international law

INR3403: Research Paper Assignment

Overview

This research paper assignment is designed for you to choose a topic of international law and, using cases, treaties, and other documents, analyze how those cases/treaties/etc. have changed or impacted our understanding of your chosen topic. Your paper must be between 7- 10 pages and include one to three relevant cases/treaties/etc. that illustrate the importance of your chosen topic. The research paper assignment is worth 25% of your overall grade and consists of three parts: research topic (5%), first page and annotated bibliography (5%), and the completed paper (15%). Formatting information will be provided in a subsequent section.

If you have any questions about the assignment, please email me, set up an office hours appointment, or post to the general discussion board.

Research Topic: 5%

Your chosen research topic must be submitted to Canvas by January 30th at 10:00pm EST. Your research topic submission must include a paragraph describing what topic of interna- tional law you would like to explore in more detail, a thesis statement, and list one to three potential sources for your completed paper. (You may reuse these sources for your annotated bibliography.) After submission, I will approve your topic or ask you to choose another topic based on my feedback. If your topic is not approved, you will have an additional week to resubmit another topic idea.

international law

It might be helpful to look at the textbook and/or syllabus for inspiration. You can choose a topic that we will be discussing in class. But you cannot exclusively use sources from the textbook or those cases that we will be discussing in class. Make sure your topic and thesis are specific enough that you will be able to complete the assignment within the page count. If you have questions, please contact me in a timely manner before the assignment is due, so that I have enough time to respond and provide guidance.

First Page and Annotated Bibliography: 5%

The first page of your paper and an annotated bibliography are due February 20th by 10:00pm EST. Of your paper must meet the formatting standards of the completed paper and contain at least one in-text citation. And should be an intro- duction to your paper and contain your thesis statement. Introductions are your opportunity to grab the attention of your reader and explain to them why your topic is important.

The bibliography and citation style that you must use for this paper is Chicago Style. For more information on Chicago Style citations please click here. (If you are using Microsoft Word, their internal reference manager includes Chicago Style.). The annotated bibliography must contain at least five sources that meet the Chicago-Style formatting criteria. For each source, you must write a one sentence summary of the source and explain how you intend