How to Write an Essay on a Legal Topic for Your LLM Application: Part 1

What is an essay on a legal topic and why would you Need to write one?

If you are applying for a Master of Laws (LLM), you may be required to submit an essay on a legal topic. Depending on the program, it may be considered a part of a personal statement or a self-standing written work.

For instance, to apply for the LLM at Harvard Law School, you’ll be asked to:

‘Briefly describe either an important issue in your field of interest or a current legal problem facing a particular country, region, or the world, and then propose a theoretical framework or a legal analysis or strategy to address this issue’.

Similarly, for the Magister Juris program at the University of Oxford, you’ll be asked to produce a written work that meets the following guidelines:

‘The work must be written in English and on a legal topic. Academic work from your most recent qualification is preferred, but work written in a professional context may be submitted if academic work is not readily available. This will be assessed for a comprehensive understanding of the subject area, an understanding of problems in the area, an ability to construct and defend an argument, your powers of analysis and your powers of expression’.

For NYU, normally you wouldn't need an essay for admission but you'd need one to apply for the Hauser Scholarship.

As you see, the requirements vary. The substance, however, stays the same: you are asked to produce a piece of analysis on a legal topic in writing.

The goal of this essay is to show the admissions committee how you think and write. Law is a highly verbal pursuit, and a legal essay is a snapshot of your lawyering abilities. It allows the admissions committee to see your professional skills in action.

Additionally, for top universities like Harvard and Oxford, such essay acts as an additional barrier for filtering candidates. It takes a lot of work to write it. This means that fewer candidates go through the trouble of doing it. It therefore narrows down the pool of eligible candidates that the admissions committee will later have to sift through.

How to choose a topic for your LLM Legal essay

Choosing a topic for an essay means that you need to identify:

• a broad field of interest
• a problem within that field of interest that needs to be solved

I suggest using your own background and your own writing history as a point of entry for identifying a topic.

There are a few reasons for it:

1. Writing a good essay takes a lot of time

To be able to write a good essay, you need to read a lot. You won’t be able to produce a winning essay without consuming and integrating a lot of relevant literature on the subject.

To have something to say on a legal issue, you need to be aware of its context, existing debates, the names of researchers known for their expertise in the field, remaining gaps in the literature, and the like. All of that requires extensive background knowledge of the subject.

In my experience, the required reading is about 10 to 15 sources per 1,000 words of essay. Sometimes, it’s more. Sometimes, it’s less. Ultimately, it depends on the topic. Some topics are more literature-heavy than others. For instance, in the essay I submitted to HLS, I directly referenced 15 academic sources. To deepen my understanding of the topic, I read about 10 to 15 more, to get a handle of the topic and feel competent discussing it.

In the process of writing the essay, you’ll be making notes, digesting ideas, making connections between them, deciding what you agree or disagree with, and formulating your own arguments. All of that takes neural connections. And neural connections take time to form.

You’ll have a better chance of winning if you build on what you’ve already done.

2. An essay based on your writing history will be coherent with your overall profile

If you choose a topic you’ve worked on in the past, it’ll be coherent with your overall profile.

For the sake of clarity, you are under no obligation to choose a specific topic simply for the purpose of making your profile look coherent. It's not the goal. The goal is to showcase your analytical skills. For instance, I wrote my legal essay on something very different from what I’ve worked on in the past, and I was perfectly fine.

But if you do choose a topic you’ve previously worked on, it can contribute to the overall convincingness of your application. It can therefore be an additional bonus in your favor.

3. Your essay will be more personal

It’s not immediately clear but a legal essay, like a motivation letter or a personal statement, also needs to be personal. Personal in the sense that it should be evident that you are the best person to write it.

For instance, it’ll make little sense for you to write about the truth commission in Colombia if you’ve never been to Colombia, have never shown any interest in anything Colombia-related, and don’t speak good enough Spanish to read relevant literature in original. The chances are, it’ll be incredibly difficult for you to write a good essay on a topic you feel no personal connection to.

One way to demonstrate personal nature of the topic is through your pre-existing and pre-built expertise. This can be done by relying on your research and writing history.

How to find a topic by relying on your writing history

If you are applying for a Master of Laws, the chances are, by this point you 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)

Example: A friend of mine wrote his HLS essay on the following issue. If a court applies foreign law, does it have discretion to deviate from its interpretation by a foreign court if such interpretation is deemed mistaken due to extra-legal considerations? This was inspired by a case he dealt with while working in a law firm.

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

Example: A friend of mine wrote her HLS legal essay about the contracting out of governmental services to private actors in the context of secondary schools in England. She chose it because at the time, she was writing a dissertation on that very subject.

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

Example: A friend of mine wrote his HLS legal essay about the democratic legitimacy of the government. This topic was inspired by his participation in the Jessup competition and a legal issue the Jessup case tackled at the time. This was also connected to his experience as an election observer which he wrote about in his personal statement.

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As you are making this list, try not to judge or discriminate among topics. At this point, you are taking inventory. The goal of this exercise is to collect as many options as possible. You’ll assess their viability later.

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.

commonly asked questions about choosing the topic

Now I'd like to address a few common questions that may arise as you choose your topic.

1. Should I write about international law or can I write about the law of my home-country?

I’ve seen people (including myself) internalize the idea that particular countries and regions are more important than others. For instance, when I studied at the Lomonosov Moscow State University, it was consistently transmitted to us that places like the EU and the US are legally superior and thus worthier of being studied than, for instance, Russia. And even though the HLS essay prompt explicitly mentioned ‘a problem facing a particular country’, I simply could not have imagined that choosing an issue of Russian law could be valuable for an application to HLS or Oxford.

I’ve seen other people internalize that as well, in various forms. So I’m articulating it here to reassure you that you don’t have to choose a topic relating to a ‘developed’ legal order as opposed to ‘undeveloped’. Similarly, choosing an issue of international law is not inherently worthier than choosing an issue of national law. You are allowed to write about your home country as well.

Pay attention to the prompt and do what it says. For instance, as mentioned, HLS prompt clearly states that your topic can have international, or regional, or national focus. It really doesn’t matter. What matters is that you write a competent analysis of it. Remember, the goal is not to convince the admissions committee of your point of view on that matter. The goal is to showcase your analytical and legal skills.

On this point, a friend of mine from HLS says:

‘Play to your strengths. I’m Canadian so, naturally, I wrote about a legal problem in Canada. If you’re not an expert in a foreign jurisdiction, don’t pick that jurisdiction because you’re trying to impress someone. It’s better to demonstrate that you can communicate a problem simply to someone who knows nothing about the issue than to try talking about something they already know a lot about and where gaps in your knowledge will be laid bare’.

2. Does the topic have to be academic or applied? What if I am a practitioner and haven’t written anything academic?

If academic writing is preferred, it’ll be explicitly mentioned (see, eg, the Oxford prompt above). If not, both should be acceptable. When deciding what to write about, always come back to the purpose of the document. You are not being asked to submit it as a mere formality, just for the sake of it. You are being asked to demonstrate how you think and write. Choose what showcases your skills the best.

If you are still unsure and have doubts left, reach out to the university and ask.

3. Should the legal essay reflect my primary academic or professional focus? For instance, if I am a real estate lawyer, should I write about real estate law?

Generally, it’s good if your legal essay feeds into other parts of the application. For instance, if you write about an ambition to shape climate policy in the EU in your personal statement, like one of my mentees did, then choosing an important issue of climate policy for your legal essay will serve you well, because it’ll demonstrate the seriousness of your intentions.

However, you are under no obligation to write your essay on the same topic that you work on as a practicing lawyer or an academic. You can choose something else. Again, the main idea of this exercise is to demonstrate your legal skills. That can be done regardless of whether or not your topic reflects your primary professional focus.

4. Should I follow the trends and write about what’s hot? Everybody seems to be writing about the AI, legal tech, or climate change. Should I do that as well?

It is my personal conviction that you’ll be better off writing about something compelling to you on a personal level rather than something that’s ‘hot’ or on the agenda.

First, if you do otherwise, your nervous system will be taxed trying to squeeze out of you a decent analysis of something you don’t like. You’ll probably have nothing to say about it, it’s going to feel forced, and the admissions committee will see it. Second, you’ll be competing against people who are actually interested in these topics and understand the field. It’s a lose-lose situation for you.

Write about something you are genuinely interested in.

Additional criteria for choosing a topic

A prompt can ask you to write not only about ‘an important issue in your field of interest’ but also ‘a current legal problem’ (see the HLS prompt). To choose based on the second part of the prompt, ask:

• what are the legal topics / topics with the legal dimension that are on the agenda in your country? your region? the world?

Example 1: A friend of mine wrote his HLS essay about the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act passed in Pakistan in 2016. It was adopted the year he applied, and in his words, the Act ‘caused public outcry due to certain provisions that were ostensibly overbroad and appeared to enable the censorship of free speech’. It therefore concerned a current legal problem facing a particular country.

Example 2: Another friend of mine wrote about a famous case in Canada concerning the authority of border agents to search travelers’ cell phones. The case was recent at the time of his application and widely publicized, thus satisfying the criterion of currency.

When you answer this question, go through the same process as you did with your previous writing projects. Make a list of all legal issues you could potentially write about that meet the criteria of your prompt.

Then, evaluate them, considering the following parameters:

• Do you have the background knowledge on this topic to be able to write about it competently?
• If not, how fast you can acquire that background knowledge? Do you have that time in your disposal?
• Is this topic personally compelling to you?
• Can you explain this topic to your target audience, or does it require too much explanation of the relevant context to fit it into a given word limit?

Make a decision based on the remaining items of the list.

How to identify a topic from scratch

If you still don’t have a topic, here are a few strategies to follow.

Their original source is a book called Rocking Qualitative Social Science by Professor Ashley Rubin. These strategies were developed in the context of large research projects, such as doctoral and postdoctoral research. Accordingly, the examples I’ll be giving here are from the academic domain.

However, they can be scaled down and applied to a legal essay. Almost everything that turns out to be a big research project usually starts small. It's just a matter of what you focus on and what you omit.

Usually, a topic will combine theoretical and empirical components.

Technique no. 1:

• start with theoretical stuff, eg, an area of literature, a debate, a theory, a framework, a concept,
• then select a topic in which to apply or explore that theoretical stuff; choose one that is a good place in which to explore this framework.

Example: One of the debates in my field of study is the existence of regulatory competition in law (theoretical stuff). Specifically, whether it exists in dispute resolution and drives the states to build institutions called 'international commercial courts' (empirical stuff). I could therefore write an essay discussing the applicability of this theory to a particular case, eg, the Netherlands Commercial Court.

Technique no. 2:

It’s essentially the reverse of Technique no. 1:

• start with a topic of interest,
• then find the theoretical stuff to go with it.

Starting with a topic of interest can mean choosing

- a place

- a phenomenon

- population

- or a historical period that you want to study.

Then figure out how to explain it through a theoretical lens.

Example: The same as above, only in reverse. When choosing a topic for my EUI thesis, I decided to study a comparatively recent phenomenon in cross-border commercial dispute resolution – international commercial courts. I chose 4 case studies, ie, 4 countries that created such courts. Thus, I first chose empirical parameters. After that, I added a theoretical lens: the driving forces behind them and the lessons that lawmakers could use for future building of courts. There are a few hypotheses suggested in the literature to explain them. If I were writing an essay, I could have chosen one of them, including the above mentioned literature on regulatory competition as the driver behind such courts.

Technique no. 3:

• select a question that combines the topic and theoretical stuff from the start.

This can mean deciding to write about an already well-known concept but in a particular context.

Example: For the dissertation I defended at the Lomonosov Moscow State University, I decided to study the place of performance of contractual obligation (a well-known concept in private international law) and its application the EU and Russian international civil procedure (context).

Technique no. 4:

• identify a puzzle or a problem and add practical/ empirical limits to it.

The problem or the puzzle can be theoretical, i.e., not necessarily attached to a specific, real-life situation, but arising from a theory or academic literature. In this case, you’ll need to add empirical limits to it. For instance, you can find a recurring trend in the literature that doesn’t quite make sense and doesn’t have a clear explanation yet, and is not limited to a particular time or place. If you choose it, you’ll need to establish empirical limits for.

Alternatively, the problem or the puzzle can be empirical, i.e., a puzzle arising from a real-life situation. It can be something concrete that you want to explain, such as a statistical outlier, a historical episode, a unique case/person/organization, a notorious disaster. In this case, you need to add theoretical stuff to it.

Example: A friend of mine from the EUI started her research by following a puzzle which was how the Soviet Union was able to industrialize in the absence of intellectual property rights, while Russia fails to re-industrialize despite adopting strong intellectual property rights that presumably better promote innovation.

How I chose my topic for the Oxford and Harvard applications

I applied both for Oxford (2015) and Harvard (2016) and used the same writing sample for both applications, only improved and scaled it down for HLS. It wa about the optimal design of a tribunal for adjudication of international crimes.

I don’t remember exactly how I got interested in it. I think there were several contributing factors. First, I had a general interest in public international law (I did the Jessup moot court as a student and later coached a team for Concours Charles-Rousseau) and I understood the field. Second, I like researching the questions of institutional design and investigating the interplay of substance of procedure in law.

Further, one of the current topics at the time was the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17. I also had the background knowledge of the countries involved, which is was helpful and also made the choice of topic more credible. This geopolitical environment set empirical limits for the essay.

From the theoretical perspective, there was an ongoing discussion about the possibility of establishing a tribunal to investigate it. For me, it was interesting as a part of a bigger problem in international law, which is the absence of a comprehensive mechanism for accountability of states and state-affiliated groups for their crimes. Most international crimes are investigated by ad hoc tribunals. There is an additional hurdle for creating tribunals through the UN mechanism: a proposition for a new tribunal has to pass through the UN Security Council (UNSC). Often, it gets vetoed by the US, China, or Russia. This means that most crimes ultimately remain unaccountable. That drove my interest in the theoretical part of the question and also provided the scoping: propose a solution that bypasses the UNSC and ensures that there is no selectiveness in what gets investigated and what doesn't.

I worried that my essay will not be coherent with the rest of my profile, which is largely private international law oriented. But in the end, it worked out fine, and I am happy about having chosen something that was compelling for me personally.

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I'll talk about further steps of writing a legal essay in Part 2 (to follow).