LLM in International Business Law

What will you study?

Our International Business Law LLM course will equip you with the knowledge and skills in the combined areas of global business and the law that governs it. The foundational unit on International Trade Law will provide you with a solid foundation in commercial law, with a focus on both interstate trade (in the context of the World Trade Organisation) and trade between businesses, with a specific focus on the UN Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (CISG).

Furthermore, you will critically assess contemporary legal issues and implications for Intellectual Property Law on an international level as well as its applications involving the protection and commercial exploitation of intellectual property. The unit on International Corporate Governance and Corporate Social Responsibility will provide you with a global and comparative overview of the general corporate aspects of international business law, whilst also bringing you up to speed with the contemporary issues of social responsibility, climate change and sustainability.

In addition to examining the substantive laws and rules governing commercial transactions, you will gain a critical understanding of the laws and rules that relate to the different mechanisms for resolving disputes between businesses, including both litigation (explored in the unit International Commercial Litigation) and alternative dispute settlement (which you will study as part of our International Commercial Arbitration unit).

Finally, you will bring this acquired theory and practice together to complete an LLM Dissertation where you will conduct a major research project into a topic of your interest in the field of international business law. Here, you will engage with various sources such as statutes, treaties, regulations, policy documents and other academic literature alongside the relevant research methods to help you analyse and critically evaluate your research.

How will you be assessed?

The course as a whole, and each individual unit, are designed in such a way as to enable you to build upon the knowledge and skills that you gained during your undergraduate studies and to develop greater autonomy of learning, independent analysis and critical evaluation. Learning activities and assessment tasks are designed to foster the incremental development of your subject knowledge and transferrable skills, whilst at the same time supporting your personal and professional development.

In-class learning activities are structured around lectures, seminars and workshops. Although the nature and format of the activities will vary from unit to unit, interactive learning and practice-based activities are key to all units. In-class activities and exercises will involve a mix of group discussion, debating, individual and group presentations and moots and will provide you with the opportunity to test and consolidate your knowledge and to apply it in a variety of contexts requiring analysis, evaluation synthesis and/or problem-solving. Alongside in-class activities, you will also be expected to engage in a range of online learning activities, including virtual workshops and seminars delivered by guest speakers, training sessions for legal databases such as Lexis Nexis, Westlaw, discussion forums and group and individual e-journals.

The opportunity to be an active participant in the learning process will improve your learning experience and increase your confidence as a future legal professional. Your contribution to your own learning, and particularly your engagement with assigned reading in advance of each session, will maximise the benefit of in-class activities and your learning experience.

Throughout the course, you will be assessed in various ways. The different types of assessments will enable you to demonstrate both breadth and depth of subject knowledge and contextual understanding, whilst at the same time developing your academic and professional skills. Assessment methods which you will encounter in the course of your LLM studies include:

• Written Report or Research Essay: these assessments will enable you to develop your knowledge, legal research and critical analysis skills. You will be required to perform literature-informed research, review and evaluate the relevant sources and use an appropriate methodology in order to analyse and evaluate the relevant concepts.
• Case Study Reports: this will require you to apply your legal knowledge in the context of a specific factual scenario, in order to provide a sound legal analysis of the options available.
• Oral Presentation: by presenting your research and arguments in a formal setting, you will develop a number of transferable skills, including in particular the ability to communicate your ideas and findings in a professional, clear and concise manner.
• Mooting: this will develop your legal research, and written and oral advocacy skills, by requiring you to devise a solid and convincing legal argument and articulate and defend it during simulated proceedings.
• Dissertation: in your final project, you will be required to produce an individual, independent piece of written work, supported by high-quality legal research. You will be asked to identify the research question or problem under investigation, critically review the relevant case law and academic literature, develop a sound methodology in order to explore the problem, proceed with the analysis, discuss your findings, and, where appropriate, make recommendations. This is the final step of your LLM studies and it builds on the knowledge and skills acquired in all taught units.

The notions of accountability and academic integrity play an integral role in the course. Starting from the initial induction and in the context of each unit, you will be given extensive training on the principles of academic integrity, how to avoid plagiarism, reference legal sources, and correctly acknowledge other peoples’ work and ideas. Specific training on the use of AI tools in an academic and professional context, with a particular focus on legal practice, will also be provided. All coursework assignments will require a thorough evaluation of the sources used and all sources will need to be fully acknowledged and referenced in accordance with the OSCOLA referencing system. In the context of individual projects and coursework, students will be expected to be able to show evidence of the different stages of preparation of the final submission and to be able to present and discuss their work in its entirety upon completion.

The course will equip you with the perspective and skills necessary for a wide range of legal careers including within international law firms - many of which have departments specialised in business law - or as in-house counsel within international corporations.

Other potential careers include working as a legal advisor to governmental and non-governmental organisations as well as international and intergovernmental organisations such as the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD); the Organization for the Harmonization of Business Law in Africa (OHADA); the World Trade Organisation (WTO); the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO); and International Chamber of Commerce (ICC).

The course also provides an excellent pathway for further studies including postgraduate research at MPhil or PhD level.