School of Law

Prospective Students

Aims
This Masters course is designed for those with an academic and / or professional interest in postgraduate studies in all areas of Human Rights law, equality, and conflict. Within the School of Law, human rights teaching on the LL.M. degree and research has been carried out under the auspices of the Human Rights Centre since 1990. 

These postgrad study LLM programmes in human rights are exciting opportunities which attract a diverse student body, including international students, students who are qualified legal practitioners and students with extensive experience in the statutory or community and voluntary sectors. The teachers on the course have experience of working for the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission, the United Nations Working Group on Minorities; Northern Ireland Commissioner for Children and Young Persons, the Inter American Court of Human Rights, the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the Council of Europe and Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, the Women in Politics programme and the Geneva based Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions among others. This diversity among both staff and students allows the students and teachers on the course to learn from each other and makes for a vibrant academic experience.

Duration
1 year Full time / 2 years Part time

Activities
A number of activites are organised for postgrad Human Rights Students, see further details of Activities for LLM Human Rights Students .

Prize for the best LLM Dissertation
The Human Rights Centre is pleased to announce that the NI Human Rights Commission has agreed to provide a prize for the best LLM dissertation on a Human Rights topic. The prize will be 500 pounds, and will be presented to the recipient at a public ceremony hosted by the Commission. The recipient will be asked to make a short presentation on the dissertation at the prize giving ceremony. The successful dissertation will subsequently be published on the NIHRC website. (Any LLM student who is a staff member of the Commission or a Commissioner is ineligible for this prize.)

Entrance Requirements
For the LLM in Human Rights Law, applicants must normally have attained 2:1 (second class, first division) or above in law or related field. However, applicants who do not have degrees in law or related field may also be admitted if they possess 2:1 (or above) in other subjects with relevant work experience in law/human rights or relevant postgraduate qualifications.

Organisation of the LLM Programmes
The LLM programmes are offered on a modular basis. They may be completed in one year on a full-time basis or two years on a part-time basis. To complete a degree students must have successfully passed courses amounting to 180 credits. Students wishing to take the LLM in Human Rights Law are required to take the compulsory modules in:

Students must also take optional courses to a total of 60 credits from a list which includes courses on:

The School of Politics offers the last three of these courses and optional modules are subject to variation.

Assessment
All courses are primarily assessed by way of an essay. For 30 credit courses this will normally be an essay of up to 6000 words, for 15 credit courses an essay of up to 3000 words. the dissertation is up to 20,000 words and must normally be submitted by mid-September of the student's final year.

Closing Date for Applications
The closing date for application to this course is 30th June 2008 . Late applications may be considered if places are still available.