The School of Law at University of Limerick is an ideal environment for students to engage in research at a postgraduate level. All research students are allocated a personal desk with a computer and telephone, have access to world-class library facilities, and are supervised by faculty members who are international experts in their fields.

There are currently over 15 postgraduate research students at the School of Law engaging in research in a variety of subject areas. 

To get an insight into the research vibrancy of the doctoral research community within the School of Law, please see the following video where Louise McNeil gives a fascinating account of her research on the evolution and impact of surveillance techniques in contemporary society.

The School offers two opportunities for engaging in postgraduate research: the LLM by Research and the PhD by Research    

UL is ideally placed to provide the resources necessary to undertake PhD work

Throughout the academic year, the Graduate School coordinates transferable skills workshops for postgraduate research students as required.

Workshops which may be of general use to students during the academic year include Questionnaire Design, Survey & Sampling, Introduction to SPSS, Basic Statistics, Project Management for Researchers, and Thesis Writing.

The graduate training modules give an insight into a variety of skills necessary at postgraduate level including planning, structuring, effective writing, proofreading, and research. The modules provide an opportunity to develop the skills necessary to deliver a paper at a conference and also assist with the skills required to publish by giving guidance in how to adapt a conference paper into a research article for an academic journal.

The Law School is housed in the Faculty of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences (AHSS)

Each PhD student is entitled to a desk and computer in a dedicated Postgraduate Centre with an administrator.

Students also have access to a fund provided by the Assistant Dean for travel to conferences and/or fieldwork (max €800).

AHSS also provides summer and winter schools for its research students to help familiarise students with various methodological approaches to research questions. They also afford students the opportunity to gain experience in qualitative and quantitative research methods.

The School of Law at UL boasts 18 outstanding academic staff members who are internationally recognised as experts in their fields

The School houses active centres of research: the Centre for Crime, Justice, and Victim Studies, and the International Commercial and Economic Law Group (ICEL), both of which are at the cutting edge of legal research.

The School of Law has created an excellent research environment through its library holdings, postgraduate research facilities, infrastructural support for research-related activities (conferences, CPD, seminars, summer schools, funding applications, etc).

The School has over 60 postgraduate students. Each PhD student in the School is required to undertake a standard review annually with an independent panel.

Each year, the Law School runs a series of seminars in the second semester on postgraduate research including methodologies, research question design, how to survive a viva, and empirical data gathering.

We are looking forward to meeting you.

Dr Laura Cahillane
Director of Postgraduate Studies