Here is a guide to the subjects studied on this course.
Courses are continually reviewed to take advantage of new teaching approaches and developments in research, industry and the professions. Please be aware that modules may change for your year of entry. The exact modules available and their order may vary depending on course updates, staff availability, timetabling and student demand. Please contact the course team for the most up to date module list.
Year two
Dissertation
Year: 2
Status: C
This module allows students to apply the research skills acquired and explore the issues broached in the taught modules, by conducting an effective critical investigation of an area of concern or interest in human rights law and transitional justice, and to write a report on that investigation.
Corporate Law
Status: O
Year: 2
This module is optional
The effective and efficient running of small businesses (and their establishment) requires students to understand a number of concepts, principles and rules of law in such areas as contract, tort, employment, intellectual property and franchising, as well as close familiarity with the nature, structure and key characteristics of the legal system in which such businesses operate. In addition, students will also need to acquire certain skills, such as those of instant recall, critical analysis, argumentation and articulation, and the ability to apply legal concepts and principles to practical problems or to refer such problems to appropriate dispute resolution methods. This module provides the necessary information, knowledge and intellectual equipment to acquire such knowledge and skills.
Employment Compliance and Development
Status: O
Year: 2
This module is optional
Whether you are a lawyer, human resources professional, personnel or industrial relations officer, this module will develop a range of skills, which will enable all students to remain fully abreast of the latest legislative and case law developments in employment compliance. It will ensure that all students acquire in-depth knowledge and understanding of how employment compliance issues operates in practice. Students will be provided with assistance enabling them to respond to complex practical, legal and ethical problems. Students will be encouraged to critically analyse the law and important legal issues they face in practice.
Commercial Alternative Dispute Resolution
Status: O
Year: 2
This module is optional
This module introduces students to the nature of conflict and disputes; considers the various options for dispute resolution including, in particular, adjudication, arbitration and mediation; and will provide students with a foundational knowledge of ADR which can then be developed in their professional practice. Specifically, this module provides a foundation for the subsequent Mediation module.
International Commercial Law
Status: O
Year: 2
This module is optional
This module will provide a solid basis for acquiring knowledge and understanding and developing analyses of the key concepts, problems and issues in the area of commercial law. The theories, principles and rules of commercial law will be examined with reference to European and international developments. It will examine and evaluate the key features of commercial law from both a theoretical and practical perspective.
Commercial Property Law
Status: O
Year: 2
This module is optional
This module guides students through the key areas of acquisition, development and letting of land for business purposes. Students will consider, in particular, site acquisition both by means of conveyance and through the application of compulsory purchase powers by public authorities, commercial development in the context of the planning system and the law relating to business tenancies. This module not only equips students with underpinning knowledge of relevant aspects of the law but also provides key opportunities to directly engage in case studies based on the type of practical work undertaken by an experienced commercial practice.
Intellectual Property and Data Protection Law
Status: O
Year: 2
This module is optional
This module considers two interrelated areas of law governing the regulation and control of information: the law of intellectual property and the law of data protection. Students will acquire a comprehensive understanding of various aspects of intellectual property law, including copyright, patents, and trademarks. In addition, students will explore the legal framework for the protection of personal data, in particular the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR); this exploration will encompass both the GDPR's application within the European Union and its integration into UK law post-Brexit. Students will also examine contemporary issues raised by intellectual property and data protection law, including the challenges brought about by globalisation and the digital era, the need to ensure fair access to medicine and healthcare, and the impact of emerging technologies like artificial intelligence.
Innovation in Legal Work
Status: O
Year: 2
This module is optional
This module will introduce students to the phenomenon of 'LegalTech', or the deployment of technology
into legal work and the administration of justice. Students will develop practical understanding of LegalTech and legal, ethical and contextual expertise on LegalTech and broader impacts on the future of legal work.
Family Law in Practice
Status: O
Year: 2
This module is optional
Aligned with areas of unmet legal need in Northern Ireland, students will study key areas of substantive and procedural family law relating to matrimonial and children's order proceedings and the practical considerations that arise when advising or supporting clients. This will equip students to understand the main issues they will encounter in professional practice and to develop their legal skills and knowledge in a family law context, including assessment of claims and the drafting of applications, pleadings and appeals.
Law and Technology
Status: O
Year: 2
This module is optional
This module examines the relationship between the law and technology, with a particular focus on a number of important areas including artificial intelligence (AI), green technologies, the regulation of digital platforms, biotechnology and personalised medicine. By studying this module, students will gain an understanding of how the law interacts with emerging technologies and the challenges it faces in regulating them effectively. Students will develop the ability to critique existing and proposed regulatory responses to technological developments, as well as considering potential ways by which the regulation of technology could be improved. Overall, the module aims to equip students with the knowledge and critical thinking skills necessary to navigate the intersection of law and technology in contemporary society.
International Migration Law
Status: O
Year: 2
This module is optional
This module provides a comprehensive introduction to the main international, regional, and domestic frameworks governing migration. By adopting a holistic approach, which considers key aspects of migration (asylum, labour migration, trafficking, internal displacement, etc) together, students will have the opportunity to reflect on and understand how these regimes interact with each other, and the intersecting nature of some of the legally distinct categories that exist within migration law. In the second half of the course, the impact of international migration law in domestic systems is explored through dedicated sessions on UK immigration and asylum law. These sessions, together with a class on working with vulnerable clients, will prepare students for immigration practice, whether as a solicitor, or as an OISC accredited advisor.
Public International Law and Contemporary Global Challenges
Status: O
Year: 2
This module is optional
This module provides a comprehensive foundation to public international law. The module is broadly split into two parts: the first part deals with core aspects of public international law, including history, context, sources, statehood, and international organisations. Having laid the foundation, the second part of the module turns to explore some key regimes within international law, with a focus on those regimes most pertinent to contemporary global challenges. Topics covered include use of force, international humanitarian law, international criminal law, climate change and migration. The module finishes with an opportunity to critically reflect on public international law. These sessions will prepare students for their LLM dissertation and future research and work in the field of public international law.
ADR & Employment Tribunal Representation
Status: O
Year: 2
This module is optional
This module will provide students with an overview of the basic legal principles relating to the practice and procedure of industrial and fair employment tribunals. This will include an overview of jurisdiction, the initiation of proceedings, defending such proceedings, interlocutory processes and tribunal procedure, avoiding tribunal litigation and other matters relating to the tribunal process that commonly arise in practice.
Foundations of Transitional Justice
Status: O
Year: 2
This module is optional
This module forms a constituent part of a distinct specialisation within the LLM in Human Rights and Transitional Justice as well as within the newly proposed LLM in Human Rights Law. It acts as a springboard for students to acquire a solid general foundation in TJ's core concepts as well acts as a platform for them to develop specialised thematic or geographical interests and expertise that can be deepened in subsequent modules and/or research. It draws on a range of classical and contemporary transitional justice scholarship within a variety of cognate fields, in keeping with the interdisciplinary origins of transitional justice as an epistemic community, and as praxis.
Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
Status: O
Year: 2
This module is optional
This module provides students with an advanced introduction to economic, social and cultural rights, including their history and theory, key concepts, different international, regional and domestic protecting for protecting these rights. Student will examine selected rights and challenges in depth.
Equality Law
Status: O
Year: 2
This module is optional
This module introduces the students to core principles of equality law. Whilst there is a focus upon the law of Northern Ireland, this is taught in the context of British, European, comparative constitutional and international law. It examines a spectrum of non-discrimination and equality law concepts and their enforcement over the key grounds. It also considers the future development of equality law.
Research and Advocacy Methods
Status: O
Year: 2
This module is optional
This module provides a full range of skills which students need to be able to produce rigorous pieces of research as part of their dissertation, and prepare for professional stages and a career in research and/or advocacy in the areas of human rights law, gender and/or transitional justice. It attempts to bridge the gap between academic and practical law. The understanding of sources of domestic legal sources, public international law and study techniques including transferable skills in areas such as performing UN- research and time-management is a fundamentally skill. This understanding can then be applied to help support a practical approach to learning.
Foundations of International Human Rights Law
Status: O
Year: 2
This module is optional
Summary Description
The module will enable the student to master the complex and specialised area of international human rights law. Students will be encouraged to develop an in-depth critical understanding of both the content of international human rights standards and the various means by which they are enforced. It will act as a foundational basis which will enable learners to study issues in greater detail in other modules. These have been developed in response to the growth of new areas of interest in international human rights law. The aim will be to provide students with a degree that reflects contemporary international human rights law and enables them to make good use of the expertise of staff.
Social Security Law and Policy
Status: O
Year: 2
This module is optional
This module will provide an insight into how the social security system in the UK is structured and how entitlement to different social security benefits is governed. It will enable students to appreciate the complexity of social security provision, and the impact of policy which drives social security reform.
Employment Law
Status: O
Year: 2
This module is optional
The importance of the employment relationship between employers, employees, unions and
other statutory bodies and agencies is such that a thorough knowledge of both the context and
the substantive law is necessary for those involved in this area in any capacity. The module
attempts to provide the basis for this knowledge and to put students in the position where they
may not only have an understanding of the law both conceptually and substantively, but also be
in a position to use that knowledge in the solution of problems.
Gender and Human Rights
Status: O
Year: 2
This module is optional
The module Gender and Human Rights invites students to explore core principles of gender and human rights law.
It starts by introducing students to the increasing recognition of women's rights in society and how these developments interact with feminist legal theory, including through a case study.
This module then invites students to appreciate how women's rights have progressively become protected in international human rights law, by focusing on key UN frameworks and regional frameworks of protection.
It then enables students to explore how the complex dimensions of sex and gender are conceptualised and protected in human rights law, including through a case study.
Half-way through the semester, students are invited to present their analysis on a topic relevant to the first half of the semester, in an assessed format.
This module then introduces students to the increasing protection of reproductive health and rights in human rights law, by focusing on access to abortion and female genital mutilation.
Finally, it invites students to appreciate how gender-based violence has progressively become prohibited in human rights law, including in conflict situations.
At the end of the semester, students are invited to participate to a coursework clinic to improve their legal writing skills, in preparation for their assessed essay.
