Identifying a current issue or development

Please include an Executive Summary.

Please put more focus on the current law in the United Kingdom and use recent cases or developments. The PPD (Dissertation) must have a strong practical element (ie it must be more than an academic dissertation on the topic you have chosen). It must engage fully with the practical elements relating to how lawyers conduct business with clients in the area of legal practice in question. You should bear this in mind when selecting your topic area: will it allow you to display this practical focus?

Given the post-graduate level of this award, the University does not maintain a list of suggested titles or subject areas for the PPD. It is your responsibility to identify a current issue or development in an Elective area of practice and to work out the particular approach you wish to take as the focus of the proposed dissertation. Your PPD should aim to demonstrate; critical evaluation, analysis and reflection rather than being merely descriptive of the area of law covered.

Please bear in mind the learning outcomes when selecting the topic of your PPD and the importance of choosing a topic which will allow you to demonstrate the practical element which is fundamental to the PPD.

Your report should also cover broad matters like relevant commercial, economic or socio-political factors impacting on legal practice or practitioner approach in your selected area of legal practice.

Learning Outcomes and the PPD

Whatever area of legal practice you choose, your PPD must cover an appropriate range of the following learning outcomes. As a reminder, a learning outcome is something which you will be able to do, and to demonstrate that you can do at the end of a particular piece of work; in this case, once you have completed the PPD.

1.3.1 Knowledge and understanding

• demonstrate a comprehensive understanding and critical awareness of current issues or developments at the forefront of professional practice in the subject area of the PPD, including market considerations and risk;

• identify the complex legal, commercial and tactical factors involved in transactions or matters forming the subject-matter of the PPD;

• display originality in application of knowledge together with a practical understanding of how established techniques of research and enquiry create and interpret legal practice.

1.3.2 Skills

• demonstrate the ability to conduct and evaluate legal research in primary or practitioner sources and to communicate the results of that research in a clear and concise manner and with appropriate professional style;

• critically evaluate current research and analysis of the various elements involved in transactions or matters forming the subject-matter of the PPD;

• demonstrate the ability to self-manage a research-type project from design to delivery;

• reflect critically upon the transactions or matters forming the subject-matter of the PPD.