LLM/PGDip/PGCert International Law

Enable students to analyse, critically evaluate and provide authoritative commentary on how international law impacts international relations and contemporary concerns such as globalisation, the use of armed force, terrorism, poverty, governance and the regulation of ownership over territory.

Get advanced conceptual insights into the legal, political and structural issues that underpin dispute resolution within international organisations through a thematic focus on issues such as labour, trade, title to territory and international peace and security. You will learn to think strategically about different means of settlement of disputes and their applicability to existing or potential conflicts.

This module is designed to provide students with a thorough understanding of global trade regimes through an overview of globalisation and contemporary international economic relations; the regulation of international trade by the WTO; and the relationship between international trade, harmonisation of the law and trade-related issues.

This module equips students with essential research skills necessary to complete a master's of law successfully, including the technical and conventional systems governing academic writing and the principles and practice followed in legal reasoning.

The Dissertation module is taught in term two, and assessed by a 15,000-18,000 dissertation. Students demonstrate expert-level knowledge and advanced-level legal research skills by writing a dissertation paper, supported by a supervisor, on a topic proposed by the student and approved by the module leader, Dr Lughaidh Kerin.

Eligible LLM students can replace this module with the Work Integrated Learning or Practicum in International Organisations module with prior approval.

Due to the evolving situation as regards COVID19, this work placement module may be suspended in 2020-21. However, where possible, we are working in consultation with our professional partners to develop online work placements until it is safe to resume placements in person.

The module aims to enable you to apply theoretical knowledge and research to anticipate and respond to challenges in a selected workplace experience. You can undertake this workplace experience as an internship that you negotiate yourself or in your current workplace or an existing voluntary role. It also aims to help you foster sustainable long term learning by requiring that you take responsibility for your own learning, design and negotiate learning goals and make informed judgments about your performance across the programme of study. The module will ask you to engage as active subjects in the assessment process, thus enhancing your capacity for transformative learning. By selecting a topic of interest grounded in your workplace experience you’ll be expected to demonstrate reflexivity, self-regulation and self-assessment in your journey towards personal and professional development.

Due to the evolving situation as regards COVID19, this work placement module may be suspended in 2020-21. However, where possible, we are working in consultation with our professional partners to develop online work placements until it is safe to resume placements in person.

The module aims to enable you to apply theoretical knowledge and research to anticipate and respond to challenges in a selected workplace experience. You can undertake this workplace experience as an internship that you negotiate yourself or in your current workplace or an existing voluntary role. It also aims to help you foster sustainable long term learning by requiring that you take responsibility for your own learning, design and negotiate learning goals and make informed judgments about your performance across the programme of study. The module will ask you to engage as active subjects in the assessment process, thus enhancing your capacity for transformative learning. By selecting a topic of interest grounded in your workplace experience you’ll be expected to demonstrate reflexivity, self-regulation and self-assessment in your journey towards personal and professional development.

The Bophal disaster, the tragedy of the Niger Delta and the collapse of the Rana Plaza factory are all examples of what appears to be systematic corporate human rights abuses which are not being adequately prevented or remedied. This module enables students to understand how the sub-discipline business and human rights challenges State-centred architecture of international human rights law and delves into the responsibility of non-state actors such as multinational corporations in the area of human rights. It also challenges the idea that only individuals can commit international crimes such as genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes looking into corporate criminal and civil liability for human rights violations.

This module equips students with critical understanding of the major theories concerning the nature of corporations, their role and function in society, the concerns surrounding corporate governance and corporate responsibility, and the laws and practices governing directorial conduct and company operation in selected countries.

Understand and analyse contemporary issues, legal problems and emergent changes to legislation governing the conduct of trade, business and financial services.

This module engages students with the legal, political and philosophical perspectives of the legal frameworks, institutions and remedies available to protect fundamental rights in Europe, both under the European Convention on Human Rights and the European Union Charter of Fundamental Rights.

Equips students with systematic understanding of the relevant national and international regimes governing intellectual property focusing on English and EU law including case law, as well as the measures specified by the agreements on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs) and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).

Gain the knowledge necessary to deal with contemporary and emerging challenges in the practise and management of transnational commercial disputes with a focus on the increasing use of arbitration for expediency and cost savings by medium and large-scale enterprises operating in multiple jurisdictions.

Provides an in-depth understanding of the international human rights law framework under the United Nation organisations and ability to assess its efficacy engaging the complementary American, African and Asian regional systems of promotion and protection of human rights worldwide.

Equips students with detailed knowledge and understanding of English and international normative frameworks regulating the carriage of goods by sea and the laws governing maritime causalities and their aftermath, such as collision, oil pollution, salvage and general average.

This module presumes familiarity with the principles of contract law and extends these into the international arena in the field of international sale of goods. It deals with the English law governing trade in wet and dry commodities and international law, principally the United Nations Convention on the International Sale of Goods. It aims to enhance the student's ability to tackle the practical, policy and economic implications of legal regimes enabling trade and transactions between parties divided by or purposely straddling legal and geographic boundaries.

This module enables students to understand, analyse and comment upon the international law framework on minority rights and indigenous peoples under the United Nations, American, European, African and Asian systems, assessing their efficacy in dealing with violations.

Understand, analyse and asses the relevant regulations at national and European level governing discrimination as well as the practical, historical, social, economic, ethical and philosophical context in which these operate.

In this module you will look at the relationship between migration, politics and policies from a comparative and European perspective. This relationship is both ‘top down’, with migration becoming an object of contention amongst political parties and migration policies being largely shaped by political divisions, and ‘bottom up’, with the growing presence of NGOs campaigning for migrant rights and migrant activism. First, you will be asked to comparatively examine migration policies, their regulatory role in the attempt to manage and control migratory flows, and how they have been affected by political debates over migration.

Secondly, you will look at the growth of anti-immigration politics and how anti-migrant mobilisations have become a constant feature at European level, not only for marginal groups but also for mainstream government parties. During this part of the module you will also investigate the growing conflicts between migrants and natives over the uses of space and the distribution of welfare resources. Thirdly, you will look at different forms of migrant participation in the public sphere, from self-organised migrant protest around issues such as freedom of circulation, citizenship rights and labour rights to more institutionalised forms of participation through unions and NGOs.

This module will help you critically explore the key institutions and frameworks that govern human rights at the international level and of the international policy context that promotes sustainable development, to examine how the two interact. You will examine the notion of rights as competing, contested and co-opted and question their ability to function in crisis situations. It focuses on issues of inclusion/exclusion and reflects on how the rights and ‘development’ of three ‘marginalised groups’ have been promoted. You’ll focus in particular on indigenous peoples, the caste system and gender inequality. The aim of this part of your studies is to question if current legal approaches to human rights are sufficient to bring sustainable development to groups currently marginalised.

This module will provide students with an in-depth understanding of environmental governance and the central theoretical approaches on which its principles are based. The module introduces the idea of the governance spectrum ranging from a coercive mode and legal instruments to approaches that rely on the agency and knowledge of environmental resource users themselves.

In this module you will be asked to consider the implications in International Relations of the forces of globalisation, looking at international political processes and institutions at the level of politics, economics and culture. You will analyse the relevance of international organisations, and look at transnational politics and issues of global importance. Additionally, you will explore theoretical debates surrounding these issues and learn to critically evaluate the effectiveness of international policy. The aim of this module is to provide you with a platform to work constructively in groups, gain leadership skills and formulate arguments and coherent debates in a diverse international environment.

Postgraduate Legal Work Experience is a non-credit bearing module and provides students with an opportunity to gain law-related work experience in a support role supervised by experienced legal advisors. Module leader of this course as well as the Employability Service provide information and guidance on finding work experience, but students must be pro-active in finding suitable work experience.

Due to the evolving situation as regards COVID19, this work placements module may be suspended in 2020-21. However, where possible, we are working in consultation with our professional partners to develop online work placements until it is safe to resume placements in person.

Postgraduate Legal Work Experience is a non-credit bearing module and provides students with an opportunity to gain law-related work experience in a support role supervised by experienced legal advisors. Module leader of this course as well as the Employability Service provide information and guidance on finding work experience, but students must be pro-active in finding suitable work experience.

The module will analyse how international law addresses the nexus of statelessness and human rights, and the importance of citizenship and the right to a nationality for the enjoyment of human rights. It will span the standards, recommendations and jurisprudence of UN and regional human rights systems as they pertain to statelessness, focusing on its causes and consequences and the measures that can be taken to prevent and remedy it.

The module will promote an interdisciplinary approach focused on practical solutions to statelessness.

This module aims to examine the main issues in global competition law and policy. You'll focus on EU competition law, with examples from UK, US and Chinese   competition law where appropriate. It will first address the rationale and the conflicting goals of competition law. The course will then tackle its most important doctrines and principles, including horizontal agreements, vertical agreements and abuse of dominant position.