LLM in International Human Rights Law

On this LLM, you’ll gain the knowledge and skills necessary to pursue and advance within careers in human rights – from legal practice, to advocacy and campaigning, to further research.

Our graduates have gone on to a variety of roles across the world:

• leading human rights law firms
• international NGOs
• government and civil service.

Some of our graduates have also gone on to further study and careers in academia.

Graduate destinations

Recent Sussex Law School graduates have gone on to jobs including:

• legal consultant, Global Rights Compliance LLP
• refugee researcher, Amnesty International UK
• administrative law division intern, United Nations (New York).

(Sussex Law School careers database)

Full-time and part-time study

Choose to study this course full time or part time, to fit around your work and personal life. Modules for the full-time course are listed below. For details about the part-time course, contact us.

Core modules

Core modules are taken by all students on the course. They give you a solid grounding in your chosen subject and prepare you to explore the topics that interest you most.

Autumn teaching

• Advanced Legal Research and Writing
• Critiquing International Law
• International Human Rights Law
• Principles of International Law

Spring and summer teaching

• LLM Dissertation

Options

Alongside your core modules, you can choose options to broaden your horizons and tailor your course to your interests. This list gives you a flavour of our options, which are kept under review and may change, for example in response to student feedback or the latest research.

While it’s our aim for students to take their preferred combinations of options, this can’t be guaranteed and will be subject to timetabling. Options may be grouped and if so, students will be able to choose a set number of options from the selection available in any particular group.

Spring teaching

• Civil and Political Rights: Contemporary Challenges
• Human Rights Law Clinic
• Human Trafficking and Modern Slavery
• Indigenous and Minority Rights
• International Business and Human Rights
• International Crimes
• Law, Religion, and Human Rights
• LGBTQI Rights: International and Comparative Perspectives
• Migration, Rights and Governance
• Socioeconomic rights: economic violence, social justice and human rights law
• Women and Human Rights

Human Rights Law Clinic

You’ll have the opportunity to apply for the Human Rights Law Clinic option. Selection is based on an application process and the successful completion of the International Human Rights Law core module.

The Clinic gives you the chance to build on law and theory through the preparation of pro bono legal opinions for real clients including international organisations and non-governmental organisations. You’ll gain practical insights by working in a team to produce a research memorandum on a contemporary human rights challenge.

Human rights and the environment

We all depend on the environment we live in. The links between human rights, climate change and the environment are increasingly recognised, and career opportunities in the field are growing rapidly.

On this course, you have the opportunity to choose from a range of options that go beyond the core of international human rights law. This means you can develop an understanding of the international legal frameworks relevant to climate change and the environment. As a graduate, you’ll find yourself at the cutting-edge of the human rights agenda.

We regularly review our modules to incorporate student feedback, staff expertise, as well as the latest research and teaching methodology. We’re planning to run these modules in the academic year 2023/24. However, there may be changes to these modules in response to feedback, staff availability, student demand or updates to our curriculum. We’ll make sure to let you know of any material changes to modules at the earliest opportunity.

We’ll do our best to provide as much optional choice as we can, but timetabling constraints mean it may not be possible to take some module combinations. The structure of a small number of courses means that the order of modules or the streams you choose may determine whether modules are core or optional. This means that your core modules or options may differ from what’s shown here.

Check back in January 2024 for the modules running in the academic year 2024/25.