Hi all, I am already looking into my application for Oxford MJur '25-'26 and wondered what you are going to do with the written work. I could translate my thesis, but maybe it is better to make a law comparison with the UK? Look forward to your views!

Hi all, I am already looking into my application for Oxford MJur '25-'26 and wondered what you are going to do with the written work. I could translate my thesis, but maybe it is better to make a law comparison with the UK? Look forward to your views!

Hi Pim!

I applied for an LLM several years ago and had to submit written work / an essay on a legal topic to Harvard, Oxford, and NYU (for the Hauser scholarship). I ended up doing my LLM at Harvard.

I've written mine from scratch on an issue of pubic international law, something that I felt strongly about although it was unrelated to the work I've done before,

However, using your prior work is also a valid strategy. I asked my HLS classmates how they approached the legal essay, and a lot of them drew inspiration from the bachelor or master theses or something they encountered in their work.

I often consult other people of writing an essay on a legal topic, and we always discuss the prior writing history to identify the topics that can be potential candidates for a legal essay.

Because the chances are, if you are applying for a master of laws, you probably already have a history of writing legal papers and essays. The natural next step therefore is to do an audit of your previous legal writing projects.

Make a list of all legal writing projects you’ve done in the past. The following questions can help you do that:

- If you are doing or did a PhD, can you use your research question and write an essay about it? If it's too broad and complicated for an essay, can you identify a subset of questions you can talk about within the word limit provided?

- If you are working for a law firm, or as an in-house lawyer, or have a different work experience, what are the legal questions you’ve dealt with? Among the legal memoranda you’ve written and cases you worked on, what can you use as an analytical window into an important legal issue? (of course, without disclosing any information protected by confidentiality)

- If you are a student, what course papers and essays have you written?

- If you took part in a moot court, what theoretical issues were raised there? Can you use them for your essay?

After you are done, use the following checklist to sort through the topics:

- What topics are still interesting to you?
- Where is your memory of the sources still fresh, and where will you need to do an extra-amount of work from scratch? Do you have the capacity to do that work?
- What topics will make your profile look more coherent?

Now, make the decision on what to write about based on the remaining items.

I've written two extended blog posts on how to write an essay like this, one specifically delving into choosing the topic.
They are accessible via my website (the link in the bio).

Hope it helps!