Diamond Graduate School of Law

LL.M. Program

Syllabus for Thesis 2 - Tax Journal Article

Fall and Summer (not Spring) - no class meetings

I.          COURSE DESCRIPTION

Thesis 2: Tax Journal Article (2 cr. course required to graduate):  Each student must author a 50-page law review quality article with at least one hundred footnotes for submission for potential acceptance to the LLM program's Tax Journal which is published by the students bi-annually.

The student will choose a focused topic with Professor Munro and then the student must locate on his or her own an outside promoter in the area to assist the student in qualifying the student's topic, generated research, outline, and drafts.  By example, the student's senior partner could serve as promoter to provide the student expertise in not going down the wrong path.  The student must do all the creative work and that includes creating a research methodology.  The promoter will be asked not to assist in creating a methodology but only to qualify (knock out) red herrings.

The thesis tests the students ability to independently identify the issue, address a research methodology for the issue, create an outline, think laterally but hone in on the relevant, as well as author a quality professional article.  Grading will be anonymous but with comments in the margin.  A copy of the final draft must be submitted in duplicate hard and e-copy, one in double space (for grading and comments) and the other in single space (for publication and filing purposes).

This course is overseen by Dr. Robert Munro (University of Florida Levin College of Law, law librarian) with some assistance in the classroom by Professor William Byrnes.  

Times 11 point font is used for all thesis article submissions.  Single space determines the page count.

Professor Robert Munro of the University of Florida's law library is the mentor for all students for the thesis.

The student will choose a VERY FOCUSED topic with Professor Munro and then the student must locate on his or her own an outside promoter in the area to assist the student in qualifying the student's topic, generated research, outline, and drafts.  By example, the student's senior partner could serve as promoter to provide the student expertise in not going down the wrong path.  The student MUST do all the creative work and that includes creating a research methodology.  The promoter will be asked NOT TO assist in creating a methodology but ONLY TO qualify (knock out) red herrings.

The thesis tests the students ability to INDEPENDENTLY identify the issue, address a research methodology for the issue, create an outline, think laterally but hone in on the relevant, as well as author a quality professional article.

Grading will be anonymous but with comments in the margin.

A copy of the final draft must be submitted in duplicate hard and e-copy, ONE in double space (for grading and comments) and the OTHER in single space (for publication and filing purposes).

If a student does not finish the thesis in one semester, then the student may either withdraw or receive an incomplete.  If a student opts for the incomplete, then the student has one semester to submit the final draft before receiving a failing grade.  If the student withdraws, then the student may retake the course each semester until the thesis is complete.  If a student has an incomplete, and the student does not have any other courses left to take in the new semester, the student will be required to pay the $1,500 database fees to preserve the password access to the databases.

 II.         PURPOSE  

  • 2 credits
  • required to graduate

III.        COURSE PROCEDURE

            Per above.

 IV.        ATTENDANCE AND PARTICIPATION

Contact with promoter and course instructor Dr. Bob Munro.

  V.         EVALUATION OF STUDENT PERFORMANCE

            final draft – 100%;

VI.        REQUIRED TEXTS

See reference material

VII.       REFERENCE MATERIAL            

Research is conducted using the Internet WWW as well as, and most importantly, value added databases, such as

  • Lexis-Nexis US and foreign materials; Tax Treaties

  • BNA US and foreign materials; especially the country by country tax materials

  • BNA International

  • CCH International databases jurisdiction by jurisdiction, and its global treatises

  • CCH USA databases

  • Butterworths UK and international materials, especially Commonwealth/Caribbean case law

  • QuickLaw, especially Canadian and Commonwealth/Caribbean case law

  • Checkpoint-RIA-WGL-Gee, especially the treatises that explain planning techniques by topics, such as estate planning, for jurisdictions

  • Westlaw US and foreign materials

  • Tax Analysts, especially its superior tax treaty database, foreign law and global tax update magazines

  • Foreign Law Publishers - all foreign statues in English

  • World Compliance database

  • LLM and PhD thesis and dissertation databases

  • historical tax research using databases such as Hein and CCH

  • Matthew Bender databases

  • Lois Law e-libraries

  • amongst other databases that we subscribe to for you (see the external links in the classroom for details).

Also, the student should use the electronic book libraries and research the titles available.  Finally, the student is encouraged to use online legal research resources or university library or another library through a University library exchange program.