LLM Public International Law

• Principles of International Law & International Organisations: this unit will provide a sound grounding in international law principles. You’ll be encouraged to understand the theory of international law, the structures of international legal obligations, and the subjects of this international legal order. Secondly, you’ll examine international organizations and their role, purpose, and relationship with states. Finally, you’ll familiarise yourself with institutions, their origins and structures, and the challenges faced within the globalized world.

• International Criminal Law & Justice: You’ll be encouraged to review the law in light of developments at international criminal justice institutions, most notably the International Criminal Court, and in the broader framework of international human rights law and international humanitarian law. You will gain an awareness and knowledge of international criminal law and procedures while being mindful of the demands of Realpolitik in the quest for justice.

• International Human Rights Law: This unit will provide an understanding of the substantive content of international human rights law and a critical appreciation of the relationship between global and regional human rights law. To enable you to evaluate the effectiveness of international law in regulating conduct in terms of human rights compliance and how this compliance is enforced.

• Dissertation: The dissertation provides an opportunity to research an area of law associated with the knowledge and skills gained during the course. You’ll develop further skills in critical thinking, evaluate new and existing relevant research and enhance your conceptual understanding of the law.

Choose three of the following option units:

• Corporate Law: Theory & Practice: This unit will expose you to the theoretical basis of corporate law. You’ll examine critical issues in contemporary corporate law and learn to evaluate corporate law issues from critical theoretical and practical perspectives.

• Regulation & Policy of International Commerce: You’ll be introduced to fundamental concepts of English commercial law forms and discuss several developments of the regulatory frameworks that control commercial practices.

• International Cyber Law & Governance: This unit will provide a thorough grounding and critical appreciation of online policy, regulatory scope for online activities, and strategic impact on business decisions.

• International & Comparative Intellectual Property Law: Gaining an understanding of the international framework of IP law and national IP law in major jurisdictions has become indispensable for professionals working in the context of the modern economy. This unit will give you a thorough grounding and critical appreciation of international and national IP law.

• Regulating Informational Interests: The unit provides knowledge and understanding of the broader legal context associated with the creation, collation, processing, communication, and storage of information. It specifically addresses the disruptive impact of modern technologies on existing legal and regulatory categories and frameworks. It will enable you to identify current and future areas of disruption and to critically evaluate the use, success, and appropriateness of law and regulation as a response mechanism to the management of ‘Informational Interests.’

• International Law of the Environment: This unit will examine the particular sectors of environmental policy that are the subject of international legal regulation and obligations. This will explore how global legal law has developed in these areas, considering various legal and political challenges that have influenced their respective evolution. It will also focus on selected legal topics concerning implementing international environmental law. In particular, it will consider various relatively recent developments in international environmental law that have broadened participation beyond the level of the nation-state regarding the monitoring and enforcement of international environmental protection obligations.

• Public Diplomacy & International Relations: The unit embeds the practice of diplomacy in multi-polar international relations settings and will allow you to explore different contexts, dimensions, and actors involved in both state-centered and non-state acts of diplomacy. You will explore: the historical development of the field and the international system and their links with diplomacy practice; how international relations theory can help us to understand international politics and the various positions and perspectives on current global issues; dynamics of exercising power in international relations; security policy and practice, including humanitarian and post-conflict interventions; theoretical approaches and transnational political economy perspectives on world politics.