International Law (LLM (Master of Laws))

The CIA launches drones to “legally” kill Al-Qaida leaders. An arbitrator rules that anti-smoking policies infringe a bilateral investment treaty. A father is suddenly detained at the airport as his name appears on a no-fly list. After recent decades of rule of law promotion, the need to “legally” harm, detain, profit or pollute has transformed how policy moves are now performed and contested on the world stage. This has elevated the significance of international legal rules for a range of governmental, corporate and societal actors, which all compete to devise legal norms, characterizations and strategies to address global political and economic problems. Thus, international law has become a central domain of struggle across a variety of pressing policy challenges, ranging from robotized military strategies, territorial claims spurred by climate change, the global projection of EU rules, to transnational blacklists.

Our LLM in International Law provides a programme of study that responds to increasing complexity in the international legal order; where international law evolves through transformations such as global counter-terrorism, global value chains, and foreign investment arbitration. Our academic staff is at the forefront of teaching, research and practice in the International Law, and our LLM modules encompass subfields that range from European Union Law, Public International Law, the Law of the Sea, and the Law of Armed Conflict, to Trade and Investment Law. 

In line with the new design of programmess of study at BSIS, the LLM in International Law allows students to choose secondary areas of specialisation from the range of programs offered at the School. Thus, a focused programme of study can be constructed of studying international law in the context of International Relations, Conflict and Security, and others, leading to the award of a LLM degree in, for example, International Law with EU External Relations. The cluster of modules in the International Law specialism can also be chosen from as a secondary area of specialisation for those focusing on other fields, leading to the award of, for example, an MA degree in International Relations with International Law.

Finally, the Kent Law School is a top-15 UK law school renown for its critical style of teaching, where you learn more than just the black-letter law: we want you to understand how different legal regimes came about and how they may be interpreted, challenged or possibly changed. This is complemented by the real world advantage of doing your LLM in the capital of the European Union; mere hours from the International Court of Justice in The Hague, the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg, and the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.

Programme Structure:

The LLM in International Law is offered in both the Standard (90 ECTS credits) and the Extended version (120 ECTS credits) and in each case students may take the programme with or without a secondary specialisation.