LLM in Law

The LLM in Law at DCU offers you the opportunity to expand your legal knowledge and to enhance your legal skillset. A variety of stimulating modules are on offer as part of this programme and you may choose to specialise in one area, e.g. international law or commercial law, or to engage with a broader portfolio of subjects. You will undertake an independent research dissertation as part of this course, under the supervision of dedicated expert staff, and your research ability and practical legal skills will be further developed and extended within a core module on legal and socio-legal research skills.

Law staff at DCU place a particular emphasis on the societal impact of the law and throughout this LLM in Law you will be encouraged to consider the law in context, to engage with socio-legal research methodologies and to develop practical legal skills such as advocacy and negotiation, which are essential for modern legal practice or future careers in research or academia.

Aims and Objectives:

• The LLM in Law at DCU aims to provide students with an opportunity to expand and enhance their substantive legal knowledge, by taking specialised modules delivered by subject experts, by deepening their engagement with legal sources, and by honing their research, analytical, writing and presentation skills.

• The LLM aims to produce well-rounded graduates with robust research abilities, an appreciation of socio-legal analyses of law, and hands-on practical skills which are valuable to employers both within and beyond the legal sphere.
• The LLM aims to instil in students the value of socio-legal research, to provide them with the necessary skillset to undertake their own such research, and to enable them to critique the socio-legal research of others.
• The LLM aims to develop students' higher order skills of critical analysis and to deepen students' confidence and ability in grappling with legal sources and complex legal questions.

Why Do This Programme?

• This LLM offers a diverse mix of modules, delivered by a dedicated team of academic experts whose contemporary research in law and socio-legal studies informs the curriculum.
• By combining a core skills module with the independent research dissertation and self-selected optional modules, you will gain a thorough grounding in advanced legal knowledge and research.
• This LLM qualification, which brings together both in-depth substantive legal knowledge and practical skills-training elements, will be advantageous to those seeking to enter legal practice, to work in industry, to undertake postgraduate research, or to move into careers in journalism, policy-making, business, civil society etc.

Programme Structure:

The LLM in Law is delivered as a one-year, full-time programme. Students will take one core year-long module in Legal and Socio-Legal Research Skills. This will provide students with important skills to analyse and critique the legal research of others, along with a robust grounding for their own completion of an independent research Dissertation (15,000 - 20,000 words).

In addition to the core Legal and Socio-Legal Research Skills module and the Dissertation students can choose four optional modules (two in each semester).

Modules

Module Descriptors for the LLM programme

Core Modules:

Legal and Socio-Legal Research Skills

Dissertation

Optional Modules*:

• Principles of Public International Law
• International Law and the Use of Force
• International Human Rights Law
• International Trade Law
• Corporate Insolvency and Rescue
• Clinical Legal Skills in Commercial Practice
• European Employment Law
• EU Environmental and Land Use Law
• Comparative Criminal Procedure
• Criminology
• Contemporary Challenges in Medical Law and Bioethics
• Law, Philosophy and Public Policy
• Care, Law and Justice

* A subset of the outlined optional modules may run in any given year, subject to student numbers.

Why DCU:

• An innovative curriculum developed by high quality teaching staff, who are research-active experts in their fields.
• A unique mix of module offerings, with a focus on the law in context.
• Small class sizes with a diverse student body.
• Novel teaching and assessment methodologies including pre-lecture videos to facilitate more applied and problem-based learning in class, student-created content uploaded online for peer assessment, mock trials, moot courts and negotiations.
• Strong links to employers and practitioners.

Career Prospects:

The LLM in Law at DCU is designed to develop students' skillsets in problem solving, initiative taking, teamwork and advocacy, so as to deliver strong potential employees to the marketplace, and/or strong critical thinkers to the research community.

Graduates of the LLM in Law are likely to go on to practice either as solicitors or barristers, to work as legal advisers in industry, to move into the related fields of business, politics, journalism, the civil service, or the non-governmental sector, or to pursue further postgraduate research studies at Masters or PhD level.

The LLM in Law will give graduates both a comprehensive knowledge of substantive legal subjects of their own choosing and a broad set of skills which are essential to advanced legal research and to modern-day employment both within and beyond the legal world.

The unique suite of modules offered within this LLM in Law provides you with the opportunity to design your own postgraduate programme as the basis for your own future.

Entry Requirements:

Applicants will normally have achieved a Second Class Honours Grade One (H2.1) in a primary degree (Level 8) in law or an interdisciplinary degree which includes law as a significant component. Applicants who have not achieved a H2.1 may apply but applications will be assessed on a competitive basis.

Appropriate combinations of professional qualifications and relevant work experience may be accepted as equivalent to an honours degree, in accordance with the relevant regulations of Dublin City University.