This programme provides an opportunity to develop an advanced knowledge of corporate law. There is a (compulsory) foundation course providing a solid grounding in the subject. Having completed your choice of taught modules, you will then undertake an extended dissertation on a corporate law topic of your choice, supervised by a member of staff with expertise in their chosen subject area.
Teaching is by a mixture of lectures and smaller, student-led, seminar or tutorial groups. The dissertation is pursued by independent research with individual supervision. Students attending the programme are drawn from a broad range of countries, and their previous academic or professional experiences enrich the programme
The School is host to the Durham Institute of Commercial and Corporate Law, and you are encouraged to participate in its many activities. The Library has extensive holdings of corporate law materials.
Course Structure
Students must study modules in Current Issues in Company Law and Applied Research Methods in Law. You must also choose a number of additional taught modules, from a large body of optional modules. Finally, a dissertation must be completed, on a topic chosen by you in consultation with your allotted supervisor.
Core Modules
-Current Issues in Company Law
-Applied Research Methods in Law
-Dissertation (of 10,000, 15,000 or 20,000 words)
Optional Modules
Candidates shall also study and be assessed in modules such as those from the following list to the value of (when added to the core modules chosen above) at least 120 credits:
-Corporations in an EU Context*
-Introduction to Corporate Governance*
-Mergers and Acquisitions*
-Corporate Social Responsibility*
-Principles of Corporate Insolvency Law*
-Securities Law and Capital Markets*
-Corporate Compliance*
-International and Comparative Corporate Insolvency Law*
-Comparative Corporate Governance*
-Corporate Taxation* (pending)
-Takeover Regulation in the EU*
-Candidates shall choose any remaining modules from the following:
-International Sales Law*
-Electronic Commerce*
-Advanced Issues in International Economic Law*
-International Commercial Dispute Resolution*
-International Investment Law*
-International Banking Law*
-International Human Rights Law, Development, and Commerce*
-Comparative and Transnational Law*
-Comparative Private Law*
-Comparative Insurance Law*
-Tax Law and Policy*
-International Perspectives on Law and Gender*
-Introduction to Intellectual Property Law*
-Advanced Issues of Intellectual Property Law*
-EU Competition Law*
-Islamic Law*
-Selected issues in Competition Law*
-Carriage of Goods by Sea*
-Unjust Enrichment*
-Introduction to the Law of Oil and Gas Contracts*
-International Human Rights Law*
-International and Comparative Advertising Law*
-Introduction to International Criminal Justice*
-Commercial Fraud*
-International Cooperation in Criminal Matters*
-Introduction to EU Law*
-Fundamentals of International Law*
-Current Problems of International Law*
-Rights of the Child*
-European Discrimination Law*
-The Community Legal Order*
-Advanced Issues in the Constitutional Law of the EU*
-Selected Issues in European Law*
-Advanced Research in EU Law*
-Media Freedom under the Human Rights Act*
-Introduction to Media Freedom under the Human Rights Act*
-Domestic Anti-Discrimination Law*
-Free Speech Problems in International and Comparative Perspective*
*Please note: not all modules necessarily run every year, and we regularly introduce new modules.
Learning and Teaching
This programme involves both taught modules and a substantial dissertation component. Taught modules are delivered by a mixture of lectures and seminars. Although most lectures do encourage student participation, they are used primarily to introduce chosen topics, identify relevant concepts, and introduce the student to the main debates and ideas relevant to the chosen topic. They give students a framework of knowledge that students can then develop, and reflect on, through their own reading and study.
Seminars are smaller-sized, student-led classes. Students are expected to carry out reading prior to classes, and are usually set questions or problems to which to apply the knowledge they have developed. Through class discussion, or the presentation of student papers, students are given the opportunity to test and refine their knowledge and understanding, in a relaxed and supportive environment.
The number of contact hours in each module will reflect that module’s credit weighting. 15-credit modules will have, in total, 15 contact hours (of either lectures or seminars); 30-credit modules will have 30 contact hours. Students must accumulate, in total, between 90 and 120 credits of taught modules for the programme (depending upon the length of their dissertation).
In addition to their taught modules, all students must produce a dissertation of between 10,000 and 20,000 words. This is intended to be the product of the student’s own independent research. Each student is allocated a dissertation supervisor, and will have a series of (usually four) one-to-one meetings with their supervisor over the course of the academic year.
Finally, all taught postgraduate students on this programme, are encouraged to attend the various events, including guest lectures and seminars, organised through the School’s research centres, including the Institute for Commercial and Corporate Law, and Durham European Law Institute.
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