Law (LLM)

Programme Description

This general LLM programme is the ideal choice for students wishing to expose themselves to diverse areas of advanced legal scholarship. We offer a very wide range of specialist courses, many taught by internationally recognised experts in their fields, and legal and industry professionals.

You will select courses from across the School’s key research and teaching fields, including:

• commercial law
• criminal law
• criminology
• EU law
• IP, media and technology law
• international law
• legal history and legal theory
• medical law
• private law
• public law

This structure ensures you can pursue a truly diverse and challenging curriculum through which you will be able to develop a broad expertise in cutting-edge legal scholarship.

Programme structure

This programme is made up from 120 credits of taught courses and a 60-credit dissertation on an approved topic (generally one that builds upon one of the courses that you have studied with us).

There are no compulsory courses on the general LLM that all students have to take. Instead you may choose from the diverse range of specialist courses offered within the School (subject to the availability of places or whether courses are running in a given year).

You will experience a range of teaching styles on this programme and you are expected to prepare in advance by reading the required materials and reflecting on the issues to be discussed. Your participation in classes will be assessed.

For the dissertation, you will be allocated a supervisor, who will provide guidance and support. The purpose of the dissertation however, is to allow you to independently design and conduct an original piece of research and analysis.

Please note that due to unforeseen circumstances or lack of demand for particular courses, we may not be able to run all courses as advertised come the start of the academic year.

• Programme structure and courses

Learning outcomes

By the end of this programme, you should have acquired a more sophisticated understanding of your chosen subjects, including the diverse functions of law in contemporary society, differing approaches to the subject and a greater familiarity with research materials and methods.

Career opportunities

The LLM in Law is an excellent way to identify and develop a legal specialism for a career in legal practice or academic research.

Many recent graduates have used the programme as a platform for further study. Others who are professionally qualified are now working as attorneys, lawyers, legal advisers and specialists, financial analysts and tax associates for organisations including Deloitte, The Royal Bank of Scotland, the Brooklyn Supreme Court and the Supreme Court of Japan.

Visit the Law (LLM) page on the University of Edinburgh website for more details!