Programme

• Combine a legal specialisation with top-level academic research.
• Delve into issues such as judicial sentencing, administrative deprivation of liberty, or energy law.
• Explore the connections between law, philosophy, sociology, and empirical methods.
• Prepare for a PhD trajectory or a substantive career in the legal profession, judiciary, government, or consultancy.

This Research Master is ideal for students who want to pursue a PhD or develop a broader, academic perspective on law. Are you ready to take your legal career to the next level?

The goal of the Research Master is to train students to become academic professionals at the master’s level who can reflect on the functioning of the law. Within the chosen research domain, students acquire a broad foundation of substantive and methodological knowledge, while also gaining insights into the interdisciplinary connections, differences, and similarities between various legal fields. Finally, students learn to conduct independent research, present their findings (both orally and in writing), and participate in academic debates.

Year 1

Year 2

In the Research Master, you take both domain-specific courses and perspective courses. The so-called domain courses are primarily offered as lectures. These lectures are more interactive than in the bachelor’s phase. There are no more working groups because you are now capable of mastering new legal fields based on literature, case law, and lectures. You can now absorb new theories and apply them to specific cases.

To participate in discussions during lectures and get the most out of them, it is essential to come well-prepared.

Exams mainly consist of case-based legal questions, allowing you to demonstrate your understanding of the law and its application in specific situations. You will also be asked to provide legal analyses of certain scenarios. Many courses feature open-book exams to simulate solving cases in professional practice (authentic assessment). There will be few knowledge-based questions.

The perspective courses are mostly seminars. Their goal is to prepare you for conducting research at an academic level. Practically, this means they take place in small groups, are highly interactive, and often include attendance and participation as part of the final grade. Even for courses that are not seminars, the setting is similar. Each seminar and perspective course is different, so check the course description in Ocasys to know what to expect. Assessments often involve conducting research and presenting it both orally and in writing, preparing you for research practice and for presenting your research to a broader audience in a potential future career.

The lectures train you to listen to comprehensive and sometimes detailed presentations, extracting the most important issues and relevant information. This skill is crucial when dealing with clients, responding to opponents in court, or participating in academic debates.

The more interactive nature of lectures also helps you develop the ability to discuss legal topics as a legal professional with other legal professionals.

In the perspective courses and domain portfolio, all broader issues come together, and you are trained to become a professional, reflective, and analytical researcher. You work inter-disciplinarily and across legal fields in English.

Finally, you write a Master’s thesis that is larger and more in-depth than those in regular LLMs and which is multi- or cross-disciplinary. Alternatively, you can choose to graduate by publishing one or more articles. In your thesis or article, you tackle a specific legal issue and research and analyse all its aspects. In any legal work you do in the future, you will apply these skills. Although the Master’s thesis seems highly academic, it also helps you develop skills needed to function effectively in a professional setting. Of course, the unique nature of the Research Master’s thesis, also prepares you really well for an academic career.

By the end of the Research Master, you will be able to independently identify, explore, analyse, and solve complex and cross-disciplinary legal problems.

Are you ready to start your Master’s? For more information about the Research Master and its courses, visit Ocasys. You can also contact the study adviser of the Groningen Graduate School of Law with any questions.

If you want to know exactly what the learning outcomes of the Research Master are and how the different courses contribute to these, you can have a look at the programme files for the Research Master from last academic year.