Questions and Topics We Can Help You To Answer:
Paper Instructions:
Please write a 1,000 word essay (including footnotes and bibliography) by 20 April 2020 at 12:30pm on the following topic:
Evaluate whether the Security Council undermines the capacity of the Office of the Prosecutor to initiate investigations and prosecutions of individuals?
Some Tips:
1. Always start with the point you are trying to make – not the details of your argument. Readers and listeners remember and absorb information better when they first know why it matters and how it is relevant. So identify the purpose of your essay/ key argument – keep this in mind at all times when writing in order to ensure a focused final essay.
2. Read the essay title carefully and have a clear understanding of what you are being asked before you commence.
3. Before writing the essay, it may be a good idea to create a skeleton outline, in order to ensure that your essay follows a logical structure. Use headings, sub-headings and paragraphs to enhance the clarity of your essay. Take care with spelling and grammar. Be prepared to complete more than one draft of your essay.
4. Resolve issues as you go, don’t keep criticism until the end of the essay. Your introduction should state clearly your views on the essay questions. Offer your own opinion/ analysis consistently throughout the essay and not just at the end. Nothing new should appear in the conclusion to your essay.
5. Do not have more than four headings, and attempt to keep a balance between sections. The reason for this is that an imbalance in page numbers raises questions about your way of dividing up things or that you are lacking in research.
6. Appreciate fully the purposes of footnotes. They give the reader an instance illustrating a generalisation you make in the text. E.g. See X v Y, try not to make legal statements without such a footnote. They demonstrate additional depth to your research.
7. Keep your quotations short and to the point. Quotations are necessary to demonstrate your knowledge of the material, but over use of long quotations may demonstrate a lack of understanding and should thus be avoided. Any quotation over 30 words (two lines typed) should be separated from the text and indented. Use of ellipsis (…) is vital to saving word count, quote key phrases. Never end a paragraph or a section with a quotation. Don’t mirror the language of a case or article you are discussing any more closely than is necessary.
8. It is important to demonstrate that you understand the material and to use it intelligently. Your essay should only refer to the most relevant materials and you must engage with the material and offer your own analysis of it. Note how this is achieved by authors of journal articles. References must be complete and accurate.
9. Demonstrate that you have read the primary materials (case law, statutes) for yourself and are not simply relying on secondary descriptions of such material.
10. Avoid emotive language, such as “I believe” or “I feel” use alternatives like “it is submitted” or “it is suggested”.
Notes relating to preparation and submission of essays:
1. Presentation of essays
Essays should preferably be typed using double-spacing. If this is not possible, they should be written in legible handwriting. The writing should be on every second line and on one side of the page only.
The first page of your assignment must include the short title of the essay, name of student, module code, student number and word count.
Care should be taken with the structuring of the essay and with spelling and punctuation. Please proof-read your essays prior to the submission.
Students must adhere to the word limit. Please note that the bibliography and footnotes are not included in the word count.
2. Referencing: Footnotes and Bibliography
i. Footnotes
Proper and consistent referencing of materials is essential. See the detailed New Zealand law citation guide. Footnotes for books should normally give:
Author(s)
Title, underlined or in italic
Place of publication
Publisher
Edition (if more than one has been published)
Date of publication
Specific pages (if relevant)
For example: I. Brownlie, Principles of Public International Law, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 4th edition, 1990, pp.1-4.
Footnotes for articles in periodicals normally include:
Author(s)
Title of article in inverted commas
Date and / or volume number of periodical
Name of periodical
Page number of commencement of article
Specific pages
For example: R A Edwards, “Reading down legislation under the Human Rights Act” (2000) 20 Legal Studies 353, p.357.
ii. Bibliography
Include a Bibliography in your essay. The Bibliography should be sub-divided into primary and secondary sources. All materials used in the preparation of the essay must be acknowledged in the bibliography.
3. Plagiarism
The primary consideration is that the essay should be the candidate’s own work. This does not, of course, preclude the use of others’ ideas, nor does it mean that quotations cannot be used. What is required is that, as in all academic work, full attribution of sources and references must be given.
Plagiarism is forbidden. It can be defined as the taking of passages, ideas, structure etc. from another work or author without attribution. Clearly one will frequently have to quote from judgments, statutes, books, academic articles etc. In doing so, the writer must be sure to indicate that the material is taken from another source. Where one quotes directly from another source, the relevant passage must be enclosed within quotation marks (“…”) or, in the case of longer quotes, indented so as to distinguish it from the rest of the text.
Students should also remember, when using other sources, that their essay should not amount to a patchwork of large quotations strung together by short sentences. There should instead be evidence that the student has thought about the subject.
Whenever use is made of an idea or method of analysis which has been used, to the candidate’s knowledge, by another writer, due acknowledgement must be given in the text, e.g. “as X states” or “as X pointed out”, etc.
