Legal students' graduation thesis writing guidance

Author: Wu Yongmin, Jin Pengnian (Editor-in-Chief)
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-06-01
Features: [Book Excerpt:] Additionally, the position of civil law in the entire legal system is also a very important issue. This is not only related to the positioning of civil law but also to the relationship between civil law and other departments of law, and even closely related to the scope and research objects of civil law research. This is also an issue that the author must carefully consider when determining the scope of civil law research papers. Civil law is the foundational law that protects the civil rights of citizens, legal persons, and other civil subjects, promotes the development of the socialist market economy, and builds the legal framework of the socialist market economy. This makes the research of theoretical issues in the civil law discipline have a significant position in constructing theoretical foundations. The research scope of civil law is extremely broad, including civil law general theory, property law, contract law, intellectual property law, marriage and family law, inheritance law, as well as foreign civil law, comparative civil law, and many other fields. At the same time, civil law is closely related to other disciplines such as civil procedure law, economic law, and private international law. When writing research papers, we must pay special attention to the relationship between civil law and commercial law. This issue itself is a research topic worth studying, and from this fundamental issue, we can explore many other research topics: commercial law is a special law of civil law, it directly regulates commercial activities of people, and has a direct relevance to the market economy. It is the foundational law for building the legal framework of the socialist market economy and an important legal department in the socialist legal system. Commercial law is closely related to civil law, and its research scope is also very broad, including company law, negotiable instrument law, securities law, insurance law, maritime law, sales law, and many other fields. Civil and commercial law is an applied law with a long history, rich in reason and practice. Its research content is closely related to people's lives and national economic construction. When writing research papers on civil law, especially on issues with strong timeliness and practicality, it is inevitable to involve some content from commercial law. If students can well combine the connections and differences between civil and commercial law when considering issues, they will often benefit greatly. In summary, self-study students who want to write good civil law papers absolutely cannot ignore the broad research scope of the civil law discipline and its close connections with other disciplines. They must also pay attention to the content that is closely related to people's livelihoods, as this is often the area where academic hotspots in this discipline are concentrated. In addition to paying attention to the close connections between civil law and other disciplines, we must not overlook the internal connections between various systems within civil law itself. As a self-study course civil law textbook, it includes six parts: general theory of civil law, personality rights, property rights, contract law (excluding), inheritance, and torts. The content of each part is both independent and interconnected, with rigorous internal logic and close relationships between systems. Therefore, when writing papers, candidates should not be confined to a single part but should focus on the interconnections between different parts of civil law, analyze them together, and achieve a comprehensive understanding. Civil law is an applied law that is both scientifically rigorous and practically oriented. Therefore, when writing civil law papers, the principle of linking theory with practice should be consistently followed, and civil legal issues should be analyzed in the context of practical application when developing the arguments of the paper. These characteristics are discussed in more detail and incisively in the self-study textbook, and it is recommended that students pay attention to them. A proper understanding of the above content is the first thing self-study students must grasp to write a good civil law graduation thesis. In fact, real-life situations also pose many challenges for the deepening of civil law research, such as the codification of civil law, tort law in the era of the internet, and the protection of personality rights. I will elaborate on these in more detail in the second part about topic selection below. In summary, with the development of the times, civil law theory is also evolving rapidly, with various academic views competing. All of this provides excellent conditions for the theoretical and practical research of civil law in the new era.
II. Topic Selection for Self-Study Civil Law Graduation Thesis
Civil law covers a very broad range of content and involves a large number of legal issues. The self-study textbook mentions civil capacity, civil conduct capacity, guardianship, partnership, civil legal acts, agency, unauthorized agency, apparent agency, personality rights, status rights, property rights systems, usufructuary rights, security rights, ownership systems, debt systems, unjust enrichment, quasi-delicts, security of debts, transfer and termination of debts, inheritance, and tort systems, among others, without listing them all. Self-study students must choose a research topic that can best leverage their strengths from this content, although these can be combined for research. In conclusion, there is an overwhelming amount of content to write about in civil law. Faced with so much content, first-time paper writers may feel very lost. We must recognize that topic selection is the key to the success or failure of a paper. Therefore, we must give it full attention and invest sufficient time and effort to do a good job.
The selection of a topic refers primarily to choosing the issue to be argued. A good paper title should be both academically significant and socially meaningful while being suitable for the candidate's own conditions, allowing them to fully leverage their academic knowledge and intelligence. As an independent legal department, civil law is a set of legal norms that regulate property and personal relationships between natural persons, legal persons, and other social organizations. As a discipline that studies civil law, civil law not only studies the basic systems of civil law but also its doctrines, fundamental theories, and various hot topics and content related to practice. These research topics are also the areas where civil law can be written about. Special attention and extra focus should be given to some hot topics closely related to practice when writing papers.
First, let's look at the system and content of civil law to understand the broader areas of topic selection. According to the General Principles of Civil Law of China, civil law mainly consists of the following basic theoretical parts: general introduction to civil law, civil legal relations, civil subject systems, rules of civil subject behavior, personality rights systems, property rights systems, debt systems, intellectual property, and relevant content of family law and inheritance rights, etc. For self-study students, the general introduction to civil law, which includes basic discussions on the concept, objects of regulation, nature, tasks, principles, sources, effectiveness, application, and interpretation of civil law, is relatively limited in terms of research potential. Of course, this does not mean that there is no theoretical research value or room for this part at all. Rather, from the perspective of the actual research level and theoretical academic foundation of self-study students, this content is relatively basic and theoretical, and self-study students may lack the theoretical depth to explore these issues. Rushing into writing about them may lead to vague and empty discussions. Moreover, self-study papers are constrained by word limits, and choosing a topic that is too broad can make it difficult to explain the issue clearly and thoroughly, potentially resulting in a "dragonfly tapping water" type of essay that mentions everything but explains nothing. Self-study students who want to write well-argued, substantive, and well-structured papers would be better off starting with smaller breakthrough points. The other specific theoretical parts of civil law meet this requirement.
After clarifying the broad areas and scope of topic selection, the next step is to look for "topic points" from some hot and difficult issues closely related to practice and refine specific paper titles. Because topics with practical significance are often closer to daily life, they are relatively easier to generate personal views and opinions. However, the size of the topic should be appropriate, and it is best not to choose overly broad or empty titles. Topic selection must also be appropriate for one's own conditions, meaning the content chosen should be something the candidate is relatively familiar with or has mastered well, and something they can complete. The title should be concise, clear, and eye-catching.
With the gradual maturation of the theory of establishing a socialist market economy system in China, the increasing richness of its practice, and the solidification of the state policy of governing the country according to law and establishing a socialist rule of law state, the following issues in civil legislation and civil law research are increasingly attracting attention and importance:
(1) On the system of the Civil Code