Asking better questions: Approaching the process of thesis supervision

Journal of Legal Education

Volumn 46, Issue 3, 1996, Pages 407-419

  Manderson, Desmond ^a  

^a MACQUARIE UNIVERSITY   (Australia)

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EID: 26644444530     PISSN: 00222208     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: None     Document Type: Review

References (25)

1. See generally Estelle M. Phillips & D. S. Pugh, How to Get a Ph. D. (Philadelphia, 1987);
2. David Cullen, Establishing Effective Ph. D. Supervision (Canberra, 1994).
3. Even though, in North America, the law degree is a postbaccalaureate degree, I use undergradunle to distinguish one studying towards a degree for legal practice-LL. B. orJ. D.-from one pursuing an LL. M. or other postgraduale law degree.
4. I am indebted to Jeremy Webber, McGill Faculty of Law, for this particularly helpful formulation.
5. See, e.g., Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison, trans. Alan Sheridan (New York, 1977);
6. Power/Knowledge: Selected Interviews and Other Writings, 1972-1977, ed. & trans. Colin Gordon (New York, 1980).
7. In addition to the works cited in note 4 supra, see the analysis of the day-to-day and bodily realization of power in Pierre Bourdieu, Language and Symbolic Power (Cambridge, Mass., 1991).
8. Thomas S. Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, 2d ed. (Chicago, 1970) is obviously influential here.
9. See also Boaventura de Sousa Santos, Toward a New Common Sense: Law, Science and Politics in the Paradigmatic Transition (New York, 1995) for an exploration of legal change which obviously owes much to Kuhn among others.
10. There is, of course, another reason why students frequently choose an expert: they hope to use someone well known in the field to make contacts and advance their career. This choice can be sensible or perilous. Students should know that a famous-name supervisor may have little time to spend on them and may be unconcerned about what counts as good supervision. A student with this kind of supervisor needs to be particularly confident and selfdirected.
11. See the discussion of the liberation of the "wild mind" in Mark Weisberg, Learning to Trust Your Own Mind and Other Stories About (Legal) Education, 17 Queen's L. J. 301, 306-07 (1992).
12. The incursion of emotional or sexual considerations into this relationship must in particular be approached with the greatest of caution. Occasionally these relationships may work, but far more frequently the outcome is catastrophic, particularly for the student. This is a significant and controversial area far beyond the scope of this essay, and here I do no more than acknowledge its importance.
13. Phillips & Pugh, supra note 1, & sect; IV. B.
14. A preliminary point: most universities have a document that sets out the requirements of supervision, usually including the submission of periodic reports. Students as well as supervisors should have a copy of this document; it is at least a starting point for a discussion of their shared expectations.
15. In return for their fees, postgraduate law students take few courses, receive few special benefits, and-unlike a graduate student in science, for example-require almost no extra or specialized equipment.
16. I am indebted, for this framework of analysis, to my conversations with Nicholas Kasirer of the McGill law faculty.
17. In the worst case, the student may wish to change her supervisor. Furthermore, it is normally possible for a student to submit a thesis against the recommendation of her supervisor, or to refuse to make changes required by examiners. In that situation, it is normally advisable for the student to provide a detailed written explanation of the reasons for her decision. It will then be up to the appropriate body of the government of the university to decide whether or not to grant the degree.
18. In this case, two things are important. First, ownership of the student's research work-whether a report or data-should be clear from the start, and an appropriate understanding reached as to the credit to be given for that work. If the student is to be acknowledged other than as a joint author, this should always be made clear to the student, and should accord with the university's publication guidelines. Second, there needs to be a clear distinction drawn between the thesis and other work.
19. Institutions normally have rules or guidelines as to the proportion of a thesis which can be published in advance of submission.
20. For a discussion of the importance of the dialectic of writing in legal education, even at an undergraduate level, see Weisberg, supra note 8.
21. There ought to be an absolute obligation upon a supervisor to take her students to lunch at the faculty club at least once per semester. The tradition of acculturation through mastication is an ancient and honorable one.
22. For his rich understanding of the politics and culture of universities, which I have learnt both from his writings and-naturally enough-in many other contexts, I am indebted to Rod Macdonald: see Office Politics, 40 U. Toronto L. J. 419 (1990);
23. Les Vieilles Gardes, in Le Droit Soluble, ed. J.-G. Belley, 233 (Paris, 1996);
24. Academic Questions, 3 Legal Educ. Rev. 61 (1992).
25. For many of the ideas and practices that follow, I am indebted to my discussion with Lenore Manderson of the University of Queensland Medical School. The particular examples are culled from McGill University Institute of Comparative Law; the Tropical Health Program, University of Queensland Medical School; and the Division of Philosophy and Law, Research School of Social Sciences, Australian National University.