Human Rights Law LLM/PGDip/PGCert

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 engages you 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.

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.

This module equips you 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.

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 purpose of the English Commercial Law module is to introduce you to this fascinating and richly hybridised area of law. It will encourage you to analyse contemporary issues, legal problems, and emergent changes to the legislation governing the conduct of trade, business and financial services. The module expects you to go beyond synthesis and to ask yourself what the law can and cannot do in facilitating trade, commerce, and the exchange of tangible assets in the UK and abroad, in order to create an original position on these debates in your written work and discussions with peers.

This module will provide you with advanced conceptual insights into the legal, political and structural issues that underpin dispute resolution at an international level through a thematic focus on issues such as trade, title to territory, and international peace and security. The module emphasises the rules and principles of international law and international relations in relation to the role of international organisations so as to enable you to think strategically about the different means of settlement of disputes and their applicability to existing or potential conflicts.

This module has been designed to bestow you with a deeper understanding of global trade regimes by exploring world trade issues through critical legal, historical, political and economic perspectives. The goal is to provide you with the ability to critically engage with globalisation and contemporary international economic relations, the regulation of international trade by the WTO, as well as the relationship between international trade and the harmonisation of the law in relation to key trade-related issues.

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.

This module will help you critically explore the interaction between the key institutions and frameworks that govern human rights at the international level, and the international policy context which promotes sustainable development. You will explore the notion of competing, contested, and co-opted rights while learning to challenge their ability to function in crisis situations. The purpose of

this module is to prompt you to question whether the current legal approach to human rights is sufficient to bring sustainable development to marginalised groups by focusing on issues of developmental inclusion, exclusion, indigenous peoples, caste systems, and gender inequality.

Environmental Law and Governance will provide you 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. The learning will involve role-playing, field trips, and workshops to help you to apply governance principles to real life policy problems. The module will include case studies drawing on the tutors’ research on environmental policy, urban environmental quality, and green criminology.

In Politics of Globalisation you will be asked to consider the implications of the forces of globalisation in international relations, looking at processes and institutions at the level of politics, economics and culture in order to critically engage with transnational politics and issues of global importance. 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 so that you can explore the ongoing debates surrounding these issues and learn to evaluate the effectiveness of international policy.

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. An academic tutor and Middlesex University’s Employability Service will provide information and guidance on finding work experience, but students must also be pro-active in finding a suitable position.

Focusing on litigation at the international level, this module will give a select number of students the opportunity to work closely with experienced practising lawyers at the European Human Rights Advocacy Centre. The Centre litigates cases from former Soviet countries, including: Russia, Ukraine, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia. You will work on active cases at the European Court of Human Rights and other international bodies, carrying out research, and drafting correspondence as well as other case-related papers and documents.

This module aims to increase your ability to understand and to organise for yourself a range of disparate views on current debates in legal and alternative dispute resolution practice and scholarship. The goal is to deliver the knowledge necessary to deal with contemporary and emerging challenges in the practice and management of transnational commercial disputes with a focus on the increasing use of arbitration as a site of both expediency and cost savings by medium and large-scale enterprises operating in multiple jurisdictions.

You will gain knowledge and understanding through a combination of stimulating  lectures, seminars and presentations. These will communicate core information, develop themes and ideas, and encourage student participation through interactive exercises. There will also be  opportunities for peer and self-assessment. You will also engage in intensive programmes of structured reading and research, and present your findings in written and spoken form.

Skills training, especially through our Legal Research Skills module, will give you the intellectual tools needed for postgraduate work, including the identification of appropriate materials, critical and analytical reading, and both writing skills and conventions.

Learning and teaching on all modules is informed by a critical approach that encompasses relevant aspects of the ethical, social, professional, historical and cultural contexts within which the law operates. Ethics are specifically embedded in some modules and you will be provided with the opportunity to understand the ethical dimensions of your own research.

Those students accepted on the Work Integrated Learning modules will engage with decision-makers in our partner organisations and develop new skills in research, writing, IT and networking.

How the LLM/PGDip/PGCert Human Rights Law combines the best of in-person and online learning

We have reviewed our approach to teaching and learning for this year’s entry and beyond. We have learned a lot since 2020 about how to give you a quality education - we aim to combine the best of our in-person teaching and materials with our digital and online learning resources, putting you in charge of when and how you learn.  We are dedicated to using technology to enhance your experience and will provide you with the digital support and online resources you will need to succeed.

In addition to your time spent in face-to-face learning, you’ll be expected to do independent study where you read, listen and reflect on your learning activities. You may be doing this by yourself or with your course mates, depending on your module selection. In a year, you will typically be expected to commit 1,200 hours to your course across both formal and self-directed study. If you are taking a placement, you might have some additional hours.

How you will be supported on the LLM/PGDip/PGCert Human Rights Law

You will have a strong support network available to you to make sure you develop all the necessary academic skills you need to achieve your full potential on your course.

You will have access to both one-to-one and group sessions for personal learning and academic support from our Library, Learning Enhancement and IT teams. In addition, our Welfare teams are also able to offer financial advice, and personal wellbeing, mental health and disability support.

Our Hendon campus, north London.

Whether you are studying full or part-time – your course timetable will balance your study commitments on campus with time for work, life commitments and independent study.

If you're studying full-time, you'll typically be expected to attend four modules per week, with each module consisting of three hours of weekly class time. If you're studying part-time, you'll generally be expected to attend two modules per week.

We aim to make timetables available to students at least 2 weeks before the start of term. Some weeks are different due to how we schedule classes and arrange on-campus sessions.

Your learning will be assessed regularly and is made up of 100% coursework.