Guest Post by Professor Horst Eidenmüller
It is an honour to welcome Professor Horst Eidenmüller to my blog.
Professor Horst Eidenmüller is the Professor for Commercial Law (Statutory Chair) at the University of Oxford and a Professorial Fellow of St. Hugh’s College, Oxford.
He studied law as an undergraduate at LMU Munich and later obtained an LLM at Cambridge University (1989) and a PhD from Munich University (1994) after working for McKinsey & Co. in the 1990s. After his Habilitation in 1998, he was a law professor at the University of Münster from 1999 until 2003. He returned to LMU Munich in 2003, holding the Chair for Private Law, German, European and International Company Law until 2015. This position was designated as a research professorship under the excellence scheme of the German Research Foundation from 2007 to 2011.
In Oxford, he lectures on Corporate Insolvency Law, on Comparative Corporate Law, and on Commercial Dispute Resolution (Commercial Negotiation and Mediation, International Commercial Arbitration).
His blog post below is full of actionable advice on how to write excellent law essays! Moreover, this blog post draws on the notes he initially prepared for the students in his class on “Commercial Negotiation and Mediation” (CNM) at the University of Oxford. This class is an offering in the BCL/MJur program for graduate students in the law faculty of Oxford, where I used to be a student too (a looong time ago)…
Feel free to visit his personal blog to find out more!
Notes on Essay Writing
Horst Eidenmüller
These notes were initially prepared for the students in my class on “Commercial Negotiation and Mediation” (CNM) at the University of Oxford. This class is an offering in the BCL/MJur program for graduate students in the law faculty. Students must write a couple of tutorial essays during the academic year. The word limit for these essays is 1,500 words. In the exam, students must choose three out of eight essay problems. The word limit for each essay problem is 2,000 words. I hope that the following notes contain guidance which is also helpful for essay writing more generally.
1. Answer the Question(s)
Let’s start with the most important (and often most ignored) rule: answer the question. If there’s more than one, answer them all—and do so in the order they’re given unless you have a strong reason not to.
Don’t drift into unrelated territory. Avoid going on intellectual tangents that aren’t grounded in the question. If a question can be approached in multiple ways, it’s okay to mention this briefly. But then make your choice clear and stick to it. Tell the reader what your interpretation is, and explain why you’ve chosen it.
2. Find a Thesis—and Tell a Story
Once you’ve understood the question, the next step is to figure out your thesis or main idea. This is your essay’s backbone. You’ll want to introduce this idea early, develop it logically through your essay, and return to it in your conclusion.
Think of your essay as a story: every paragraph should build on the last, leading your reader smoothly from introduction to conclusion. As Wittgenstein wisely put it in the Tractatus Logicus-philosophicus, “What can be said at all can be said clearly”.
3. Structure is Everything
Good writing is structured writing. Think of your essay in three parts:
• Introduction: Brief and to the point. State your thesis or main idea and outline how you’ll explore it.
• Middle Sections: These are the meat of your essay—usually 3–5 paragraphs or sections. If there’s only one question, use headings that reflect key points in your argument. If there are two or more questions, use headings that mirror the questions themselves.
Avoid subheadings in tutorial essays or exam papers unless you have a strong reason to include them. In exams, clear subheadings can actually help the reader—so don’t shy away from them there.
Keep your paragraphs short and well-spaced. Long blocks of text can tire the reader and hide your argument.
• Conclusion: Sum up what you’ve argued. Don’t introduce new information—just remind the reader where your argument has taken them and why it matters.
4. Engage with the Readings
Use the materials you’ve been given. Citing key cases, articles, and rules/regulations shows that you’re grounded in the subject. Examples:
• “As the Supreme Court held in Johnson v Ward (2013) …”
• “As Duncan Kennedy has argued in Kennedy (1990), …”
• “In Art 3 of the EU Mediation Directive, …”
For tutorial essays and exam papers, no footnotes are needed (and shouldn’t be used). You’re also not expected to go beyond the CNM Reading List—but feel free to explore further if you’re interested.
5. Show That You Can Argue (Well)
It’s not about how many points you can list—it’s about how well you support the ones you make. Avoid sweeping claims. Instead, reason carefully, and if a question makes assumptions you disagree with, call them out and explain why.
Have a brilliant new idea? That’s great—but not necessary for a top-notch essay. What matters most is clarity, structure, and sound reasoning. Don’t try to impress for the sake of it. A bit of humility goes a long way: modesty is a virtue.
Keep these principles in mind, and your essay will not only answer the question—it’ll do so with clarity, confidence, and style.
Happy writing!
P.S.
I hope you enjoyed the brilliant pieces of advice by Professor Eidenmüller! For more advice on how to write good legal essays and achieve excellent marks, you can also grab a copy of my book here.