LLM

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Application code: M3U1
Duration: full-time 12 months; part-time 24 months or 48 months
Student intake/applications in 2002: 235/1,555
Financial support: UK/EU students may apply to the Arts and Humanities Research Board (see Arts and Humanities Research Board). Overseas students may also apply for various LSE scholarships. Merit awards are available for this course (see Financial help)
Likely fee: home £7,782; overseas £11,442
Departmental website: www.lse.ac.uk/collections/law

Studying at LSE

This programme is based in the Department of Law (see Department of Law) and offers the following benefits:

The LSE's independent LLM programme is delivered by a department rated in the highest category for research 5* and teaching (excellent).
Students undertake an independent research project as an integral part of the programme.
The taught subject options include about 60 courses offered within the Law Department. Many of these adopt an interdisciplinary approach and some are taught in conjunction with staff from other relevant departments in the School.
The taught law courses build on the research strengths of the Department. Students can elect to study for either a general LLM or a specialised LLM which focuses on chosen areas of interest, including public international law, human rights law, commercial and corporate law, banking law, tax law, legal theory, European Community law, labour law, public law, criminal justice and criminology (see complete list below).
In many law courses students will be taught by both full-time members of the Department and experienced practitioners, including a number of prominent Queen's Counsel from the London Bar. The result is a valuable mixture of practical and academic insights into law.
The LLM programme is sufficiently flexible to make it appropriate to many different career paths. It allows prospective law teachers to develop expertise in a wide range of subjects or in a particular specialised area; it enables practitioners to cultivate expertise in new fields; it provides a basis for a career in the city of London or other financial centres; and it offers relevant education and training for those entering the foreign service of their governments, working for NGOs, serving as police or prison officers or preparing for many other professions.

Admission criteria

Admission is highly competitive. Typically more than half of LSE's LLM students are from overseas, and precise entry requirements are tailored to the system of legal education in the countries from which students apply. As a guide, students should have a minimum of a good degree in law (for example, a good upper second class English LLB, or good results in the French Maîtrise en droit, or a high grade point average in the American JD), or a good degree in another discipline together with an appropriate professional qualification in law (such as the CPE). Students without a law background may apply, but they need to demonstrate a high level of professional or academic experience in areas closely related to the subjects they wish to study.

In addition, the English language requirements are a minimum score of 7.0 in the British Council's English Language Test; or 627 in the TOEFL (263 in the TOEFL computer based test).

About the LLM

Students undertake the equivalent of four full courses (some courses are half units). The courses currently offered in the Law Department are set out below. Not all courses are offered every year; students should therefore confirm the availability of courses they regard as crucial to their study plans.

As part of the programme, all students must complete a substantial piece of writing. This requirement can be satisfied in various ways, for example by completing a full unit taught course which is formally assessed entirely by dissertation, or by following a full unit taught course and electing to be examined by dissertation. Dissertations are typically 15,000 words long. The Department runs a series of lectures and seminars to assist students in their research projects.

Students can choose courses from the whole range of Law options (subject to timetable constraints and class sizes). Alternatively, students may obtain approval to take one, or exceptionally two, complementary subjects from another master's degree at LSE in place of the equivalent number of law subjects. For example, international lawyers may choose to take a course in international relations; criminologists may take a course in sociology; constitutional lawyers may take a course in political theory; company lawyers may take a course in financial reporting.

Courses are typically taught in seminar groups meeting for two hours each week, although there are also some larger lecture courses and some smaller classes. Students are expected to prepare reading and undertake some written assignments prior to seminars. Examinations usually take place in May or June, and dissertations are submitted at the beginning of September.

Part-time students take the equivalent of two full courses each year. Students may also register on an extended part-time basis, taking the equivalent of one full course each year. Students receive a certificate for each full course completed successfully and are eligible for the award of the LLM degree after obtaining four certificates. It is usually possible to satisfy continuing professional education requirements by pursuing the LLM part-time.

If you take courses which fall predominantly within one specialist area you can request your chosen specialism to be included in the name of the degree eg LLM Public International Law, LLM Labour Law. The recognised specialist areas are indicated below by the headings under which the different law courses are set out.

Subject names are repeated where they are relevant to several different subject areas:

(* half unit)

Banking Law and Financial Regulation

Banking Law
Regulation of Financial Markets
European Monetary and Financial Services Law
Interests in Securities
The Law and Practice of International Finance
Investment Funds Law in Europe
Law of Corporate Finance
Regulation: Legal and Political Aspects

Corporate/Commercial Law

Corporate Governance
Law of Corporate Finance
Secured Financing in Commercial Transactions
Insolvency Law - Principles and Policy
Fundamentals of International Business Law
Principles of Civil Litigation
International and Comparative Commercial Arbitration
Alternative Dispute Resolution
European Union Competition Law
European Monetary and Financial Services Law
Interests in Securities
Taxation of Corporate Transactions
Regulation: Legal and Political Aspects
Copyright and Related Rights
Legal Regulation of Information Technology
Elements of Taxation

Corporate and Securities Law

Law of Corporate Finance
Regulation of Financial Markets
Interests in Securities
Investment Funds Law in Europe
The Law and Practice of International Finance

Criminology and Criminal Justice

Criminal Law, Criminology and Criminal Justice
Criminal Procedure and Evidence
Policing and Police Powers
International Criminal Law
Criminal Justice Policy
Sociology of Crime, Deviance and Control
Psychology and Crime
Mental Health Law
Managing Risk in Mental Health Care
Regulation: Legal and Political Aspects

European Law

Constitutional and Institutional Law of the European Union
The EU: Law and Political Economy
The EU: Government, Law and Policy
European Administrative Law
Environmental Protection in the European Union: Law and Policy Developments
European Union Competition Law
European Monetary and Financial Services Law

Human Rights Law

International Protection of Human Rights
Human Rights in the Developing World
Human Rights of Women
International Law of Armed Conflict and the Use of Force
International Law and the Protection of Refugees, Displaced Persons and Migrants
Key Issues in Human Rights
Regulating New Medical Technologies
Law and Social Theory
Jurisprudence and Legal Theory
Constitutional Theory
Freedom of Association in International, European and National Law
International Criminal Law
Law of Human Rights in the UK
The Theory, History and Practice of Human Rights Law
Terrorism and the Rule of Law

Information Technology and Communications Law

Media and Communications Regulation*
New Media Regulation*
Legal Regulation of Information Technology
Copyright and Related Rights
Introduction to Regulation*
Regulation: Legal and Political Aspects
Media Law

International Business Law

International Business Transactions I: Litigation
International Business Transactions II: Substantive Law
International Economic Law
Globalisation, Regulation and Governance
International Tax Law
European Union Competition Law
Principles of Civil Litigation
International and Comparative Commercial Arbitration
Alternative Dispute Resolution
The Law and Practice of International Finance
Fundamentals of International Business Law
Interests in Securities
European Monetary and Financial Services Law
Regulation of Financial Markets

Labour Law

Employment Law
Freedom of Association in International, European and National Labour Law
Compensation and the Law
British Industrial Relations
Comparative Industrial Relations
Labour Market Analysis: Economic Analysis of Trade Unions*
Labour Market Analysis: Pay*

Legal Theory

Jurisprudence and Legal Theory
Law and Social Theory
Comparative Family Law
Modern Legal History
Comparative Law: Theory and Practice
Law, Anthropology and Society
International Law: Theory and Practice
Constitutional Theory
Regulation: Legal and Political Aspects
Regulating New Medical Technologies
Criminal Law, Criminology and Criminal Justice
Alternative Dispute Resolution
The Theory, History and Practice of Human Rights Law
Terrorism and the Rule of Law

Public International Law

International Law: Theory and Practice
International Environmental Law
International Law of the Sea
United Nations Law
The Law and Policy of International Courts and Tribunals
Human Rights of Women
International Law and the Protection of Refugees, Displaced Persons, and Migrants
Globalisation, Regulation and Governance
Human Rights in the Developing World
International Criminal Law
International Economic Law
International Law of Armed Conflict and the Use of Force
International Protection of Human Rights
Terrorism and the Rule of Law

Public Law

Constitutional Theory
Regulation: Legal and Political Aspects
Constitutional and Institutional Law of the European Union
European Administrative Law
Jurisprudence and Legal Theory
Policing and Police Powers
Introduction to Regulation
The EU: Government, Law and Policy
Environmental Protection in the European Union - Law and Policy Development
Legal Regulation of Information Technology
Mental Health Law
International Protection of Human Rights
Principles of Civil Litigation
Law of Human Rights in the UK
The Theory, History and Practice of Human Rights Law
Terrorism and the Rule of Law

Taxation

Elements of Taxation
International Tax Law
European Community Tax Law
Taxation of Corporate Transactions
Tax and the family
Value Added Tax
Issues in Taxation