causes for Settlement in American Civil Litigation , Felipe Forte Cobo

Submissions from 2011 2011

TO REVEAL OR CONCEAL?—AN ISP’S DILEMMA, Presenting a New “Anonymous Public Concern Test” for Evaluating ISP Subpoenas in Online Defamation Suits , Cayce Myers

Submissions from 2008 2008

Infrastructure Development in Emerging Economies and the Roles Played by Multilateral Institutions , Amjad Ahasan Basheer

Universal Human Rights and Threat to International Peace and Security: The United Nations' Obligation to Intervene , Godfrey Mhlanga

Submissions from 2007 2007

Applicable Law Provisions in International Uniform Commercial Law Conventions , Paolo E. Conci

Licenses, Leases and Other Contractual Arrangements for the Exploration and Production of Petroleum A Comparative Study Between Nigeria and the United States , Omolara Elumelu

Judicial Review of International Commercial Arbitral Awards by National Courts in the United States and India , Aparna D. JUJJAVARAPU

Ethiopia's Sovereign Right of Access to the Sea under International Law , Abebe T. Kahsay

Comfort Women: Human Rights of Women from Then to Present , Jinyang Koh

Imports or Made-in-China: Comparison of Two Constitutional Cases in China and the United States , Xiao Li

Taxing Emotional Distress Recoveries: Does Murphy Show the Way? , Kaushal P. Mahaseth

The Land of the Free: Human Rights Violations at Immigration Detention Facilities in America , Caitlin J. Mitchel

International Legal Standards Governing the Use of Child Soldiers , Dorcas B. Mulira

Corporate Restrictions in Mexico and the United States , Dennis Rios

Regulating Transnational Corporation for Environmental Damage , Sonal Sahu

The Need for a Transnational Appellate Arbitral Review Body , Priya Sampath

A Consumption Tax versus a Federal Income Tax in the United States , Shelly-Ann R. Tomlinson

Financial Holding Company System and Relevant Legislation , Ye Wang

Submissions from 2006 2006

The Hamburg Rules , Kweku G. Ainuson

Tourism in Antarctica: History, Current Challenges and Proposals for Regulation , Juan Y. Harcha

Reconsidering the Medical Expert Witness System , Yunwei Jiang

A Comparative Study of the Legal Responses to Domestic Violence in the United States and Hungary , Adam Keri

Enforcement of Human Rights under Regional Mechanisms: a Comparative Analysis , Fekadeselassie F. Kidanemariam

Shareholders' Agreements in Close Corporations and Their Enforcement , Ricardo Molano Leon

A Comparative Study on the Trade Barriers Regulation and Foreign Trade Barriers Investigation Rules , Junrong Song

How to Deal with Multi-party Nominations of Arbitrators in International Commercial Arbitration - a Comparative Study of Appointment Procedures with Emphasis on U.S.-European Commerce between Private Entities , Marie-Beatrix Tupy

Balancing Regulations and Incentives for Foreign Direct Investment: a Case Study of Mexico and Kazakhstan , Dauren B. Tynybekov

Submissions from 2005 2005

The Legality of Humanitarian Intervention , Eric Adjei

A Comparative Assessment of U.S. Direct Investment in China and India , Kalpana Arjunan

Pre-contractual Obligations in France and the United States , Florence Caterini

Comparative Law: Alcohol, Drug Abuse & Jurisprudence from the United States to Korea , Hyun J. Cho

Commercial Speech in the United States and Europe , Oxana Valeryevna Gassy-Wright

Accountability of Transnational Corporations under International Standards , Lea Hanakova

Protection of "Persona" in the EU and in the US: a Comparative Analysis , Anna E. Helling

Income Tax Preferences to Foreign Investment in China since the Late 1970s , Xiaoyang Hou

Role of the World Bank and IMF in Issuing Loans to Russia: Responsibility, Tricks, Corruption, Mafia, and Important Use of Legal Enforcement , Elmira A. Makova

Governance and Responsibility of Multinational Enterprises: the Use of Codes of Conduct and Litigation to Change Multinational Enterprises' Behavior , Maria Fernanda Matach

Free Movement of Goods: a Comparative Analysis of the European Community Treaty and the North American Free Trade Agreement , Pedro A. Perichart

The Drafting Process For a Hague Convention on Jurisdiction and Judgements with Special Consideration of Intellectual Property and E-Commerce , Knut Woestehoff

The Drafting Process for a Hague Convention on Jurisdiction and Judgments with Special Consideration of Intellectual Property and E-commerce , Knut Woestehoff

Trade-related Environmental Measures and GATT: the Conflict between Trade Libralization and Environmental Protection , Fang Zheng

Submissions from 2004 2004

The Question of Non-trade Issues in the WTO from a Developing Country Perspective , Cecilia Alzamora

Cybercrime , Karissa Ayala

Protection of Children from Exploitation in West Africa: Illusion or Reality? , Afua Brown-Eyeson

Legal Structures of European Security and Defense Policy and War Powers under the U.S. Constitution , Heiko Buesing

U.S. Antidumping Law and Practices against Korean Exports , Jinwook Choi

Regulation of Hate Speech , Haiping Deng

The Institutional Framework of the European Union for the Conduct of Foreign Affairs , Frederic Eggermont

Comparison of New Zealand and United States Securities Markets through the Looking Glass of the Efficient Market Hypothesis , Carla Natalia Gargiulo

Private Party Participation in the World Trade Organizations , Taehyung Im

Issues Regarding the Most Effective Tool of U.S. Bankruptcy Law , Zeenat Kera

Contracts and Electronic Agents , Sabrina Kis

Historical Aspects of State Arbitration Policy , Elton R. Lanier

Regulating Non-territorial Commercial Environments in Territorial-based Legal Systems , Pedro Martin G. Less Andrade

Unilateral Refusals to Deal in Intellectual Property as Monopolistic Conduct , Bolanle Meshida

Comparative Analysis of Federal Income Tax Imposed on U.S. C Corporations and Russian Joint Stock Companies , Alina Y. Mitskevich

Legislation and Implementation of International Environmental Law by African Countries: a Case Study of Ghana , Brigitte L. Okley

The Challenges of Tax Collection in Developing Economies (with Special Reference to India) , Pramod K. Rai

Family Businesses, Choices of Legal Entity , Martina L. Rojo

Sound Record Producers' Rights and the Problem of Sound Recording Piracy , Stanislava N. Staykova

The Change of Corporate Governance Structure in the United States and Taiwan , Yifan Tseng

Fiduciary Duties of Directors in the Context of Going-private Transactions to the Minority Shareholders under Delaware Law , Yuan Wang

Recognition and Enforcement of International Commercial Arbitration Awards , Shouhua Yu

Submissions from 2003 2003

Interim Measures in International Commercial Arbitration: Past, Present and Future , Sandeep Adhipathi

Reservations, Human Rights Treaties in the 21st century: from Universality to Integrity , Pierrick Devidal

Technological Advances Leading to the Diminishing of Privacy Rights , Anabelle Maria D'Souza

Protection of Consumer Privacy in E-commerce , Choong L. Ha

Mergers and Acquisitions in Europe: Analysis of EC Competition Regulations , YoungJun Lee

Security Interests in Intellectual Property Rights: the Time Has Come for the Enactment of New Laws , Esteban Mazzucco

The Convergence of Trade and Environment and the Relative Role of WTO , Xiaoxi Meng

The Main Characteristics of State's Jurisdiction to Tax in International Dimension , Alfred Nizamiev

U.S. Foreign Direct Investment in Developing Countries: a Case Study of Malaysia, Mexico and South Africa , Abenaa A. Oti-Prempeh

Free movement of goods: A comparative analysis of the European community treaty and the north American free trade agreement , Pedro A. Perichart

A Historical View of Intellectual Property Rights in the Palestinian Territories , Ihab G. Samaan

Submissions from 2002 2002

An Analysis of the Duty to Negotiate in Good Faith: Precontractual Liability and Preliminary Agreement , Aarti Arunachalam

Multinational Corporations Facing the Varying Concepts of Jurisdiction : "forum non-conveniens", Contrasts between the Anglo-American and the European Law Systems , Sandrine Buttin

Minority Shareholders and Oppression in Close Corporations: Contracting as an Effective Protection Device , Marcella Machado Carneiro

Freedom of Speech, Cinema and Censorship: a Comparative Analysis of Issues of Freedom of Speech Violations as a Result of the Rating Regulation Authorities in the Motion Picture Industry in France and the United States , Stephanie Grenier

International Corporate Governance Practices and Their Implications on Investors , Namwandi Hamanyanga

Current Problems of International Taxation of Electronic Commerce , Nuran G. Kerimov

An End to the Political Question Doctrine in Korea?: A Comparative Analysis , Myeong-Sik Kim

The Evolution of the Law's Treatment of the Confessions of Mentally Disabled Criminal Suspects , John E. Knight

Public and Private Interests in Copyright Law: Creativity, Science and Democracy vs. Property and Market , Daryana I. Kotzeva

The Intra-enterprise Conspiracy Doctrine as Applied to Affiliated Corporations under Section 1 of the Sherman Act , Michael B. Menz

Privacy and Personal Data Protection in the Information Age: A Comparative Evaluation , Emeka B. Obasi

The Right to Freedom of Religion vis a vis Religious Intolerance in the New Millennium , Buihe P. Okenu

Conflict of Laws in the Enforcement of Foreign Awards and Foreign Judgments: the Public Policy Defense and Practice in U.S. Courts , Anupama Parameshwaran

Balancing Interests: Statute of Limitations and Repose in Medical Malpractice Cases , Laurie L. Paterson

A Comparison of Environmental Impact Assessment Process between the National Environmental Protection Act (NEPA) and the Basic Environmental Protection Act (BEPA) , V An Rhee

Offshore Investments , Ana Maura M. Safrin

Lawyers' Value in Mergers and Acquisitions under the New World of Multidisciplinary Practices , Yunling Wu

Submissions from 2001 2001

FAIR USE AND THE DIGITAL DISTRIBUTION OF MUSIC - RECORDING INDUSTRY ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA v. NAPSTER, INC. (A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF A RESTRAINT ON COPYRIGHT IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA AND TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO) , MICHELLE LISA ALEXANDER

THE IMPACT OF MODERNIZATION AND DEVELOPMENT ON MUSLIM WOMEN IN EGYPT: A LEGAL PERSPECTIVE , MAZAHIR MUHAMMED ATA EL-SID

David vs. Goliath (2001): An Analysis of the OECD Harmful Tax Competition Policy , Truman Butler

Transfer Pricing: A Comparative Study of the French and U.S. Legal Systems , Valerie Ciancia

REFORMING CHINA'S PARTNERSHIP LAW: ACHIEVEMENTS, PROBLEMS AND PROSPECTS , HONGBING FAN

SHOULD AN EFFECTIVE INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT HAVE PRIMACY OR BE COMPLEMENTARY TO NATIONAL COURTS? AN ANALYSIS OF CONCURRENT JURISDICTION IN THE AD HOC TRIBUNALS AND THE ROME STATUTE , GODWIN YENIKA FONYE

Foreign Direct Investment in Colombia , Juliana Gomez

LEGALIZE IT? -OSP AND PEER-TO-PEER NETWORK LIABILITY FOR ONLINE MUSIC COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENTS IN THE UNITED STATES AND GERMANY , CHRISTIAN NILS JOCHEN ENGELHARDT

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100 Law Dissertation Topics For LLM in India

100 Law Dissertation Topics For LLM in India – A Master of Laws (LLM) is a postgraduate degree that focuses on specialized legal training for individuals who already possess a law degree. In India, pursuing an LLM is a popular option for law graduates who wish to further their education and specialize in a particular area of law. A crucial aspect of completing an LLM in India is writing a dissertation, which involves conducting independent research on a legal topic of the student’s choice. Here are some Law Dissertation Topics for LLM in India.

• The role of the judiciary in promoting social justice in India
• Human rights and the Indian constitution
• The effectiveness of Alternative Dispute Resolution mechanisms in India
• Intellectual Property Rights and the Indian legal framework
• The impact of the Right to Information Act on Indian democracy
• The legal and ethical implications of surrogacy in India
• The regulation of cryptocurrencies in India
• Cybersecurity laws in India: current status and future prospects
• The intersection of gender and law in India
• The liability of online intermediaries under Indian law
• The legal and ethical implications of artificial intelligence in India
• The regulation of e-commerce in India: challenges and opportunities
• The intersection of law and medicine in India
• The role of NGOs in promoting access to justice in India
• The legal framework for environmental protection in India
• The Indian judiciary and the separation of powers
• The constitutional validity of the death penalty in India
• The regulation of insider trading in India
• The impact of the Goods and Services Tax on Indian businesses
• The regulation of foreign investment in India: challenges and opportunities
• The role of the National Green Tribunal in environmental protection in India
• The Indian banking sector and the prevention of financial crimes
• The Indian judiciary and the protection of fundamental rights
• The legal framework for corporate social responsibility in India
• The regulation of medical negligence in India
• The impact of intellectual property rights on pharmaceutical innovation in India
• The Indian legal framework for data protection and privacy
• The legal and ethical implications of genetically modified organisms in India
• The Indian legal framework for child protection and welfare
• The regulation of online defamation in India
• The Indian legal framework for labor rights and industrial relations
• The impact of globalization on Indian competition law
• The legal and ethical implications of assisted suicide in India
• The Indian legal framework for consumer protection
• The regulation of food safety and standards in India
• The Indian legal framework for animal rights and welfare
• The role of the media in shaping public opinion on legal issues in India
• The regulation of medical malpractice in India
• The Indian legal framework for juvenile justice
• The impact of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code on the Indian economy
• The Indian legal framework for disaster management
• The legal and ethical implications of artificial reproductive technologies in India
• The regulation of online gambling in India
• The Indian legal framework for child marriage prevention
• The impact of the Companies Act, 2013 on Indian corporate governance
• The Indian legal framework for intellectual property licensing
• The regulation of medical research in India
• The Indian legal framework for renewable energy
• The legal and ethical implications of animal testing in India
• The regulation of multi-level marketing in India
• The Indian legal framework for copyright infringement
• The impact of the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act on the Indian real estate sector
• The Indian legal framework for data retention and surveillance
• The regulation of ride-hailing services in India
• The legal and ethical implications of climate change in India
• The Indian legal framework for franchise agreements
• The impact of demonetization on the Indian economy and its legal implications
• The Indian legal framework for cross-border insolvency
• The regulation of drone operations in India
• The legal and ethical implications of biometric authentication in India
• The role of the Indian Constitution in protecting fundamental rights.
• The scope and limitations of the right to freedom of speech and expression in India.
• The constitutional framework for protecting the rights of minorities in India.
• The constitutional validity of affirmative action policies in India.
• The evolution of the doctrine of basic structure and its impact on Indian constitutional law.
• The constitutional protection of religious freedom in India.
• The intersection between environmental law and constitutional law in India.
• The constitutional framework for ensuring accountability in public governance in India.
• The constitutional validity of the death penalty in India.
• The role of the judiciary in protecting human rights under the Indian Constitution.
• The constitutional framework for protecting the rights of women in India.
• The constitutional framework for protecting the rights of children in India.
• The constitutional validity of the right to privacy in India.
• The role of the President and Governors under the Indian Constitution.
• The constitutional framework for ensuring social justice in India.
• The constitutional validity of anti-defection laws in India.
• The constitutional framework for protecting the rights of disabled persons in India.
• The constitutional validity of the Right to Education Act in India.
• The constitutional framework for ensuring economic rights in India.
• The constitutional protection of property rights in India.
• The role of the Election Commission of India under the Indian Constitution.
• The constitutional framework for ensuring the independence of the judiciary in India.
• The constitutional validity of the sedition law in India.
• The constitutional framework for protecting the rights of LGBTQ+ persons in India.
• The constitutional framework for ensuring the right to a fair trial in India.
• The constitutional validity of reservation policies in India.
• The constitutional framework for protecting the rights of migrant workers in India.
• The constitutional validity of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in India.
• The constitutional framework for protecting the rights of prisoners in India.
• The constitutional validity of the Triple Talaq law in India.
• The constitutional framework for protecting the rights of indigenous peoples in India.
• The constitutional validity of the Right to Information Act in India.
• The constitutional framework for ensuring transparency and accountability in the governance of political parties in India.
• The constitutional validity of the Aadhaar (UID) scheme in India.
• The constitutional framework for ensuring the right to health in India.
• The constitutional protection of the right to protest in India.
• The constitutional validity of the anti-conversion laws in India.
• The constitutional framework for protecting the rights of persons with mental illnesses in India.
• The constitutional framework for protecting the rights of refugees in India.

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A behind-the-scenes blog about research methods at Pew Research Center. For our latest findings, visit pewresearch.org .

• Data Science

How Pew Research Center is – and is not – using large language models in our work

At Pew Research Center, we’re watching with great interest as new generations of large language models such as GPT, Claude and Gemini develop. These models, also known as LLMs, are machine learning tools that are trained on massive digital datasets to predict and generate humanlike language. They’re sometimes described as a subset of generative artificial intelligence.

As public-facing social scientists committed to innovation, we’re intrigued by what this fast-moving technology might add to our toolkit. As researchers, we’re committed to explaining how the public is reacting to these advances . And as information providers whose fundamental values include accuracy and methodological rigor, we’re moving with great deliberation so as not to affect the quality of our work.

In this post, we’ll share our current guidelines for the internal use of LLMs. We hope to start a dialogue with our peers and broader audiences about the best ways to use this technology as it continues to develop.

LLMs aren’t new to the research community. The computational social scientists on our Data Labs team have regularly used these tools in specialized, narrowly defined research tasks for years.

What is new is that developments in scale, computational capacity and model training have led to a massive leap forward in these models’ general capabilities.

Modern LLMs can perform a much wider variety of tasks, particularly when it comes to interpreting and mimicking human communication. But even though LLMs are increasingly capable (and increasingly integrated into common software), they are just pattern recognition systems. And in their 2024 iteration, at least, they are not guaranteed to provide accurate, factual information. When they fail to produce accurate information, it can be hard to explain what went wrong because of the complexity of their internal workings and the sheer amount of data on which they were trained.

Our commitments when using LLMs

Given the above, the Center’s approach in 2024 is a version of “proceed with caution.” Here are our commitments to ourselves and to our audiences:

Our work is people-centered

Real people, not machines, answer our surveys. Collecting people’s opinions in the United States and abroad is our most important task. We do not use LLMs to create or model “synthetic” public opinion. Our survey results are based on the views reported to us by real people.

Photos on our site are of and by real people. We are not using AI to create images. Human artists create the artwork.

Humans oversee, and are responsible for, every aspect of our work. From survey questionnaires to published research reports, our work begins and ends with human experts. We do not use LLMs to decide on research topics or questionnaire items. We do not use LLMs to identify the storylines and key findings of our reports and blog posts . We believe that trained and experienced humans must guide the process of going from a raw dataset to a report that helps our audience make sense of the data.

Accuracy and rigor remain paramount

In everything we do, we prioritize accuracy and rigor, and our explorations of AI are no different. To the extent that modern technologies can help facilitate our mission to generate a trustworthy foundation of facts, we’re interested in adopting them. But only if they allow us to maintain our existing standards for quality research.

We’ll experiment as a path to innovation

Current areas of experimentation.

In the production of our website. We see real potential in using this technology to help write the code needed to produce our website – a detailed, structured and often repetitive process. While we’re not currently using AI to improve users’ search and navigation experiences on our website, we see that as an area worth exploring in the near term.

In our research process. Coding assistance is also potentially useful to our researchers. For example, we may use an LLM code assistant to format or help write the code needed to analyze survey datasets. But it needs guardrails. At the Center, researchers who are fluent in a coding language can access an LLM coding assistant only if they have a full, human-run code check process .

We’ll also continue experimenting with using LLMs to analyze textual data, such as coding open-ended survey responses into categories or scraping websites for key data. This work has been and will always be overseen by Center staff. We will continue to be transparent and acknowledge in our report methodologies whenever we have used these tools.

In the final stages of our editorial functions. Many widely available tools already use this technology to clean up grammar, punctuation, etc. And we are using these tools, too, though a human verifies our final copy. In our judgment, this level of use does not require external labeling.

Possible future areas of experimentation

We’re watching developments in the publishing industry carefully. Some interesting uses of AI include:

Creating derivative products. We see potential for leveraging LLMs to quickly generate derivative products that would create new access points to our content for a wider array of consumers. This could include drafting social media posts in a variety of styles for a variety of platforms. Or it could mean creating a first-draft, thematic summarization for our topic index landing pages. As of this writing, however, we are not ready to cross this bridge. Our current internal guidance is that any external-facing products need to be human-authored, not just overseen.

Summarizing research in search results. Currently, the search function on the Pew Research Center website delivers a list of links. We hope at some future point to incorporate a “smart search” overlay that would deliver a more pointed summary of our data to interested users. We’re following developments in the accuracy of model results so we can experiment further at the right moment.

We’ll be transparent

For currently approved uses:

• If we use an LLM in any aspect of our research process, we will note that in the published methodology section.
• Using an LLM to make minor grammatical, spelling or reading grade level changes is not considered a meaningful use and will not be cited.
• As made clear above, our developers are already using human-supervised AI to write the code that creates our website.

We’d love to hear from you about your thoughts, hopes and concerns on this topic. We already know it’s one we’ll be revisiting this year and beyond.

Categories:

More from Decoded

More from decoded, what a survey experiment tells us about measuring religious tolerance in australia, measuring partisanship in europe: how online survey questions compare with phone polls, reproducibility as part of code quality control.

To browse all of Pew Research Center findings and data by topic, visit  pewresearch.org

About Decoded

This is a blog about research methods and behind-the-scenes technical matters at Pew Research Center. To get our latest findings, visit pewresearch.org .

Copyright 2024 Pew Research Center

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InfoQ Homepage News LLMs and Agents as Team Enablers

LLMs and Agents as Team Enablers

Aug 27, 2024 4 min read

Rafiq Gemmail

Scrum.org recently published an article titled AI as a Scrum Team Member by its COO, Eric Naiburg . Naiburg described the productivity benefits for Scrum masters, product owners, and developers, challenging the reader to "imagine AI integrating seamlessly" as a "team member" into the Scrum team. Thoughtworks’ global lead for AI-assisted software delivery,  Birgitta Böckeler , also recently published an article titled  Exploring Generative AI , where she shared insights into experiments involving the use of LLMs (Large Language Models) in engineering scenarios, where they may potentially have a multiplier effect for software delivery teams.

Naiburg compared the role of AI tooling to that of a pair-programming collaborator. Using a definition of AI spanning from LLM integrations to analytical tools, he wrote about how AI can be used to reduce cognitive load across the key roles of a Scrum team. He discussed the role of the Scrum master and explained that AI provides an assistant capable of advising on team facilitation, team performance and optimisation of flow. Naiburg gave the example of engaging with an LLM for guidance on driving engagement in ceremonies:

AI can suggest different facilitation techniques for meetings. If you are having difficulty with Scrum Team members engaging in Sprint Retrospectives, for example, just ask the AI, "I am having a problem getting my Scrum Team to fully engage in Sprint Retrospectives any ideas?"

Naiburg wrote that AI provides developers with an assistant in the team to help decompose and understand stories. Further, he called out the benefit of using AI to simplify prototyping, testing, code-generation, code review and synthesis of test data.

Focusing on the developer persona, Böckeler described her experiment with using LLMs to onboard onto an open source project and deliver a story against a legacy software project. To understand the capabilities and limits of AI tooling, she used LLMs to work on a ticket from the backlog of the open-source project Bhamni. Böckeler wrote about her use of LLMs in comprehending the ticket, the codebase, and understanding the bounded context of the project.

Böckeler’s main tools comprised of an LLM using RAG (Retrieval Augmented Generation) to provide insights based on the content of Bhamni’s wiki. She offered the LLM a prompt containing the user story and asked it to "explain the Bhamni and health care terminology" which it mentioned. Böckeler wrote:

I asked more broadly, "Explain to me the Bahmni and healthcare terminology in the following ticket: …". It gave me an answer that was a bit verbose and repetitive, but overall helpful. It put the ticket in context, and explained it once more. It also mentioned that the relevant functionality is "done through the Bahmni HIP plugin module", a clue to where the relevant code is.

Speaking on the InfoQ Podcast in June, Meryem Arik , co-founder/CEO at TitanML, described the use of LLMs with RAG performing as "research assistant" being "the most common use cases that we see as a 101 for enterprise." While Böckeler did not directly name her RAG implementation beyond describing it as a "Wiki-RAG-Bot", Arik spoke extensively about the privacy and domain-specialisation benefits that can be gained from a custom solution using a range of open models. She said:

So actually, if you're building a state-of-the-art RAG app, you might think, okay, the best model for everything is OpenAI. Well, that's not actually true. If you're building a state-of-the-art RAG app, the best generative model you can use is OpenAI. But the best embedding model, the best re-ranker model, the best table parser, the best image parser, they're all open source.

To understand the code and target her changes, Böckeler wrote that she "fed the JIRA ticket text" into two tools used for code generation and comprehension, Bloop and Github Copilot . She asked both tools to help her "find the code relevant to this feature." Both models gave her a similar set of pointers, which she described as "not 100% accurate," but "generally useful direction." Exploring the possibilities around autonomous code-generators Böckeler experimented with Autogen to build LLM based AI agents to port tests across frameworks, she explained:

Agents in this context are applications that are using a Large Language Model, but are not just displaying the model’s responses to the user, but are also taking actions autonomously, based on what the LLM tells them.

Böckeler reported that her agent worked "at least once," however it "also failed a bunch of times, more so than it worked." InfoQ recently reported on a controversial study by Upwork Research Institute , pointing at a perception from those sampled that AI tools decrease productivity, with 39% of respondents stating that "they’re spending more time reviewing or moderating AI-generated content." Naiburg calls out the need to ensure that teams remain focused on value and not just the output of AI tools:

One word of caution - the use of these tools can increase the volume of "stuff". For example, some software development bots have been accused of creating too many lines of code and adding code that is irrelevant. That can also be true when you get AI to refine stories, build tests or even create minutes for meetings. The volume of information can ultimately get in the way of the value that these tools provide.

Commenting on her experiment with Autotgen, Böckeler shared a reminder that the technology still has value in "specific problem spaces," saying:

These agents still have quite a way to go until they can fulfill the promise of solving any kind of coding problem we throw at them. However, I do think it’s worth considering what the specific problem spaces are where agents can help us, instead of dismissing them altogether for not being the generic problem solvers they are misleadingly advertised to be.

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Question-Analysis Prompting Improves LLM Performance in Reasoning Tasks

Although LLMs have the potential to transform many fields, they still underperform humans in reasoning tasks. Existing methods induce the model to produce step-by-step calculations, but this research explores the question: Does making the LLM analyze the question improve its performance? We propose a novel prompting strategy called Question Analysis Prompting (QAP), in which the model is prompted to explain the question in n words before solving. The value of n influences the length of response generated by the model. QAP is evaluated on GPT-3.5 Turbo and GPT-4 Turbo on arithmetic datasets GSM8K, AQuA, and SAT and commonsense dataset StrategyQA. QAP is compared with other state-of-the-art prompts including chain-of-thought (CoT), Plan and Solve Prompting (PS+) and Take A Deep Breath (TADB). QAP outperforms all state-of-the-art prompts on AQuA and SAT datasets on both GPT-3.5 and GPT-4. QAP consistently ranks among the top-2 prompts on 75% of the tests. A key factor of QAP performance can be attributed to response length, where detailed responses are beneficial when answering harder questions, but can negatively affect easy questions.

Dharunish Yugeswardeenoo           Kevin Zhu           Sean O’Brien Algoverse AI Research [email protected], [email protected]

1 Introduction

Large language models (LLMs) have recently shown rapid improvement across a host of standard natural language processing (NLP) tasks, including arithmetic, commonsense and symbolic reasoning. (Brown et al., 2020 ) Although these models show improved ability to understand and generate text (OpenAI, 2023 ) , their performance can still be further improved. One solution is to encourage the model to think step-by-step. Using chain-of-thought prompting (Wei et al., 2022 ) , LLMs are given Q&A exemplars which are designed to elicit a structured step-by-step response from the model. Many newly developed strategies meant to improve LLM performance have been focused on sophisticating the model’s step-by-step calculation (Gu et al., 2023 ) . Despite SoTA prompts’ remarkable success across various tasks, their accuracies can still be further improved. In this work, we explore ways to improve the model reasoning not only in the answer steps, but also how the model interprets the question itself. By making the model to explicitly interpret the question, we maximize its understanding of the question and minimize missed key information. This paper introduces Question-Analysis Prompting (QAP), a simple zero-shot prompting strategy that induces the model to first explain the question before solving. We include a configurable parameter within the prompt to examine how different word counts affect the quality of a model’s response.

2 Prompt Design

The key principle behind QAP is that the model should reiterate the problem in its own words before solving. The benefit is that the model will be able to first think about what task it is trying to solve before it pursues the answer. Another principle is that we should be able to control how much the model explains so that we can adapt the prompt to different model sizes and problem complexities. The specific prompt used is as follows:

"Explain this problem to me in at least n 𝑛 n italic_n words. Then solve for the answer."

In this work, we experiment with n = 25, 50, 100, 150, 200. The versions of these prompts are named QAP n 𝑛 n italic_n . Although the model is not constrained to generating fewer than n tokens in its summary, we find that the number of tokens in the response correlates strongly with the choice of n 𝑛 n italic_n . The correlation between n and median word count is 0.98. We show specific examples of the impacts of n 𝑛 n italic_n in  Figure 4 .

3 Prompt Impact

In  Figure 1 , we highlight the structure of a standard QAP output. First, the model breaks down the question in its own words and provides detailed analysis on each event. Many of the steps highlighted in the explanation were shown in the calculation section. Compared to the CoT output, QAP encourages more sophistication in its response and thus reaches the correct answer.

4 Experimental Setup

4.1 benchmarks.

We evaluate the effectiveness of QAP on three arithmetic reasoning datasets. These include grade-school math questions from GSM8K (Cobbe et al., 2021 ) , algebraic word problems from AQuA (Ling et al., 2017 ) , and SAT math problems from AGIEval (Zhong et al., 2023 ) . For commonsense reasoning, we evaluate on open-domain questions that require implicit reasoning, from StrategyQA (Geva et al., 2021 ) . We evaluate on the test sets of all benchmarks.

We specifically choose our models to observe the prompts’ impacts across differences in model size. The smaller model is GPT-3.5 Turbo with version gpt-3.5-turbo-0613 . Our larger model is GPT-4 Turbo with version gpt-4-1106-preview (OpenAI, 2023 ) . For both of the models we used the OpenAI API 1 1 1 https://platform.openai.com/docs/api-reference/chat for running our experiments. The temperature and Top-K sampling was set to 0 to avoid randomness and keep consistency in the model’s responses.

4.3 Prompts

For all datasets and models, we experiment with different variations of QAP. We utilize QAP25 , QAP50 , QAP100 , QAP150 , and QAP200 . We compare the performance of QAP with the baseline (no prompt). Additionally we compare QAP with two different zero-shot prompts: TADB - "Take a deep breath and work on this problem step-by-step" (Yang et al., 2023 ) and PS+ (Plan and Solve Plus) (Wang et al., 2023 ) . Finally we also compare QAP with 8-shot chain-of-thought prompting.

4.4 Results

The results for GPT-3.5 Turbo and GPT-4 Turbo are shown in   Table 1 and   Table 2 respectively. General word counts are shown in  Figure 7 .

Arithmetic Reasoning: On GPT-3.5 Turbo, a variant of QAP is the top performer in 2 out of 3 arithmetic tasks. QAP shows significant gains on AQuA and SAT. With GPT-4 Turbo, QAP performs the best in the same 2 out of 3 arithmetic tasks. This suggests that QAP may be more beneficial on questions involving algebraic and higher-level problem solving.

Commonsense Reasoning: . On StrategyQA, QAP consistently performs second-best when compared to other prompts. On both models, QAP25 is the highest QAP performer. This suggests that fewer-word explanations benefit commonsense reasoning. This is because too much explanation can cause the model to confuse a simple answer (shown in  Figure 6 . While there is a decline in performance as n 𝑛 n italic_n increases on the 3.5 model, the larger GPT-4 Turbo model yields similar performances across all QAP variants.

Question Difficulties Based On Baseline Performance: Within a given dataset, the difficulty of the individual question may vary. We propose a method to measure question difficulty based on performance with the baseline prompt. If the model can answer the problem correctly with the baseline prompt, then we consider the question to be easy ; otherwise the question is hard . We analyze the performance of different prompts across "easy" and "hard" questions. Table 3 and Table 4 show that QAP consistently outperforms other prompts in the “hard” category.

Impact Of Word Counts On Question Difficulties: QAP generates higher word counts for both “easy" and “hard" questions (  Table 5 and   Table 6 ), despite performing lower on “easy” questions. Although more step-by-step thought processes are encouraged to avoid mistakes during reasoning, this suggests that over -explanation can negatively impact the model (also shown in   Figure 5 ). Thus, the most suitable word count to solve a problem will vary from task to task; longer explanations are best suited to more complicated questions for which baseline prompting fails.

Downsides Of Smaller QAPs: Despite high performance on StrategyQA, QAP25 performs poorly on arithmetic datasets (mostly SAT and AQuA) using GPT-3.5 Turbo. Due to a small value of n, the model outputs are unfinished responses (i.e. the model stops midway through its reasoning steps) (shown in  Figure 8 ). On SAT math, 51% of responses were incomplete for QAP25. On AQuA, 19% of responses were incomplete for QAP25.

6 Additional Studies

Placement of the prompt: In this evaluation, we studied the impact of prompt placement on performance using GSM8K dataset. Two options for prompt placement were considered: Q_Begin - adding the prompt before the question, and Q_End - adding the prompt after the question. Both placements provided similar results on GPT-3.5 and GPT-4. Results shown in the rest of the paper are based on Q_End.

No N Constraint : To test the effectiveness of adding the value of N , we first examine the prompt with just the phrase: "Explain this problem to me. Then solve for the answer". However, the model does not explain the question completely and in most cases directly starts solving the question. Its responses are no different than a response which used no given prompt. This shows that explicitly stating the minimum amount of words required is more likely to induce the model to explicitly generate an explanation of the question.

7 Related Work

In one-shot and few-shot prompting, the model is given one or more input/output examples which will serve as a demonstration for it to solve the problem using in-context learning (Mahabadi et al., 2022 ) . QAP is a zero-shot prompt. In zero-shot prompting the model does not receive exemplars, but is given a specially crafted instruction on how to approach the task (Kojima et al., 2022 ) .

Chain of Thought: Chain-of-thought reasoning is a notable few-shot (zero-shot also exists (Yang et al., 2023 ) example in which the model is shown how to express its reasoning steps (Wei et al., 2022 ) . This approach was highly effective as the model would replicate these exemplars, and their accuracies improved drastically. CoT encouraged the model to think step-by-step, and this concept would be a repeating theme among other zero-shot counterparts.

TADB: Among different variants of Zero-Shot CoT, the TADB prompt (Yang et al., 2023 ) was derived using an optimization objective to find instructions that would maximize task accuracy. The eventual prompt was "Take a deep breath, and work on this problem step by step". TADB is an example of how the wording of a prompt can drastically impact responses.

Plan and Solve Prompting Plus: Another zero-shot prompt is Plan-and-Solve Prompting (Wang et al., 2022 ) . There were two versions to this prompt. The first simply asked the model devise a plan and solve step-by-step. The second version (PS+) extended the prompt by specifically asking the prompt to extract relevant variables and their corresponding numerals and to calculate intermediate results . We used PS+ on our experiments. One difference between PS+ and QAP is that PS+ prompt is more specific to math datasets since it instructs to extract variables, intermediate results, etc., whereas QAP is more general. Also, PS+ prompts the model to understand the problem, but it is not clear if model should output anything specific to the question itself. In contrast, QAP explicitly instructs the model to explain the problem in n words.

Question Decomposition: Question Decomposition (Radhakrishnan et al., 2023 ) strategy causes the model to break down the question by creating sub-questions. The model answers each of these sub-questions and it ties together all the sub-answers into a final answer. It considers two methods for decomposition, Factored Decomposition and CoT Decomposition. In factored decomposition each sub-question is answered in a separate context. CoT decomposition is an intermediate between factored decomposition and CoT. It enforces one context for sub-question, sub-answer and the answer to the original question. The analysis of question decomposition shows reduced bias and ignored reasoning, improves the faithfulness of a model-generated reasoning over CoT while retaining the performance gains of CoT.

8 Conclusion

In this paper, we explored the approach of Question-Analysis Prompting to improve LLM accuracy across math and commonsense reasoning. The prompt focuses on how the model interprets the task given, and whether restating the question in its own words can further sophisticate its answer steps. The ability of this prompting method to perform well in diverse model types, tasks difficulty, and type of tasks seems promising. We plan to extend this work further by combining QAP with other prompt strategies,  applying decoding strategies and evaluating multi-modal tasks.

9 Limitations

There are a few limitations of QAP. First, LLMs are sensitive to the prompt’s word choice, particularly for zero-shot prompts. As a result so small changes to the prompt wording can impact the model’s performance. For example, the current QAP prompt asks the model to "solve" for the answer. While this works well for math tasks, it may not be optimal for commonsense tasks. Secondly, the results in this paper are based on four datasets and a single class of aligned models; further results should evaluate on more diverse and multi-modal datasets, as well as a greater variety of models. Finally, more robust methods (e.g., based on a classifier) to determine the choice of the parameter n 𝑛 n italic_n should be investigated to go beyond manual selection.

We experiented on three arithmetic datasets: GSM8K (Cobbe et al., 2021 ) , AQuA (Ling et al., 2017 ) , and AGIEval SAT Math (Zhong et al., 2023 ) . For commonsense reasoning, used StrategyQA (Geva et al., 2021 ) . GSM8K use the MIT License code, while AQUA and StrategyQA use the Apache-2.0 code. QAP and the prompts used in this work do not jeopardize the safety of others. They do not include any wording which may deem offensive to any individual or group.

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Appendix A Appendix

A.1 analysis of accuracy based on question difficulty.

Performance of prompts on problems categorized into easy and hard - where easy problems are those where baseline prompt leads to a correct answer and hard problems are those where baseline prompt leads to a wrong answer. For each category the % of correct answers are calculated by number of correct answers(per prompt) over the total number of problems in that category (easy or hard)

A.2 Analysis of Word Count based on Question Difficulty

Median word count generated by various prompts on all datasets and models categorized into easy and hard - where easy problems are those where baseline prompt leads to a correct answer and hard problems are those where baseline prompt leads to a wrong answer.

A.3 Example Explanations

A.4 Impact of Changing n

A.5 Large value of n for simple problems hurts the performance

A.6 Word Counts for all datasets with GPT-3.5 and GPT-4

A.7 QAP25 Unfinished Response