LLM, Master of Laws

This LLM provides the highest quality of teaching by leading international and UK academics. It combines views and experiences from different disciplinary traditions and jurisdictions, ensuring that what you learn is relevant to legal study and practice.

Courses are offered across a broad range of fields, including: arbitration; human rights; international law; corporate; commercial; and financial law.

You can choose to pursue your LLM with a general focus, or pursue a subject specialism. If you take the required number of LLM courses (or more), you can request that your chosen specialism is included on your final certificate.

Should your dissertation topic directly correlate with your nominated specialism, the compulsory Legal Research and Writing Skills course can make up part of your programme if this is agreed by the LSE Law School. Furthermore, with the relevant approval, and subject to space, you may be able to take up to a full unit course, or two half-unit courses from another LSE department.

The specialisms for 2024/25 are:

• Competition and Innovation
• Corporate and Commercial Law
• Criminal Law and Justice
• Dispute Resolution
• Environment and Energy Law
• European, Comparative and Transnational Law
• Financial Law and Regulation
• Human Rights Law
• Intellectual Property Law
• International Business Law
• IT and Data Law
• Law, Politics and Social Change
• Public International Law
• Public Law
• Taxation Law

Graduates with a legal qualification from their home jurisdictions may be eligible to join a variety of employers in financial and management consulting, subject to re-qualification and visa requirements. Others may continue to progress their careers in national, regional and international law firms, or work in a legal capacity within an NGO or multilateral organisation.

LSE’s Law School is ranked in the top five law schools worldwide (Complete University Guide 2024).

The Law School is one of the largest departments at LSE, bringing together students, alumni and staff from all over the world. As a department, we’ve played a significant role in policy debates, policymaking, teaching and research globally.

Our academics have been trailblazers in exploring new fields of study. Many important subjects were first taught and examined systematically at our Law School. We pioneered the study of banking law, taxation law, civil litigation, company law, labour law, family law, aspects of welfare law and studies of the legal system and profession. We strive to challenge existing ways of thinking and understand the causes of different events and issues.

We offer an LLB undergraduate programme alongside taught postgraduate programmes and research opportunities. Students learn in a lively, inclusive and truly international community – with regular events, public lectures and extracurricular activities, including dedicated law societies, mooting competitions and an annual weekend away.

Our goal is to support students, academics and alumni to achieve their full potential in everything they do.

Learn more about our programmes and our history – spanning more than 100 years of teaching and research.

LSE Law School

LSE Law School is one of the world's top law schools with an international reputation for the quality of its teaching and legal research

We welcome applications from all suitably qualified prospective students. At LSE, we want to recruit students with the best academic merit, potential and motivation, irrespective of background.

We carefully consider each application and take into account all the information included on your application form, such as your:

• academic achievement (including predicted and achieved grades)
• statement of academic purpose
• two academic references
• CV.

See further information on supporting documents.

You may need to provide evidence of your English language proficiency. See our English language requirements.

Applications for this programme are considered on a rolling basis. This means that applications will close once the programme is full.

There is no fixed deadline. However, if you’d like to be considered for any funding opportunities, you must submit your application (and all supporting documents) by the funding deadline. See the fees and funding section below for more details.

For this programme, the tuition fee is different for home and overseas students depending on their fee status.

For this programme, the tuition fee is different for home and overseas students depending on their fee status.

All taught courses are required to include formative coursework which allows the teacher to give you feedback but which is unassessed, in the sense that it doesn't count towards your final grade. Formative coursework is designed to help prepare you for summative assessment which counts towards the course mark and to the degree award. LSE uses a range of types of formative assessment, such as essays, problem sets, case studies, reports, quizzes, mock exams, class presentations and many others. Summative assessment may be conducted during the course or by final examination at the end of the course. An indication of the formative coursework and summative assessment for each course can be found in the relevant course guide.

The majority of taught LLM courses will be assessed by written two-hour examinations, which will be held during Spring Term in May/June. Summative essays are submitted in May and dissertations in August. To prepare for the exams, you will have access to past exam papers from our library website and you will undertake appropriate formative coursework.

The compulsory course is assessed via a 10,000-word dissertation on a topic of your choice and will be supervised by one of our faculty members who is an expert in the relevant area.

The LLM programme provides excellent prospects for graduates seeking to start their career in major commercial centres around the world, with in-house legal departments or government legal services. Some graduates go on to pursue a career at the Bar.

Graduates with a legal qualification from their home jurisdictions and relevant experience may be eligible to join a variety of employers in legal and other sectors such as financial and management consulting, subject to re-qualification and visa requirements within the jurisdiction. Others may continue to progress their careers in national, regional and international law firms, courts or work in a legal capacity within an NGO or multilateral organisation.

The LSE LLM also provides an excellent starting point for those wishing to pursue a PhD and/or a career in academia. Recent employers who have hired graduates from this programme include Clifford Chance, Schoenherr, White & Case, Wolf Theiss, Diageo, Louis Vuitton, Australian Attorney General’s Office, 4 Kings Bench Walk Chambers, PWC and the Human Rights Commission.

Further information on graduate destinations for this programme

From CV workshops through to careers fairs, LSE offers lots of information and support to help you make that all-important step from education into work.

Many of the UK’s top employers give careers presentations at the School during the year and there are numerous workshops covering topics such as job hunting, managing interviews, writing a cover letter and using LinkedIn.

See LSE Careers for further details.