General provisions

Determined on January 16, 2014 by Faculty of Law’s Teaching Committee, Uppsala University, by virtue of Chapter 6 Section 14 and 15 of the Higher Education Ordinance (1993:100). The course plan enters into force in the January 20, 2014. Revised on June 10, 2015, the revisions enter into force the autumn semester 2014. Revised on January 18, 2016, the revisions enter into force the spring semester 2016.

General

The course Thesis covers 30 ECTS credits and concerns the thesis of the Master's Programme in International Tax Law and EU Tax Law approved September 3, 2012 by the Faculty Board of the Law Faculty, Uppsala University.

The thesis can be combined with legal practice with for example the Tax Agency, courts, or accountancy or law firms.

Entry requirements

Be admitted to the Master Programme in International Tax Law and EU Tax Law.

Learning outcomes

After finishing the course, students shall have the ability

• To identify and formulate legal and scholarly problems on the subject of the thesis.
• To structure, outline, perform and present a legal or scholarly enquiry.
• To use relevant methods, legal sources and other material of relevance for the subject of the thesis.
• To accomplish a legal or scholarly enquiry within a given time set.
• To write a thesis with an acceptable level of language proficiency.

It is a general requirement that the work with the thesis shall contribute to an improved knowledge of legal method.

Content

The thesis course includes writing a thesis and participating in mandatory lectures and seminars, and, as the case may be, an approved legal practice.

Instruction

Students have the right to supervision.

Teaching will be provided in the form of seminars on theses or parts of theses, as well as lectures.

It is mandatory to participate in at least four seminars, which includes a seminar where the student defends his or her own thesis. Students can be required to act as thesis opponent on seminars.

If the thesis includes practice, there shall be a specific mentor for the student with the practice.

Assessment

To receive the grade of approval, it is required that all mandatory requirements have been fulfiled. Grades on the course are based on the written thesis, cf. the teaching plan. The grades are not pass (U), and the passed grades B (approbatur), BA (non sine cum laude) and AB (cum laude). The criteria for the different grades follow from the teaching plan, which is decided by the course director.

The thesis can be written either individually or in a group. If it is written in a group, the contributions of each student should be identifiable.

The course director, or someone appointed by the course director, is examiner. The teacher acting as supervisor may not appoint the examiner and may not himself or herself be the examiner of the same thesis.

It is prohibited to attempt to use deceptive means to influence the outcome of an exam or other ways of evaluating student performance. This entails inter alia the following points. The work submitted to be evaluated as the student performance in the thesis must be the individual work of the student. It is prohibited to pass off another person’s work as one’s own work, in other words, to engage in plagiarism. See the specific instructions given in each course in this respect. In addition to the result of the exam or other way of evaluating student performance being reduced or declared null, a student who, in the above or other ways engages in cheating will be reported to the University Disciplinary Board. The Board can issue formal warnings or disbar the student from studying at the university for a period of up to six months.

Other regulations

The course director may grant exemptions from particular requirements on the course.

The course director decides according to Chapter 6, Sections 6-8 of the Higher Education Ordinance on taking into account similar courses undertaken with other universities.

The course director can issue the teaching plan and rules on its application.

The final thesis shall be registered by the student in the Uppsala University electronic archive DiVA (Digitalt Vetenskapligt Arkiv).