Sociology of Law: Master's (Two Years) Thesis

In the Master’s Thesis course, you design and complete your own scientific research in sociology of law. The project is of limited scale, and you primarily demonstrate your capacity to work independently and conduct research.

The course lets you

• demonstrate specialised knowledge of foundations in the theory of science, research issues, and theories and methods in the sociology of law.
• demonstrate a scholarly approach to knowledge, learning and the norms and legal regulation of society.
• independently formulate and investigate issues in sociology of law and address them by means of theory and abstract reasoning.
• show that you can summarise, critically review, assess and provide constructive feedback on other people’s research.
• reflect on the research process.

The thesis project requires you to identify a relevant socio-legal issue, select methods and theories, and collect, process and analyse your empirical material. You will present and discuss your work at a start and a midway seminar. Finally, you present your complete thesis in written and oral form at a thesis defence.

The Sociology of Law Department assigns you a supervisor. The supervisor advises you and provides their perspective on the project's planning, execution, and presentation of its findings. At the same time, however, the work is an independent project, and you are responsible for completing it. The completed degree project is reviewed and discussed at a final seminar. 

A master’s degree in sociology of law provides you with the deep social scientific understanding required to continue studying at the PhD level. They will also enable you to pursue a career in fields involving public and private inquiries, project assessments, and policy evaluation.

Master’s-level knowledge in the sociology of law is useful for policymakers, instructors, and practitioners in law, legal institutions, the criminal justice system, the EU, regional and governmental agencies, and the private sector and NGOs.

When you graduate, you will have competence in and experience of

• qualitative assessment of processes and methods used in social science in general and sociology of law in particular.
• formulation of research proposals and research design.
• qualitative and quantitative data collection methods.
• collecting and analysing primary and secondary data.
• discussing, from a perspective of sociology of law, the implications of the preconditions and legal development at the national and international levels.
• theories related to sociology of law in general and regulation and governance in particular.
• peer reviewing and discussing fellow students’ work verbally and in writing. 

Prerequisites

The student must have a Bachelor?s degree in Sociology of Law, or the equivalent, and at least 30 second-cycle credit in sociology of law theory or the equivalent and at least 30 second-cycle credits in social science methodology (at least 15 credits) and/or the theory of science (at least 7,5 credits). English 6/English course B.

Selection criteria

Seats are allocated according to: ECTS (HPAV): 100 %.

Tuition fees for non-EU/EEA citizens

Citizens of countries outside:

• The European Union (EU)
• The European Economic Area (EEA) and
• Switzerland

are required to pay tuition fees. You pay an instalment of the tuition fee in advance of each
semester.

Tuition fees, payments and exemptions

Full programme/course tuition fee: SEK 62,500
First payment: SEK 62,500

Convert currency – xe.com

Note that you may also need to pay an application fee, or provide proof of exemption.

Application fee

No tuition fees for citizens of the EU, EEA and Switzerland

There are no tuition fees for citizens of the European Union (EU), the European Economic Area (EEA) and Switzerland.