Law and Gender

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.

Why study LLM Law and Gender at SOAS?

We are UK Top 20 and World Top 200 for Law (QS World University Rankings 2021). Our research publications have been rated first in the UK - and our School of Law rated sixth in the UK - in the Research Excellence Framework (REF) 2021.

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 buzzling 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.

SOAS Centre for Gender Studies

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.

Why you?

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 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.

Please note that the LLM is restricted to applicants who hold an UK law degree or international equivalent. If you do not hold a law degree but are interested in pursuing a master’s degree in law at SOAS, please see details of our masters programmes.