LLM in Criminal Law and Criminal Justice

Criminal law and criminal justice lie at the heart of questions around how we as a society respond to crime.

On this course, you’ll engage in advanced criminal law theory, as well as criminological theory to examine how societies can better understand and respond to crime. The LLM is primarily taught by faculty in the Sussex Law School and also draws on expertise from the Department of Sociology. This helps you develop an interdisciplinary perspective. You’ll be taught by lecturers whose research shapes the fields of:

• criminal law theory

• comparative criminal justice

• terrorism and international crimes

• financial crimes

• human rights and criminal justice

• hate crime

• sexual offending

• policing and restorative justice.

The course content reflects their latest insight and research.

Throughout your studies, you’ll have the opportunity to network with professionals, practitioners and activists from around the world. The global perspective you’ll gain will help you formulate critical responses to legal issues. These networks will also be valuable after you graduate.

We understand that deciding where and what to study is a very important decision. We’ll make all reasonable efforts to provide you with the courses, services and facilities described in this prospectus. However, if we need to make material changes, for example due to government or regulatory requirements, or unanticipated staff changes, we’ll let you know as soon as possible.

You’ll gain practical abilities as well as critical and problem-solving skills valued in contemporary job markets.

You will be able to apply your analytical skills to a range of careers in legal practice and criminal justice administration as well as careers in the private and voluntary sectors.

The LLM can also provide a strong foundation for further academic study or a career in research.

Graduate destinations

Recent School of Law, Politics and Sociology graduates have gone on to jobs including:

• general adviser, Citizens Advice Bureau
• legal assistant, Martin Searle Solicitors
• pupillage, 1 Crown Office Row.

(Sussex Law School careers database)

Full-time and part-time study

Choose to study this course full time or part time, to fit around your work and personal life. Modules for the full-time course are listed below. For details about the part-time course, contact us.

Core modules

Core modules are taken by all students on the course. They give you a solid grounding in your chosen subject and prepare you to explore the topics that interest you most.

Autumn teaching

• Advanced Legal Research and Writing
• Criminology in Theory and Method
• Issues in Criminal Law and Criminal Justice

Spring and summer teaching

• LLM Dissertation

Options

Alongside your core modules, you can choose options to broaden your horizons and tailor your course to your interests. This list gives you a flavour of our options, which are kept under review and may change, for example in response to student feedback or the latest research.

While it’s our aim for students to take their preferred combinations of options, this can’t be guaranteed and will be subject to timetabling. Options may be grouped and if so, students will be able to choose a set number of options from the selection available in any particular group.

Spring teaching

• Corruption and the Law
• Cybercrime Law
• Economic Crime
• Hate Crime and Sexual Violence
• Human Trafficking and Modern Slavery
• International and Transnational Offending
• International Crimes
• Restorative Justice: Domestic and International Approaches
• Terrorism and the Internet
• Youth Justice

We regularly review our modules to incorporate student feedback, staff expertise, as well as the latest research and teaching methodology. We’re planning to run these modules in the academic year 2023/24. However, there may be changes to these modules in response to feedback, staff availability, student demand or updates to our curriculum. We’ll make sure to let you know of any material changes to modules at the earliest opportunity.

We’ll do our best to provide as much optional choice as we can, but timetabling constraints mean it may not be possible to take some module combinations. The structure of a small number of courses means that the order of modules or the streams you choose may determine whether modules are core or optional. This means that your core modules or options may differ from what’s shown here.

Check back in January 2024 for the modules running in the academic year 2024/25.