Law PgCert (Online Learning)

This certificate provides an ideal learning environment for legal professionals, policymakers and professionals in both the public and private sectors to develop skills and knowledge in relation to legal matters which impact their work. It also offers a flexible route to further postgraduate study as successful students can choose to transfer credits gained to one of our LLM programmes.

The programme enables you to engage with a range of subject areas within the discipline, which may include:

• commercial law
• information technology law
• medical law

Online learning

Our online learning programmes are delivered entirely online via a virtual learning environment. Learning and teaching happen ‘asynchronously’. This means that you have the flexibility to log in at times and in places convenient to you, contribute your views and respond to others, and still maintain a sense of community with your fellow students across time zones.

The University of Edinburgh is currently ranked 15th in the World in the QS World University Rankings 2023.

The Postgraduate Certificate in Law enables you to engage with a range of subject areas within the discipline.

You will emerge with an understanding of specific areas of law, which may include:

• commercial law
• information technology law
• medical law

Upon successful completion of the programme, you will have the option of graduating with the Certificate or continuing your studies through a facilitated transfer onto one of the Edinburgh Law School’s LLM programmes by online distance learning.

Graduates of our online distance learning programmes progress to a range of careers in Law and related legal fields, including work in local and international firms, government legal departments, other public institutions, international organisations and in academia.

Programme structure

You must complete three masters-level courses to be awarded the Postgraduate Certificate in Law.

Upon successful completion of the programme, you will have the option of graduating with the certificate or continuing your studies through a facilitated transfer onto one of the Edinburgh Law School’s LLM programmes by online learning.

Group 1

You must select between 40 and 60 credits from group 1, choosing up to 40 credits from any individual subject area.

Commercial Law courses

• European Competition and Innovation (20 credits)
• Banking and Financial Law: Case Studies (20 credits)

Information Technology Law courses

• Communications Law (20 credits)
• EU Data Protection Law (20 credits)
• Information Technology Law (20 credits)
• International and European Law of the Media (20 credits)
• Regulation of Autonomous Systems: the Law of Robotics (20 credits)

Intellectual Property Law courses

Please note that there are no Intellectual Property Law courses running during 2022/23.

Medical Law and Ethics courses

• Fundamentals in Bioethics (20 credits)
• Mental Health Law (20 credits)

Group 2

During your studies, you will have the opportunity to concentrate on a particular subject area by studying up to 20 credits of courses from this group of courses, with the approval of your Programme Director.

Please note also that if you have already taken 40 credits of courses from a single subject area, for example, two courses from one of group 1, you can only take a course from group 2 that belongs to a different subject area. An exception to this rule may be approved if you are intending to progress to the LLM Medical Law and Ethics by online learning, in which case a third medical law course may be taken from group 1 or group 2, subject to the approval of your Programme Director.

Commercial Law courses

• Comparative and International Corporate Governance (20 credits)
• Contract Law in Europe (20 credits)
• Corporate Compliance: Case Studies in Law & Ethics (20 credits)
• Dispute Resolution Methods (20 credits)
• International Law, Human Rights and Corporate Accountability (20 credits)
• Sustainable Capitalism and Investment (20 credits)

Information Technology Law courses

• Information: Control and Power (20 credits)

Medical Law and Ethics

• Global Health: Law and Policy (20 credits)
• The Fundamentals of Law and Medical Ethics (20 credits)
• Law and Ethics at the Start and End of Life (20 credits)
• Clinical Negligence and the Law (10 credits)
• Shaping and Regulating Modern Healthcare (10 credits)

Please note that courses 'Clinical Negligence and the Law' and 'Shaping and Regulating Modern Healthcare' are co-requisites and must both be taken in the semester in which they run.