(LLM) Master of Laws
International Human Rights Law
Current
University of Essex
University of Essex
Essex Law School
Colchester Campus
Masters
Part-time
None
LLM M10124
28/11/2012
Details
Professional accreditation
None
Admission criteria
A degree with an overall 2:1.
IELTS (International English Language Testing System) code
IELTS 7.0 overall with a minimum component score of 5.5 except for 6.5 in writing
Course qualifiers
A course qualifier is a bracketed addition to your course title to denote a specialisation or pathway that you have achieved via the completion of specific modules during your course. The
specific module requirements for each qualifier title are noted below. Eligibility for any selected qualifier will be determined by the department and confirmed by the final year Board of
Examiners. If the required modules are not successfully completed, your course title will remain as described above without any bracketed addition. Selection of a course qualifier is
optional and student can register preferences or opt-out via Online Module Enrolment (eNROL).
None
Rules of assessment
Rules of assessment are the rules, principles and frameworks which the University uses to calculate your course progression and final results.
Additional notes
None
External examiners
Prof Philip Royston Leach
Professor
Middlesex University
External Examiners provide an independent overview of our courses, offering their expertise and help towards our continual improvement of course content, teaching, learning, and assessment.
External Examiners are normally academics from other higher education institutions, but may be from the industry, business or the profession as appropriate for the course.
They comment on how well courses align with national standards, and on how well the teaching, learning and assessment methods allow students to develop and demonstrate the relevant knowledge and skills needed to achieve their awards.
External Examiners who are responsible for awards are key members of Boards of Examiners. These boards make decisions about student progression within their course and about whether students can receive their final award.
Programme aims
Enable students to form an advanced conceptual understanding of international law with respect to the promotion and protection of human rights at the international, regional and domestic levels that is informed by insight based on scholarship at the forefront of the discipline.
Set international human rights law in its geopolitical, philosophical and historical contexts.
Enable students to understand international human rights law as it applies in situations of acute crisis.
Give students the facility to develop critical, analytical and research skills, problem-solving skills, and transferable skills.
Produce graduates capable of working in the field of international human rights law as advocates, as field officers, legal advisers or researchers with governments and international and non-governmental organizations, and as academics.
Produce graduates who can conduct independent research and construct coherent, well written papers.
Learning outcomes and learning, teaching and assessment methods
On successful completion of the programme a graduate should demonstrate knowledge and skills as follows:
A: Knowledge and understanding
A1: The fundamental doctrines and principles of international law as they pertain to the protection and promotion of human rights.
A2: The geopolitical, economic and social framework in which international human rights law operates.
A3: The means and methods of implementing, enforcing and upholding international human rights law.
A4: How international human rights law is applied in various judicial, governmental and field situations.
A5: Some areas of international human rights law in depth.
Learning methods
A1 - A5 are acquired through large group interactive classes, which encourage dialogue between the students and teacher and between the students inter se, and through seminars which allow for dynamic interaction based on directed, pre-set reading.
Students are expected undertake independent research for courses and, in particular, the research essay and dissertation.
A1 - A4 are reinforced by the formatively assessed Foundation Essay.
Assessment methods
Testing the knowledge-base for A1 - A5 is through unseen examinations, take home examinations, course essays, the research essay and the dissertation.
B: Intellectual and cognitive skills
B1: Identify accurately the issue(s) which require researching;
B2: Apply relevant primary and secondary legal sources.
B3: Reason critically, identify, analyse, and solve complex problems, even in the absence of complete data.
B4: Recognise, rank and collate items and issues in terms of relevance and importance.
B5: Produce a comprehensive, coherent and sophisticated synthesis of relevant doctrinal and policy issues in relation to a topic.
B6: Critically evaluate the merits of particular arguments and advanced scholarship in the field.
B7: Present and make a reasoned choice between alternative solutions or methodologies and, where necessary, propose new hypotheses.
B8: Deal with complex issues both systematically and creatively, make sound judgements in the absence of complete data, and communicate their conclusions clearly.
B9: Demonstrate and exercise originality of thought in the application of knowledge.
Learning methods
Skills B1 - B9 are obtained and developed through seminars and large group interactive classes where there is an emphasis on group discussion and analysis of case material and problems (hypothetical and actual).
All skills are complemented by independent research for the Foundation Essay, the Research Essay and the Dissertation.
In addition, learning is enhanced by formative assessment of Skills B1, B3.
B7 and B9 in seminars and large group interactive classes.
Assessment methods
Skills B2 - B9 will be assessed through unseen examinations, and B1 - B9 through take home examinations, course essays, the research essay and the dissertation.
C: Practical skills
C1: Identify, select and retrieve up-to-date legal information, using both paper and electronic sources.
C2: Identify, select and retrieve non-legal information pertinent to issues of international human rights law, using both paper and electronic sources.
C3: Use and apply legal terminology and legal concepts, not only in legal settings, but to applied problems, actual or hypothetical.
C4: Plan and undertake tasks in and beyond complex areas of law that have already been studied, and autonomously undertake independent research in areas of law not previously studied.
Learning methods
Skills C1 and C2 are developed through preparation for seminars and the large group interactive classes, and through research for the Foundation Essay, Research Essay and Dissertation.
In addition to traditional research methods, students are expected to use the internet and LEXIS when researching their assessed work in order to find primary and secondary sources, either in on-line or paper format.
Skills C3 and C4 are developed through seminars by way of the medium of problem solving and group discussion.
Skill C4 is particularly developed through the Foundation Essay, Research Essay and Dissertation.
Skills C1 - C4 are formatively assessed in tutorials, large group interactive classes, and the Foundation Essay, which assessment reinforces their learning by students.
Assessment methods
Skills C1 - C4 are assessed through summative take home exams, course essays, the Research Essay and the Dissertation.
Skill C3 is also obtained through unseen examinations.
D: Key skills
D1: A student should be able to: (D1A) Work with the English language proficiently in relation to matters of international human rights law; (D1B) Present knowledge or an argument in a clear, coherent and relevant manner; (D1C) Analyse materials pertaining to international human rights law that are complex and technical.
D2: A student should be able to: (D2A) Produce a word-processed essay and other text in an appropriate form; (D2B) Use the worldwide web, e-mail, and also some electronic information retrieval systems.
D3: A student should be able to: (D3) Where relevant and as the basis for an argument, use, present and evaluate information provided in numerical or statistical form.
D4: A student should be able to: (D4A) Analyse a complex set of facts, where necessary in unpredictable situations, and apply relevant international human rights law thereto. (D4B) From first principles, devise from existing international human rights law a means by which to extend protection in a sphere where there has been none previously.
D6: A student should be able: (D6A) To reflect on his or her own learning, and to seek and make use of feedback. (D6B) To appreciate when s/he does not know enough and needs to undertake further research.
Learning methods
Skills D1, D3 and D4 are acquired through seminars where students debate legal issues and problems, as well as the Foundation Essay, the Research Essay and the Dissertation.
Skill D3 will be acquired in particular in LW906 (Economic, Social and Cultural Rights), LW907 (The Protection of Refugees and Displaced Persons in International Law), LW914 (The Protection of Minorities in International Law), LW915 (Human Rights and Development) and LW 917 (International Trade and Human Rights).
Skills D2B, D4B and D6 will be gained in particular through the Research Essay and the Dissertation.
Skills D1 - D4 and D6 will be learnt through writing summatively assessed and formative course essays and take home exams, the Foundation Essay and the Research Essay, and through the consequent feedback, both written and that obtained in oral sessions.
Assessment methods
Skills D1 - D4 and D6 are summatively assessed through course essays and take home exams, the Research Essay and the Dissertation.
Skills D1 and D4A are also assessed through unseen examinations.