Carbon and Plastic Tax Regulation on Oil & Gas producing countries

DEVELOPING YOUR RESEARCH PROPOSAL 

1. A Research Proposal serves several purposes:

1. To check the feasibility and potential originality of the research that you are proposing
2. To determine appropriate supervision for the research project aimed (Presently, the course instructor is your research supervisor)
3. To indicate the applicant’s ability to write a clear, coherent and structured final report or legal essay includes legal recommendation(s) to a legal problem examined.
4. A focused proposal is, therefore, a crucial part of the course, more so in light of the limited duration of time for research dedicated to the course and to complete writing the full report in a total 15-week duration. The initial proposal may evolve and change throughout the study (for example, further refining research objectives and development of more fundamental research questions).
5. In developing a proposal, think of what is the significance of this research? Why is this study useful? What methodology or theoretical framework will be employed? How much can be achieved within the time-scale allocated? These fundamental questions: what, why, and how.
6. Title: a working title should indicate the keywords associated with your research, be consistent with the outline further developed, and give some idea of the fundamental aspects of the project. For example, if the analysis will be comparative, this should be reflected in the title. The same applies if it is to be a historical analysis or an economic analysis, for example. If one particular theoretical perspective is tested and criticized, then this should be mentioned. There will, of course, be an opportunity to refine the title during supervision (including after the submission of the initial proposal).
7. Introduction: this section should briefly delimit the area of research, and identify the primary issue, problem, or gap in knowledge which forms the background to your proposal, including any recent literature. What will your research achieve? The introduction is akin to an abstract or overview of the proposed study and its goals. It should be a short but useful summary which shows how deeply you have considered the issues fleshed out later in the proposal.
8. Key research questions. You need to explain what issues you are addressing which have not been studied before, or not in the way that you intend to address them. One way of looking at this is to ask, what problem are you trying to resolve? Another is to ask, what new understanding are you trying to provide? You should consider what justification there is for research in this area. Research questions are exactly that: questions, to which, through your research project, you seek the answers. While it is acceptable to have (and to mention) working hypotheses, the core of your research (and hence, of your proposal) should be an attempt to answer a question or cluster of interrelated questions.
9. Identify existing literature. This part serves to identify the main literature in the area and to demonstrate awareness of the major existing debates. Specific sources should be identified and cited. The purpose of this section is not to provide a detailed summary, but to identify the ways in which the applicant’s research is able to make a contribution: what are the gaps? Which elements remain unresolved or untested? What new light remains to be shed? If you are dealing with a very new area of law, you should still include a section on the existing literature. The relevant literature may lie in related or adjacent fields. What does the study of this new area bring to existing debates? All literature cited should be fully referenced and included in the bibliography. This is an important demonstration of your research skills. The existing literature which you review can be located in a variety of places: academic journals, NGO reports, academic monographs (books), policy papers, Court decisions and so on. Your ability to locate the major pieces of the existing literature in your proposal will be a significant factor in the overall quality of your proposal.
10. Methodology: what approach will you be taking to the research? What style of enquiry or research techniques will you be applying? The student should be aware of different methodological tools that could be used. He/she needs to explain why the chosen one is the most suitable for his/her research. For example, your research may be primarily library-based. If so, does it require access to specialist collections? Does it require access to comparative or historical materials? If empirical or fieldwork is planned, is this intended to be qualitative or quantitative? How will any data be analyzed and used? You should give some thought to any ethical or safety issues that may arise in respect of fieldwork in particular.
11. Outline of a timescale for the research and preliminary table of contents. The schedule should attempt to break down the work required into manageable segments, which will often be based on section. It is important to include some slippage time as research often does not proceed entirely to plan. It is also useful to include a draft table of contents indicating how you conceive your work being organized.
12. References cited and indicative bibliography. This section does not count towards the word limit proposed above. The bibliography goes beyond cited work and includes literature that will be followed up or used in the research project.
13. Related materials. If, for example, you have had contact with organizations who may assist in accessing research materials, then it is appropriate to include evidence of this as supporting documentation or if you have previously researched the topic then it is appropriate to include a writing sample of the output of that research.
14. Length: the proposal should be around 2000 words (excluding bibliography).