Master in International Business Law

International Business Law is a full-time, one-year graduate program in law (LLM). It is taught in English and consists of several compulsory courses and optional courses that explore different fields of international business law.

The courses are taught by both legal practitioners and academics. Many lecturers at the Law School of Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam also work in practice as lawyers or as business counsels. The curriculum is structured to form a comprehensive program. The initial mandatory courses provide you with a general legal foundation, and the following courses develop your knowledge in more specific areas of law.

You will complete the IBL Master's program by writing and defending a Master's thesis. You will select the topic of the Master's thesis in cooperation with a supervisor who is a lecturer at the Law School. The topic of the Master's thesis must relate to one of the subjects taught during the academic year. A Master's thesis requires between eight and ten weeks of research and writing.

Some students opt for a student internship at an international company or law firm located in the Netherlands. Normally, such an internship is extracurricular (i.e. no ECTS credits are awarded).

International classroom  

The IBL Master’s program is designed as an international and dynamic graduate program. The relatively small number of international students in the class guarantees a highly interactive character of the courses. Students as well as lecturers coming from different countries and different legal cultures strongly contribute to a special and a truly global character of the IBL Master’s program. It all offers a unique intellectual atmosphere for group discussions, presentation of views on legal matters, and exchange of ideas that are enriched by diverse national perspectives.

Although the IBL Master’s program is an internationally oriented program that attracts students from all over the world, this program is also very attractive to Dutch students. First of all, together with a Dutch bachelor in law degree, the IBL Master’s degree provides for the so called civiel effect. Moreover, seen the far-reaching internationalization of businesses nowadays, it is crucial for a lawyer or an in-house legal counsel to draft various legal documents in English, as well as to understand the legal systems of other countries and other international developments in (European) law.

The start date of this program is September 1st.