Course description
Key facts
-The School of Law is rated as ‘internationally outstanding’ (Grade 5A on a scale of 1-5) for its research and as ‘Excellent’ for its teaching quality.
-The School enjoys important professional relationships with international institutions; leading firms in the City of London and the provinces; private industry and consultancies; and non-governmental organisations.
-Students at the School of Law have exclusive access to the Baker & McKenzie Computer Room.
-Excellent Law Library has in excess of 60,000 volumes, immediate access to a very wide range of electronic materials and resources and dedicated Law Librarian.
-Paragon Law have entered into a partnership with The University of Nottingham to offer one part-time student per year on the Human Rights LLM course a unique insight into the workings of a legal practice
-The School of Law benefits from the Human Rights Law Centre. See here for details.
Course Content
You will take 120 credits’ worth of full and/or part-time subject options during the taught components of this course.
Currently, some of the subjects offered in relation to Human Rights Law include:
-Counter-terrorism & Human Rights
-European Law of Human Rights
-Foundations of International Criminal Justice
-Gender, Sexuality and Human Rights
-Imprisonment and Human Rights
-International and Comparative Penal Law and Human Rights
-International Criminal Law: Institutions
-International Criminal Law: Substantive Law and Process
-International Human Rights Field Operations: Law in Practice
-International Human Rights Law I*
-International Human Rights Law II*
-International Humanitarian Law*
-International Refugee Law
-Issues in International Refugee Law
-Law Development and the International Community
-Mental Disability and International Human Rights
-Principles of Public International Law
-Rights, Humans and Other Animals
-The Rights of the Child
You will conclude the LLM Human Rights Law by undertaking a 60-credit dissertation; this is an extensive piece of independent research in a subject of your choice. You will benefit from the support of a dedicated project supervisor, the School of Law’s Skills Programme, as well as the generic research skills training offered by the University’s Graduate School.
Course Structure
The LLM Human Rights Law can be taken on a full-time basis over 1 year or part-time over 2 to 4 years.
In order to qualify for the LLM, you must take four full-year options (120 credits in total), or the equivalent number of full and half options in the taught element of the programme. Full options comprise eighteen two-hour seminars, held during the Autumn and Spring Terms. Half-options comprise nine two-hour seminars, held in either the Autumn or Spring Terms.
All seminars offer dedicated teaching, open only to postgraduate students, including postgraduate research students, where an option is relevant to a student’s doctoral research.
The precise availability of individual options differs from year to year, depending on the availability of staff to teach them, but in a typical session LLM students are able to choose from around a dozen full-year options (30 credits) and up to 50 half-year options (15 credits) over the programmes. In addition, LLM students may elect to take up to two half-year options in relevant modules offered by the School of Politics as part of its MA in International Relations.
To qualify for a particular specialist degree, candidates must choose at least three full options (or their equivalent in full and half options) from the list of qualifying options within the relevant specialisation. Students may choose any full module (or equivalent half modules) within the LLM programme as their fourth, “free” option.
In addition, the candidate must choose a dissertation topic within the relevant area of specialism. The dissertation is worth 60 credits and taken over the summer period towards the end of the course for submission in September.
Assessment for options is by essay, examination or a combination of both.
