The programme aims to develop advanced knowledge, expertise and critical awareness of current issues in fields of national, transnational and international law and regulation, and advanced legal research and writing skills. The course is underpinned by a critical evaluation of the role of law in contributing to economic, social and other injustices, as well as its use in pursuing justice. You will be provided with a broad grounding in theoretical and interdisciplinary perspectives and transferrable legal and analytical skills for research, practice and policy.
Compulsory modules
Block 4
Grand Challenges (15 credits)
The aim of this module is to give students an opportunity to explore grand challenges facing our global society and to propose imaginative solutions to specific challenges in one or more country.
Students will critically reflect on the United Nations Sustainability Development Goals and think about how Loughborough University's Creating Better Futures. Together Strategy might contribute to them.
Students will engage with ideas and approaches to possible solutions from their own programme and gain diverse insights from Loughborough University London's interdisciplinary ecosystem. This will involve solution-oriented thinking and a balance between criticality and possibility, leading to a deep understanding of grand challenges and imagining creative responses to them.
Optional modules
Students must select one optional module (15 credits) from each Block, totalling 90 credits over Semesters 1 and 2. 45 credits must come from Semester 1 and 45 from Semester 2. A maximum of two non-Law LLP-coded optional modules (30 credits) may be selected
Block 1
Law option
International Law in the Contemporary World (15 credits)
The aims of this module are to:
- equip students with a knowledge of the key principles and institutions of international law;
- enable students to critically appraise the role and potential role played by international law in the context of a series of contemporary global issues;
- enable students to appreciate how different theoretical approaches to international law frame how current issues and problems are, and might be, understood and addressed.
Non-Law option
Finance Principles (15 credits)
The aims of this module are to:
- Understand the core concepts and principles related to finance, including financial markets, instruments and practices
- Familiarise with the roles of different financial institutions and their products
- Equip students with the fundamental knowledge in corporate finance and investments
Block 2
Law option
World Trade Law (15 credits)
This module aims to equip students with in-depth knowledge of world trade law and regulation; the contribution it makes to the evolution of international economic law; and the challenges it faces in light of competing theories of development, economic and social globalisation, and inter-state and inter-regional economic conflicts.
Non-Law option
Negotiation - Strategy, Skills and Leadership (15 credits)
The aim of this module is to understand the main features, concepts and practices of international negotiations. It provides an overview of the most important elements of negotiation and offers an application to a number of case studies
Global South and International Development (15 credits)
The aim of this module is to critically examine and understand key theories and debates associated with the field of international development. The module aims to deconstruct the epistemological underpinnings informing dominant theories of development and examine how they translate into the practice of international and sustainable development as seen amongst key stakeholders such as UN agencies, national governments, companies, civil society organisations and social movements.
This module examines the growing critique of development and explores the diversity of thought reflected in the epistemologies of the South. By further assessing how colonial history, patriarchy and capitalism have influenced discourses and practices of development this module seeks to complexify and nuance our understandings of theories of development and actors of change.
Block 3
Law option
Foreign Investment Law (15 credits)
The aim of this module is to provide students with a wider understanding of the role the international regulation of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) plays in the socio-economic well-being of countries. It will develop students' understanding of the relationship between states' right to regulate in the public interest and foreign investment protection; and of the legal, practical and theoretical implications of FDI regulation. It will enable students to place FDI regulation within economic, social, and political contexts and to recognise the different perspectives on FDI regulation articulated by states, investors, civil society actors and theorists.
Taxation Principles and Policy (15 credits)
This module aims to:
- equip students with a comprehensive critical overview of the principles, policy debates and theoretical issues underlying tax law;
- combine a lawyerly perspective on taxation with interdisciplinary insights from political economy and fiscal sociology;
- provide students with a strong foundation on which to build specialist tax expertise on a variety of tax topics in a practitioner, academic, or other expert role;
- enable students to recognise and critically appraise the role played by tax law in the economic life of a world in crisis.
Non-Law option
International Relations and Security in the Age of Polycrises (15 credits)
The overarching aim of the module is to provide students with a wider understanding of theories and debates in International Relation and Security through a specialised focus on the emerging concept, debates and practices around polycrisis. Traditional and critical theories of IR and security serve multiple lenses through which to interrogate and critique polycrisis while simultaneously critically assessing whether and in what ways they might be adequate, obsolete, deficient or else affording analytical and practical opportunities for making sense of the polycrisis and steering its understanding towards sustainable social change.
International Business in Contexts (15 credits)
The aims of this module are to equip students with the necessary academic skills to understand the challenges firms face in different developing countries and assessing different ways in which firms can overcome these challenges.
Compulsory modules
Block 7
Legal Concepts and Methods for Research (15 credits)
The aims of this module are to equip students with a knowledge of the theories and methods in law and interdisciplinary perspectives that provide them with the conceptual lenses for approaching legal questions in academic and policy research.
Law Dissertation (60 credits)
The aims of this module are to:
- enable students to carry out an independent and in-depth research project in an area of their choice under the guidance of a supervisor
- enable students to develop in-depth knowledge of a chosen area and the key theoretical or policy debates relating thereto
- enhance students' understanding of the research process, including project design and management.
Optional modules
Students must select one optional module (15 credits) from each Block, totalling 90 credits over Semesters 1 and 2. 45 credits must come from Semester 1 and 45 from Semester 2. A maximum of two non-Law LLP-coded optional modules (30 credits) may be selected.
Block 5
Law option
International Human Rights Law and Social Justice (15 credits)
The aims of this module are to:
- equip students with a critical understanding of the history, development, institutions and legal principles of international human rights law;
- provide students with a critical appreciation of the operation of international human rights law in a diverse range of situations;
- enable students to critically assess the limits and potential of international human rights law to deliver social justice;
- enable students to appreciate the role of international human rights law in social justice advocacy;
- enable students to develop creative legal strategies in the quest for social justice.
Taxation of Business Enterprises and Investment Structures (15 credits)
This module aims to:
- equip students with a comprehensive overview of the principles of tax law as they apply to the entire lifecycle of `value creation' from investment, through production, to consumption
- combine a critical investigation of the principles underlying the topics covered with detailed coverage of relevant legal doctrine
- enable students to recognise and understand the tax aspects of complex real-world transactions
Non-Law option
Financial Technologies (15 credits)
The aims of this module are to:
- Develop a broad understanding of disruptive financial technologies and their practical use in modern financial applications.
- Provide students with key analytics and machine learning knowledge required by data-driven models of financial services provision.
- Introduce students to the concept of blockchain and develop understanding of cyber security and data protection in digital finance systems; money evolution characteristics and functionality; the evolution of InsurTech industry; decentralisation of the financial system that includes Crowdfunding and other P2P lending; digital payments transformation, and Regulation Policy and its impact on the Financial sector.
- Equip students with essential skills required to operate in the existing and emerging fintech sectors
Strategies and Challenges in the World Order (15 credits)
The module aims to introduce students to the way the changing nature of world order has affected societies globally. Transformations in the world order have brought to the fore risks and challenges that indiscriminately impact peoples around the world. The module explores the nature of these transformations, namely the agency and autonomy that individuals have in mitigating change. Key emphasis will be placed on the identifying the most successful strategies that societies have designed and implemented in order to adapt to changes in the world order.
Some of the most important challenges derived from the evolution of the world order that the module aims to discuss include conflict and geopolitics, global inequality, innovation and progress, resilience and sustainability or migration.
The experience of societies in the Global South will be given greater consideration, with a special focus on the impact that the BRICS group of states (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) has on the world order. In broader terms, the module evaluates the various strategies that states, international organisations, businesses or NGOs have developed in order to cope with change in the world order.
Block 6
Law option
Trade Law and Sustainability (15 credits)
This module aims to equip students with a broader understanding of sustainability issues as they have evolved historically in the international arena, and have more recently been linked to inter/national trade law and policy. Sustainability is conceived as encompassing not only environmental and climate sustainability but also developmental sustainability and gender and labour justice. The module will develop students' comprehension of conceptual and normative understandings of sustainability, and the role that inter/national trade law, policy and practice play in either enabling governments and international organisations to tackle environmental, gender and labour challenges, or preventing them from doing so.
Non-Law option
Intellectual property (15 credits)
The aims of this module are to equip students with a knowledge of the various types of intellectual property, searching intellectual property databases, the legal basis of intellectual property rights, the application process for obtaining intellectual property and its importance to the innovation process and the entrepreneur.
Cities in Diplomacy and International Affairs (15 credits)
Cities and large urban areas are home to more than half of humanity and generate over 80% of global economic activity. Consequently, cities have become leading actors in diplomacy and critical hubs of international and domestic political, economic, technological, social, cultural, and security developments. This module examines the role of cities in international affairs, exploring both their capacities as influential actors and the diverse issues associated with them.
Using London as the central case study, students will research other cities to examine the issues and theories presented in the module and write about these cities in their assessment. The module will cover topics such as theoretical approaches to global cities, the history and evolution of cities, ideas and models of how cities act in international and domestic affairs, and the main political, economic, social and security issues connected to them.
The module will also allow students to better understand London, the city they have chosen to study in, and the central place in international affairs of many of the cities most of them will spend their lives living and working in.
Corporate Finance (15 credits)
The aims of this module are to equip students with a working knowledge of the accounting and commercial skills required both to monitor and evaluate company performance, and to understand the financial consequences of business decisions, particularly for relatively small and young firms; be able to critically assess alternatives.
Corporate Social Responsibility (15 credits)
The aims of this module are to:
- Develop an understanding of corporate responsibility as behavior by firms that focuses on recognition and minimization of negative externalities caused by firm activity
- Equip students with an understanding of the nature of the pressures and processes that lead companies to 1) formally express their responsibilities to stakeholders other than just shareholders, and 2) commit irresponsible actions
- Generate an awareness of the ways in which companies take on social and environmental responsibilities, and the nature and limitations of such responsibilities
Block 8
Law option
International Criminal Justice (15 credits)
The aims of this module are to:
- equip students with a critical understanding of the capacity of international criminal law and its institutions to deliver justice in the face of some of the most serious crimes known to the international community
- enable students to understand the limitations of international criminal justice and to identify further areas where it could be developed
- enable students to consider critically the relationship between international criminal justice and international and national politics
- provide students with an appreciation of how different approaches to international criminal justice inform an understanding of the law's limits and potential.
International Tax Law (15 credits)
This module aims to:
- equip students with a comprehensive overview of the principles of international tax law
- combine a critical investigation of the underlying theory and policy issues with coverage of doctrinal detail
- enable students to critically appraise the role played by international tax law in the global challenges that we face today.
Non-Law option
Learning from the Global South: Field Trip (15 credits)
This module has two main aims. The first is to expose students to concrete development challenges experienced by different stakeholders (policy makers, communities and industry representatives, etc) in developing countries.
The second is to experiment with the ways through which the immersion into the field can inform the identification of development challenges and the formulation of research questions and action plans in the area of development.
Note that there are additional travel costs involved in taking this module.
Corporate Governance (15 credits)
The aims of this module are to:
- Equip students with the necessary academic skills to understand the role corporate governance plays in generating financial and economic development.
- Equip students with a working knowledge of governance and corporate governance frameworks; be able to critically assess alternatives.
Managing Sustainability (15 credits)
The aim of this module is to develop students understanding of sustainability, and map out the relationship between sustainability and global business. The world is going through a variety of environmental and social crises, most notably the climate crises, and in the module the focus is on the different ways in which global business contributes to these crises (and can contribute to the solutions for these crises), as well as what sorts of consequences these crises have or may have on global business. Various theoretical approaches will be utilized throughout the module, and the students will engage in practical applications of these theories and concepts.
Compulsory module
Law Dissertation (60 credits)
The aims of this module are to:
- enable students to carry out an independent and in-depth research project in an area of their choice under the guidance of a supervisor
- enable students to develop in-depth knowledge of a chosen area and the key theoretical or policy debates relating thereto
- enhance students' understanding of the research process, including project design and management.