Course Overview
Overview
Many people choose to study on a specialist programme at masters level, but such programmes do not suit everyone and they may not suit you. If achieving your academic or career goals requires you to study across traditional boundaries then you may wish to apply for the General LLM. Perhaps to achieve your career goals you must be able to combine an understanding of corporate and commercial law with an understanding of environmental law, or to combine an understanding of international law with international criminal justice. This programme will allow you to build your LLM drawing from modules across our taught LLM offering to create an LLM programme designed purely for your needs.
Graduates in our competitive world want their CV to stand out. What better way to do that than to demonstrate that you have studied with world experts across a range of areas relevant to your future career. Northampton Law School has an excellent reputation in environmental law as well as in international law and private international law. Our specialist LLMs provide world leading teaching in areas from corporate and commercial law to international law and security. The General LLM enables you to combine key modules taught by world experts in all of these areas in one programme.
Why study this course?
- Module choice – One of the widest ranges of LLM modules available in the USA
- Professional links – annual law fair, visits to and from leading firms
- Pathway route – allowing flexibility in the LLM specialism you graduate with
Employability
Employability
Our graduates move onto a diverse range of careers, with many going on to work in top law schools and law firms. Some examples of where our recent graduates have gone on to work include: Linklaters LLP, 5 Pump Court Chambers, Bar Pro Bono Unit and Squire Patton Boggs. A number of our postgraduate students go directly from Northampton to complete the Legal Practice Course or the Bar Professional Training Course.
Links to the Legal Profession
The Law School maintains strong links with the professional world, through our network of alumni and contacts in the barristers’ and solicitors’ professions. These links allow us to put on a series of law careers events throughout the academic year.
Each autumn, the University hosts the Law Fair, in which we welcome over 50 law firms, including some of the largest law firms in the world, to the University’s Great Hall. The attendees represent law firms of all sizes and most areas of practice.
Each year, the Law School hosts an “Employability Fortnight”. The events which run in this fortnight have included an Applications Process Panel Session, a Midlands Circuit Court Visit followed by an Inner Temple Drinks Reception in the evening, an Alternative Dispute Resolution Workshop by Herbert Smith, and dedicated Careers Advice Drop-in Sessions.
The Careers Network
The Careers Network organises regular events including presentations by top law firms and the annual Law Fair. It also runs workshops to help students prepare effective applications and to prepare for their next move. Its events on non-law careers, including journalism, marketing and working with charities, can be of interest to law students.
Mooting
The Law School organises a range of mooting opportunities and students have the opportunity to participate (a moot is a mock trial of a legal issue). The Moot Room is a state-of-the-art court room, complete with audio-visual equipment for recording moots. The Law School operates four mooting competitions, and students regularly represent the University at regional and national competitions, with notable success.
Course
You follow a modular programme (180 credits in total), which comprises six taught modules (20 credits each) and a dissertation of 15,000 words (60 credits); the latter to be submitted at the end of the year of study.
Students on the general LLM pathway choose six modules from the range available across all the LLM pathways and write a dissertation on a subject of their choice.
LLM Module list
Each pathway has a different list of core modules to choose from, but you only have to choose at least three of them.
List 1
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Your other modules can be chosen from any of the modules available on our LLM pathways in that year. If you follow the LLM General pathway, you can choose any six modules from those available.
The list below reflects the latest information we have:
Banking Law
Carriage of Goods by Sea
Commercial Conflict of Laws
Company Law
Criminal Evidence and Proof
Criminal Justice: Law Enforcement
Elements of Cyberlaw
English Law of International Sale of Goods
Environmental Energy Law
European Human Rights Law
Financing of International Trade
Global Crime Problems
Health and Safety at Work Law
Human Rights and Criminal Justice
Human Rights and Health Care Law
Intellectual Property Law
International and European Legal Responses to Terrorism
International Corporate Governance
International Criminal Law and Justice
International Humanitarian Law
International Human Rights Law
International Trade Law and Policy: Foundations
International Trade Law and Policy: Advanced Issues
Islamic Family Law
Law of International Organisations
Maritime Law
Partnership and LLP Law
Political Participation, Human Rights and Marginalised Groups
Public International Law
Socio-Legal Methods
Socio-Legal Theory
Theory of Criminal Law
Transnational Criminal Law
List 2
Students may also be allowed to choose one of their six modules from those offered by the Political Science and International Studies department. Some of the modules available include:
- Civil War, Conflict and International Intervention
- Democracy, Power and Citizenship
- Theory & Ethics of Terrorism & Political Violence
- Gender & Global Governance
- Post-Conflict Peacebuilding and International Order
- Sex, Death, Gender and (In)Security
- Terrorism and Contemporary Conflict
- Totalitarianism and the State
Entry requirements
Applicants must have, or expect to receive in the anticipated year of entry, a good honours degree in law. Exceptionally, non-law graduates with relevant legal experience may be considered. If you are concerned that your qualifications do not meet our normal expectation then please contact us.
How to apply
The LLM Law General by online learning has start dates in September and January of each academic year.
We recommend that you apply as early as possible; this is particularly important for applicants who may need to allow sufficient time to take an English language test
Documentation required
Applications are made online via the University Application Service, EUCLID.
Please follow the instructions carefully and make sure that you have included the following documentation with your application:
- Degree certificates showing award of degree.
- Previous academic transcripts for all past degree programmes.
- A reference in support or your application. The reference should be academic and dated no earlier than one year from the start of study on the LLM programme.
- Evidence of English language proficiency, if required.
If you are currently studying for your degree or you are not in a possession of an English test result you may still apply to the programme. Please note that it is your responsibility to submit the necessary documents.
After you apply
After your application has been submitted you will be able to track its progress through the University’s applicant hub.
Application processing times will vary however the admissions team will endeavour to process your application within four to six weeks of submission. Please note that missing documentation will delay the application process.
You will be informed as soon as possible of the decision taken. Three outcomes are possible:
- You may be offered a place unconditionally
- You may be offered a conditional place, which means that you must fulfil certain conditions that will be specified in the offer letter. Where a conditional offer is made, it is your responsibility to inform the College Postgraduate Office when you have fulfilled the requirements set out.
- Your application may be unsuccessful. If your application has not been successful, you can request feedback from us or refer to our guidance for unsuccessful applicants, which explains some of the common reasons we why we reach this decision.
View the University’s guidance for unsuccessful applicants
Terms and conditions of admissions
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The University’s terms and conditions form part of your contract with the University, and you should read them, and our data protection policy, carefully before applying.
Northampton University admissions terms and conditions