LLM Law and Gender

Mode of Attendance: Full-time or Part-time

The SOAS LLM in Law and Gender offers an interdisciplinary, intellectually and politically rewarding and collegiate space, designed for critical and impactful engagements with law and gender, with a particular focus on the Global South and both historical and contemporary legal and alegal pursuits of gender, sexual, racial, Indigenous, class, caste, disability, post-conflict, post-colonial and environmental justice. Our students and teaching staff are particularly versed in feminist, queer and critical race theoretical approaches to intersectionality and are deeply engaged in cutting-edge projects across the ‘SOAS regions’ and beyond.

Our Ways of Learning-in-the-World

The LLM programme on Law and Gender is not just your go-to place for exploring interdisciplinary and critical approaches to law and gender in society; it rests upon a unique mission to support you, from the very beginning of this adventure, as both a learner and a teacher, making sure that your past and present personal, activist, academic and professional experiences and future aspirations are acknowledged and nurtured in a way that can equip you with firm and substantial critical directions. You will learn and, whilst doing so, teach and help others, too, in a highly diverse and friendly environment. You will approach both law and gender as your critical objects proper, to be explored in a pedagogical world that seeks to creatively and meaningfully overcome the distinction between the academic and the activist, the theoretical and the practical, relying on a praxis that each of you will have a chance to tailor to suit your personal and career needs as well as your unique research impulses and sensitivities.

You will, in other words, become a member of a vibrant, exploratory community amidst a buzzing metropolis and the wider SOAS contexts. We will work together on making this experience truly life-changing and memorable, which will not only equip you with critical approaches to law and gender, well beyond the confines of more ‘traditional’ institutions, but also ensure that you encounter and benefit from our unique, inter- and post-disciplinary, non-hierarchical and deeply collaborative approach to learning-in-the-world.

Why SOAS?

This programme proudly lays at the intersection of the SOAS School of Law and the SOAS Centre for Gender Studies, which, in their own ways, house some of the most innovative, critical and world-renown research on gender and law you will encounter in London, the United Kingdom and the world. Whether you wish to explore or have experience with, global, transnational, local or specifically Global Southern approaches to law and gender, we have committed and uniquely knowledgeable teaching staff and students you can engage and work with. Some of our particular areas of expertise include postcolonial feminist and queer approaches to international and domestic law, diaspora studies and African and Asian feminisms, critical studies of sexual and gender diversity in the Global South, and the intersections of migration, post-conflict, environmental, anti-racist and anti-capitalist studies of law and gender.

This programme is perfect for LLB graduates or legal professionals and theorists seeking a deeper, both practice- and theory-oriented, engagement with gender studies in law and gender in legal studies—a meeting place for those ready to challenge their accustomed ways of being-in-the-world in community with other, critically-minded teachers and learners. You will not only join the current explorers along with this inter- and post-disciplinary path, but also numerous alumni and alumnae around the globe who still cherish this experience as a turning point in their careers and life-paths.

Structure

Students take 180 credits composed of a dissertation (60 credits) as well as Core, Compulsory and Optional modules.

Core modules: These are mandatory and must be passed in the year they are taken before the student can progress to the next year.

Compulsory modules: These are mandatory but in the case of a failure, students may carry this into their next year provided that they retake and pass the failed element or exam.

Optional modules: These are designed to help students design their own intellectual journey while maintaining a strong grasp of the fundamentals.

Students who wish to graduate with a specialised LLM are required to take at least 60 credits associated with his or her specialised LLM, a further 30 credits within the School of Law (General Law Postgraduate Taught Module List), and a final 30 unit which can either be taken within the School of Law or from the Language Open Options or Non-Language Open Options pages with the LLM Programme Convenor’s permission. The dissertation topic will be undertaken within the LLM specialisation.

Please note: Not all modules listed will be available every year.

Dissertation

Dissertation (12,000 words), on a topic related to the specialism of the degree.

• LLM Dissertation in Law

Taught Component

• Gender, Sexuality and Law: Selected Topics
• Gender, Sexuality and Law: Theories and Methodologies

and

• Guided Option
  Choose modules from List A or General Law Options below to the value of 30 credits.

and

• Choose a module(s) from the List of General Law PGT Options below or from Postgraduate Open Options to the value of 30 credits.

List A

• Human Rights Of Women
• International Protection of Human Rights
• Law and Postcolonial Theory

General Law Options

• Alternative Dispute Resolution
• Gender, Sexuality and Law: Selected Topics
• Gender, Sexuality and Law: Theories and Methodologies
• Human Rights and Islamic Law
• International Commercial Arbitration
• International Human Rights Clinic
• International Investment Law
• Islamic Law (MA/LLM)
• Law and Development in Africa
• Law and Society in Southeast Asia
• Law and Society in The Middle East and North Africa
• Law, Rights & Social Change
• Preliminary Law, Legal Reasoning and Legal Methods
• International Migration Law
• International Refugee Law
• Law and Society in South Asia
• Mapping International Law in London: International Legal Geography in the Capital of Empire
• Law, Environment and Social Justice
• Law and Justice in Contemporary China
• Climate Change Law and Policy
• Colonialism, Empire and International Law
• Comparative Constitutional Law
• Foundations of International Law
• Human Rights Of Women
• International Criminal Law
• International Environmental and Sustainable Development Law
• International Protection of Human Rights
• Justice, Reconciliation and Reconstruction in Post Conflict Societies
• Law and Natural Resources
• Law and Policy of International Courts and Tribunals
• Law and Postcolonial Theory
• Law of Islamic Finance
• Law, Human Rights and Peace Building: The Israeli-Palestinian Case
• Multinational Enterprises and The Law
• The Law of Armed Conflict
• The Law of International Trade and/or Financial Regulation
• Water Law and Development: Conflicts, Governance and Justice
• Water Law: Justice and Governance

Open Options Note
Open options will need the approval of the deputy PG programme convenor (LLM or MA).

Important notice

The information on the programme page reflects the intended programme structure against the given academic session.