Guidelines for nomination of LLM thesis examiners
1. No later than six weeks prior to submission of the thesis for examination, an LLM candidate must submit a full draft copy of the thesis to their supervisory committee members to review and determine if the thesis will be examinable. This should not be the first time that the supervisory committee members have seen an entire draft of the thesis.
2. No later than four weeks prior to submission of the thesis for examination, and only if both members of the supervisory committee agree that the thesis is examinable, a list of potential examiners' names and contact details must be submitted to the graduate program director on the LLM thesis external examiner nomination form.
Students and supervisory committee members must not approach any of the nominees directly about the thesis or the student's program until after the examination process is complete and the thesis returned.
3. The proposed examiners must:
- hold a graduate degree in law or in a related discipline;
- be from outside of the 番茄社区 Faculty of Law;
- have expertise in a field to which the thesis relates;
- must not be in conflict of interest with the student; and in particular
- must not be a former teacher or referee.
In nominating examiners, you and your supervisory committee members should seek to balance the following additional considerations:
- You should suggest potential examiners who will give the thesis a fair reading. The proposed examiners need not agree with the argument, but they must be willing to assess the argument on its own merits.
- You may want to use the thesis examination to place your work before someone whose work you admire and/or who is prominent in the field. This should not be done at the cost of securing a fair reading.
4. The graduate program director will review the submitted names and decide who will be approached and in what order.
- The graduate program director may ask you, your supervisory committee members, or other people questions to determine the suitability of the nominees, and may (but need not) consult with your supervisory committee members to determine the best order in which to approach the nominees.
- If the graduate program director believes that no nominee is suitable or cannot secure the agreement of a suitable nominee, they may ask for replacement nominations. These are again provided by agreement of the student and supervisory committee members.
5. In unusual circumstances, it may be difficult to come to agreement on three nominations. The graduate program director may choose an examiner who has not been nominated in consultation with the faculty members of the graduate studies committee (with the exception of the student's supervisory committee members), explaining the circumstances and the proposed course of action.
6. The process of securing the examiners' availability, sending the thesis and examination instructions to the examiner, and receiving the examiners' comments in reply is handled entirely by the graduate assistant and/or graduate program director. You will not be informed of the identity of the examiner until after the examination process is complete.
7. When the graduate program director is one of the supervisory committee members, they must designate another member of the graduate studies committee to fulfill their functions. In that case, the prohibitions applicable to supervisory committee members apply to the graduate program director.