Effective 1st September 2018
Master of Laws: Advanced Studies Programme Thesis Guidelines (2021-2022)
A Master of Laws Advanced Studies Programme concludes with a thesis (hereafter: ‘Thesis’). These
guidelines set out the requirements for the Thesis in respect of content as well as the procedure.
1. Procedural Instructions
0. General overview of the Thesis process
Please note that this overview is a brief description of the general process. Some programmes may
have additional steps.
Students start with their Thesis by selecting a topic. Once a topic is approved, a Thesis supervisor
(hereafter: `Supervisor’) is selected and allocated to a student. The Supervisor will guide the student
along the writing process and will grade the final version of the Thesis. To start the writing process,
students are required to submit a Brief Explanation and an Outline of the Thesis. Once the Brief
Explanation and Outline is approved, the student may start writing the Thesis. Students shall submit a
Final Draft of the Thesis to the Supervisor, who will provide comments and feedback. Students will
then draft and submit the final version of the Thesis. The final Thesis will be graded by the Thesis
Supervisor and a second assessor. The content of the thesis (i.e., excluding cover, personal statement,
table of contents, executive summary, overview of main findings, bibliography and appendices) should
be between fifteen to twenty thousand words including footnotes.
Please note that each step of the Thesis process is subject to deadlines, which will be set by the relevant
Advanced Master Programme. In addition, the below requirements shall apply to each step of the
Thesis process.
1. Selection of topic
The Thesis must address and analyse a topic that falls within the subject area of one of the courses
offered within the relevant Advanced Master of Laws Program of study (hereafter: ’Program’).
Students are advised to think strategically when selecting their topic and are encouraged to choose one
that is interesting to them and could be an asset for further professional career and/or PhD.
Students should send their choice of topic(s) via Brightspace by 29 October 2021. Topics that deal
primarily with domestic law or are rather descriptive in nature do not qualify. Also, subjects that have
(largely) been covered in a Thesis written by past students of the Program, or by articles published in
periodicals etc., or in books are also not available as thesis topics. Copies of all Theses are available for
reference by students in the Program library. It is strictly forbidden to make any kind of reproduction
of such Thesis.
Students may make their own suggestions as to the topic, by providing a solid outline of their proposal.
This needs to be formally approved by the Director and/or the Coordinator.
Programmes will indicate to students in time the method of topic allocation the programme uses as
well as the deadline for submitting to the Coordinator any preferred thesis topics.
It is strongly advisable for students to express their preference as early as possible in order to obtain an
early approval and, consequently, have more time for research and writing the Thesis.
Students are permitted to discuss the supervision of a Thesis before having received from the
Director/Coordinator an initial approval (by email) of topic and Supervisor.
It is important that students take responsibility for your planning with your Supervisor. You must
establish a clear and viable time plan with your supervisor as they will have other professional and/or
personal commitments which may not fit entirely into your plans. You must also establish with your
Effective 1st September 2018
supervisor if you can write your thesis from another country i.e., home for example. It may be that
your supervisor would like to see you on a one to one basis rather than solely by email.
2. Deadline for submitting the Thesis Proposal
In order to obtain from the Director/Coordinator final approval of the initially approved topic and
Supervisor, students are required to submit a Thesis Proposal in the form of Brief Explanation and an
Outline to the Coordinator and supervisor by email.
The Brief Explanation and Outline must be in strict compliance with the following instructions:
Brief Explanation (max. 1 page)
The brief explanation of the topic should include:
a. the reason for having chosen the given subject, and
b. the expected final result (objective) of the research conducted.
Outline (max. 1 page).
The outline should provide a draft table of contents (showing chapters and (sub)sections) and
should contain an indication which chapter(s) will deal with the core (main) issue of the research,
as well as the approximate weight (as a percentage) of each chapter in relation to the entire Thesis.
Header
Both the Brief Explanation and the Outline must have a header in italics indicating the name of the
student on the extreme left, the page number on the extreme right and the date of the version
(`version dd mm yyyy´) in the middle.
Formatting requirements set forth in the Thesis – Directives for writing an Adv. LLM Thesis,
Paragraph 2, when applicable.
Students can get themselves into trouble by not strictly adhering to these formatting requirements.
You are therefore strongly advised to double-check whether your Brief Explanation and Outline meet
these requirements before your submit these documents.
The deadline for the submission of the Brief Explanation and Outline to the Coordinator is 29
November 2021.
Failure to submit a Thesis Proposal by the deadline, or the submission of a proposal that has clearly
not been carefully prepared, may result in a reduction of the final Thesis grade by 0.5 point
Students that submit a proposal that does not fully adhere to the formatting requirements will be given
one chance to amend the document and to re-submit it within an extended deadline as communicated
to them by the Coordinator.
Failure to submit within the extended deadline an amended proposal that is in conformity with the
above-mentioned requirements may result in an additional reduction of the final Thesis grade by
0.5 point.
3. Approval of Brief Explanation and Outline and writing process
The Thesis Proposal will then be reviewed by the Supervisor who may suggest certain adjustments to
the Brief Explanation and/or the Outline.
Following the implementation of any suggested changes in the brief explanation and outline, students
should begin writing their thesis proper.
Effective 1st September 2018
A suggested approach may be tackling one chapter (usually: the core chapter) by preparing a brief
skeleton draft of that chapter. The draft of this chapter should not contain full sentences but should
instead be written in telegram style (like a very detailed table of contents). At this point, students
should not spend time on (the art of) legal drafting and instead should invest all energy in the
substance of the subject matter. At this early stage, it often becomes apparent to the student that the
subject of the Thesis is too broad and that it therefore may be necessary to restrict the scope of the
other chapters. The Supervisors will guide students on how to proceed with this. It is suggested that the
introductory and concluding chapters to the thesis be written at the very end.
4. Deadline for submitting your final title
Programmes may set a deadline for submitting the final title for the Thesis. In such case, the
Coordinator will inform the students in time of such deadline.
5. Deadline and requirements for submitting your Final Draft
5.1 Students are required to submit their Final Draft, in Word format and PDF format, via email to the
Coordinator, with a copy emailed to the Supervisor, at the latest by 25 May 2022. Supervisors may ask
students to provide them with a printed copy at that time.
5.2 The Final Draft must meet all formatting requirements and Rules of Citation as set out in
Paragraph 2 hereafter and must be complete.
In order to be complete, the Final Draft of the Thesis must include:
Executive Summary (no more than two pages);
Overview of Main Findings (no more than one page);
A complete bibliography.
The Final Draft should contain the text that according to the student is the final text of the Thesis.
This gives the Supervisor the opportunity to provide the student with further suggestions and
comments. By no means should the student consider the Final Draft as a preliminary version that still
needs to be worked on.
5.3 In addition to the formal guidelines as set out in Paragraph 2 hereafter; the following note on the
use of visuals and photos.
(1) You may use visuals (such as diagrams for example) in your thesis as long as they do not push
the total amount of pages too much. If you use them, use them wisely and make sure that they
contribute to your analysis and arguments.
(2) You may use photos (or other visuals) on the cover, as long as all the relevant information
(Title; name; student number; Supervisor; Programme; date; logo Leiden University) is there.
(3) Consult with your Supervisor if you have any questions about using visuals and/or photos.
Please note that it is of course not compulsory to use visuals or photos!
5.4 It is the responsibility of students to check whether and when their Supervisors have enough time
to read and evaluate the Final Draft and the final version of the Thesis within the deadline of
submission. Students should keep in mind that Supervisors are often busy professionals.
Failure to submit a Final Draft that meets the requirements (see 5.2 above) within the deadline, may
result in a reduction of the grade for the final Thesis by up to 1.0 point.
6. Deadline and requirements for submitting the final Thesis
6.1. The final Thesis in conformity with all requirements set out in 5.2 and 6.3 must be submitted no
later than 23 June 2022 at 17.00hrs.
Effective 1st September 2018
Theses which are not submitted within this deadline will be subject to a reduction of the overall
thesis grade of 0.5 point for each 24-hour period, or part thereof, that exceeds the deadline. Receipt
of a Thesis three or more days after the deadline without seeking prior permission of the Exam
Commission will result in the student not being able to graduate at the designated Graduation Day.
Submitted theses that are incomplete are considered not to have been submitted.
6.2. BEFORE THE DEADLINE:
two printed and bound copies of the final Thesis that meet the requirements set out in 6.3
must be delivered to the Coordinator. The Supervisor may require the student to provide
him/her with a hardcopy as well.
A digital copy of the Thesis, in Word and PDF formats, should be submitted via e-mail to
both the Supervisor and the Coordinator(s). This will be the point of time when your thesis
will be registered as submitted to have met the deadline for submission of your thesis
(however you will not have met all the requirements of the thesis until we receive the hard
copies with the signed, dated and bound personal statement included.
A digital copy of the Thesis should be uploaded on Brightspace to be checked for plagiarism.
6.3 The Thesis must be bound and include a Declaration/Personal Statement in ALL copies (which
needs to be signed and dated). The Thesis should include a front cover with the following: Thesis Title,
(the thesis title in lower case with the first letter of each word in capital letters e.g. Free Cross-border
Transfer of Company Seats.); Student’s Name; Student ID Number; Thesis Supervisor; Name of Study
Programme; Year of Study; Logo Leiden University.
6.4. It is the responsibility of students to submit their Thesis in time in accordance with the
instructions set out in 6.2 and 6.3. No circumstances, whether within or beyond the control of the
student, are accepted to justify a late submission without prior permission from the Exam
Commission. Furthermore, the Coordinator and other staff members are not available to assist with
the checking of English, proof reading, of the Thesis and neither with the printing and/or binding of
the paper copies.
6.5. In exceptional cases, the Exam Commission may extend the deadline for the submission of the
Thesis, upon a request filed at least two weeks before the deadline except in cases of force majeure (e.g.,
illness, family bereavement etc.) Students, who have received an extension of the deadline to submit
their Thesis, may not be able to graduate on the designated Graduation Day but at a later date set by
the Director following the approval of the Thesis if the grade cannot be released more than two days
before the graduation date.
7. After graduation
7.1. After graduation, a printed copy of all Theses will be stored in the Program library where they will
be available for reference by other students and users of the library.
7.2. Should students want to publish articles on the basis of their Thesis, the following statement
should be included in a footnote to the article’s title or to the author’s name:
“This article is based on the Adv LLM Thesis the author submitted in fulfilment of the
requirements of the Master of Laws: Advanced Studies Programme in (insert name of
programme of study) degree, Leiden Law School (Leiden University).”
The student should consult with their Supervisor before mentioning in any footnote the name
of his/her Supervisor in cases where the Supervisor has materially contributed to the contents
of the paper.
Effective 1st September 2018
2. Directives for writing an Adv. LLM Thesis
1. General aspects
1.1. All Thesis are to be written individually and may not be written together with any other student
or anyone else. If two or more requested topics are closely related, the topics will not be approved
before the precise scope of the individual Thesis vis-à-vis one another have been established in the
Brief Explanations and the Outlines.
1.2 Your own ideas and argumentation. In the evaluation of your Thesis only your own ideas and
argumentation are taken into account. Thus, your Thesis should be more than a mere collection of
quotations and/or ideas from other publications.
1.3. Plagiarism. Your work must be your own. If you quote (or paraphrase) from someone else’s
work, such quote (or paraphrase) must be clearly documented (i.e., footnoted). Quotes from someone
else's text must be marked by using quotation marks at the beginning and end of the quote,
accompanied by a footnote identifying the full source of the quote (see section 2.5, below). Also
paraphrases from, or ideas based upon, someone else's work must be clearly identified with a footnote
indicating the full source.
Documenting sources is an important aspect of your Thesis. Using someone else's words or ideas
without giving proper credit to the author concerned in the manner indicated above amounts to a
serious academic offense and may lead to expulsion from the Program. In the past years a few cases
of plagiarism have occurred within the Program, leading to expulsion (1), denial of graduation (1) and
the imposition of a severe financial penalty (1).
2. Format and further requirements
2.1. Format. The Thesis should be between fifteen to twenty thousand words long. The Thesis (and
appendices i.e. bibliography, executive summary etc.) should be written in Word taking into account
the following format rules:
Font and the size of the main text: Arial 10
Font and the size of the bibliography: Arial 9
Line spacing: 1.2
[in Microsoft Word go to Format -> paragraph -> spacing: before:0, after:0, between lines:
multiple, of: 1.2 ]
Margins (cm): Left 2.5, Right 2.5, Top 2.5, Bottom 2.5 [best option is to use the ruler in Word]
Left alignment only (i.e., no right alignment)
[in Microsoft Word go to Format -> paragraph -> in alignment choose: left]
Paper size: A4 (i.e., not letter)
[in Microsoft Word go to File -> Page set up -> Paper -> Paper size -> select A4)
– footnotes:
Font and the size of the main text: Arial 9
Line spacing: 1.2
>Paragraph spacing: after 6pt.
[in Microsoft Word go to Format -> paragraph -> spacing: before:0, after:6pt, between lines:
multiple at: 1.2]
title: should not be longer than 20 words
structure of table of contents (1., 1.1., 1.1.1., each subdivision being further indented; see example
under 2.2);
Effective 1st September 2018
2.2. Headings. Headings, sub-headings, etc., should be organised exactly as follows (note: font type,
bold, italic, or regular; and indentation): (See example provided)
Example:
Title of the Thesis [Arial bold, font size 14]
1. Introduction [Arial bold, font size 12]
2. The foreign tax credit – a superior police? [Arial bold, font size 12]
2.1. Superiority of the tax credit method? [Arial bold, font size 10]
2.2. Recent critics of mainstream theories [Arial bold, font size 10]
2.2.1. The “original intent” of the foreign tax credit [Arial, font size 10]
2.2.1.1. Historical overview [Arial, italics, font size 10]
2.2.1.2. Later developments
2.2.2. The credit method as comparative disadvantage
2.2.3. The credit method as an expensive complication of the law
2.2.4. No inter-nations equity
2.2.5. Source state taxation as a requirement of international fairness
3. Avoidance of double taxation and market freedoms2.3. Subdivisions Note when a text is
subdivided as above (e.g., 2., 2.2., and 2.2.1.), that no text may appear immediately following a heading
that is subdivided. After each (sub)section number (e.g. 2, 2.1) there is a dot (thus: 2. , 2.1.), followed
by two (blank) spaces. Also note how to apply indents for lower-hierarchy sub-headings: the first
cipher of the subsection's number is right under the first (capital) letter of the preceding section's title.
Example
…
2. The foreign tax credit – a superior police?
>> no text may appear here [space]
2.1. Superiority of the tax credit method?
2.2. Recent critics of mainstream theories
>> no text may appear here << [space]
2.2.1. The “original intent” of the foreign tax credit
…
2.4. Bibliography. Your Thesis should include a bibliography.
2.5. Footnotes. See the separate document: `Guidelines for footnotes and bibliographic references
…´.
2.6. Header & page numbers. Each of the pages of your Thesis (except the title page) should have a
header with, in italics, indicating the name of the student on the left extreme, the page number on the
right extreme and the date of the version (as follows: `version dd mm yyyy´) in the middle.
2.7. Page Numbers. Do not forget to number the pages: roman numbers for the statement, table of
contents, executive summary and overview of main finings, and regular (Arabic) numbers for the
following entire Thesis and the bibliography and any table of cases that you may include.
[in Microsoft Word Insert -> page numbers -> position: top of page (Header) -> alignment: right -
> click on format -> number format: i, ii, iii (to select roman numbers) -> unclick show number on the
first page for the title page; to switch from roman numbers to regular (Arabic) numbers go to Insert ->
break -> section break types: next page and in the first page of the new section repeat procedure to insert
page numbers but select regular (Arabic) numbers (instead of roman numbers) -> page numbering start at:
1 -> click show number on the first page for the title page]
2.8. Executive Summary and Overview of Main Findings. The Thesis must include an Executive
Summary (of not more than 2 pages) and one-page Overview of Main Findings.
The Executive Summary should provide a brief overview of the overall contents of the Thesis. As its
name indicates, it is a summary.
Effective 1st September 2018
In the Overview of Main Findings the author states the most important original contributions he/she
makes in his/her Thesis to the existing knowledge and understanding on the subject. As a Thesis is
supposed to be more than an overview of what other authors have already written on the subject, the
Overview of Main Findings briefly describes what you have added yourself. As this Overview will often
more or less cover the same as is covered in the Conclusion of your Thesis; you may insert under the
heading `Conclusion' simply a reference to the Overview.
Both the Executive Summary and Overview of Main Findings should be inserted in your Thesis right
after the Table of Contents (i.e. before the Introduction).
3 – Suggested Rules of Citation
(there are many styles of citation the suggested rules (contained within the White Book Rules of
Citation are to be used as guidelines to ensure that you do cite correctly, however you may use any
other appropriate style in consultation with your Supervisor.)
