What is a policy report?

This stream provides students with the opportunity to write a policy report mimicking the approach taken by think-tanks and civil society organisations when they produce reports aimed at inducing legal or broader policy change. Students will have the option of doing this as a 5,000 word or 10,000 word option (15 or 30 CATS) taken in terms 1 & 2 (30 CAT) or term 2 only (15 CAT). As such, it will be attractive to students who might be interested in working in the future in a policy role for a range of different organisations and can hereby develop the skills of report-writing which they would find very useful in such a role.

Samples of good practice

Samantha Woods (Warwick UG Student) - Comparing the rights of private sector tenants in England with those in other jurisdictions

Kalwinder Sandhu et al - Layers of Inequality

Jay Cullen et al - European Financial Regulation and Land Grabbing

What can you research?

Students will need to make a choice between either (1) a human rights topic or (2) a commercial/corporate law topic. A student choosing to undertake a human rights topic could focus on any recognised vulnerable or disadvantaged group (e.g. women, asylum seekers, workers etc.) and/or could involve any human rights issue (e.g. right to privacy, health, fair trial etc.). Students writing in the corporate and commercial field could choose a wide range of topics including corporate governance, company impacts on various types of stakeholders and/or sustainability, intellectual property rights, arbitration of disputes, consumer protection, insolvency, finance and banking etc.

What kind of support will you receive?

Teaching support is delivered in streams and through supervision. In streams, you will have workshop style lectures that provide training and guidance on getting started, research methods, ethics, and writing.

All students will also be supported by a supervisor. Supervision will mainly consist of regular group meetings that will focus on proposals, literature, writing, and reviewing past work. In addition, there will be termly individual supervision to discuss draft written work.

Do you have questions about this stream? Contact the stream lead: Professor James Harrison