Seminar paper

A full argument, in your own voice, using the course's framework on a case of your choosing — including, if you want, the live case from week 11.

Due: 21 May 2027 · Weight: 45%

The longest and most open piece of work in the course. Choose a case — one from the syllabus, one from your case dossier, or the live case from week 11 — and argue a specific position about it using the framework built across the semester: what was actually lost, what kind of loss it was, and what, if anything, would have caught it earlier.

Week 11 deliberately supplies no verdict of its own. If you write on it, the verdict is yours to reach and yours to defend — not to borrow from the week page.

The spec

The brief poses the problem and leaves room for a response. The spec is the fixed part: what a marker checks. Some lines can be checked mechanically; the rest call for judgement.

Takes an explicit position rather than only describing the framework.
Uses at least three cases from the syllabus, cited to the actual readings, not just to week pages.
If the case is week 11's live case, argues one side while stating the strongest form of the other, rather than dismissing it.
No fabricated or unverifiable sources, in the syllabus's cases or in any outside material brought in.

How it is marked

Judged as an argument, not a survey — a paper that applies the framework to reach a specific, defensible position outscores one that summarises the syllabus. Verified sourcing throughout is a precondition, not a bonus.