Law, Human Rights in Criminal Justice

This programme is designed to emphasise the inter-relationship between what have traditionally been taught as the two distinct disciplines of human rights and criminal justice. Students will be provided with a comprehensive knowledge of this ever developing field of law and encouraged to assess the merit of mainstreaming human rights within the criminal justice system. Covering key areas such as policing and human rights and law of the European Convention on Human Rights, the programme aims to foster general and specific skills with respect to the modern criminal justice system both in Ireland and internationally.

Why choose the School of Law at the University of Limerick
The Law School

The School of Law is a department of the Faculty of Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences. It is located in the ground floor of the Foundation Building.

The Law School also has a long tradition of committing ourselves to developing the transferrable skills of students through projects such as Advanced Lawyering and Moot Court, and through cutting edge core modules such as Alternative Dispute Resolution. All of these initiatives promote ‘big picture’ holistic thinking, and can explicitly enhance student soft skills such as problem solving, decision-making, communication, teamwork, planning, critical thinking and human relations skills. In combination with our compulsory clinical education initiatives, they provide an integrating impulse –promoting a sense of coherence across particular programmes of study and facilitating students in understanding how their learning applies in particular contexts. It is not surprising therefore that our graduates have ended up as partners in major law firms, as partners in major accounting firms, at the bar, in senior roles in government departments, NGOs, at the EU, in academia, and private industry.

Postgraduate students also benefit from this research expertise, whether they decide to enrol in a general LLM or specialist LLM (LLM International Commercial Law, Human Rights in Criminal Justice or European and Comparative Law), or undertake a research postgraduate degree as part of our significant doctoral cohort of students.

The School is also strongly committed to working with the practising legal profession, government departments, NGOs, and other relevant stakeholders across all disciplines of law. We have developed particularly strong working relationships with An Garda Síochána and the Office of the Revenue Commissioners. We have also fostered strong international links and it is possible for our students to undertake placements in Canada and the US. Our students can also spend a full academic year in a European university in Malta, Cyprus, Greece, Italy, and the Netherlands. We also have links with universities in Germany, France and Spain where subjects are taught through the native language. We have a very vibrant international student body in the Law School. A recent International Student Survey, which involved over 5000 International students currently studying across the seven Irish Universities, voted UL as the number one University in providing the best student experience, the best student support and warmest welcome in Ireland. UL is also among the top 100 Erasmus host universities according to the latest statistics released by the EU Commission.

The LLM/MA in Human Rights in Criminal Justice is designed to give graduates an understanding of the interaction between human rights and criminal justice in the 21st century and knowledge of the legal actors, supervisory bodies and institutions central to the field. Students will be given an in-depth understanding of the legal regimes operating at national, regional and global levels and sources of human rights law in the field of criminal justice. In addition to an understanding of the human rights protection mechanisms in this context, students will address the question of how human rights law can be enforced. Students will also develop important transferable skills including analytical, research, communication and report writing skills.

Who is it for?
• LLM: talented law graduates with an interest in working in the field of international human rights and criminal justice/agencies
• MA: talented graduates in a related discipline (e.g. politics, international relations etc.) with an interest in working in the field of international human rights and criminal justice/agencies

The Human Rights in Criminal Justice programme is open to law and non-law applicants. Applicants with a law degree such as LL.B., B.C.L., J.D. should apply for the LL.M. programme, and all other non-law applicants should apply for the MA programme. The programme structure and methods of assessment are the same for both LLM and MA students.

Choose from a wide range of modules including:

• Comparative International Protection of Human Rights
• International Criminal Law
• Policing and Human Rights
• Comparative and European Criminal Justice
• Criminology
• Criminal Justice Processes and Sentencing
• Penology and Victimology

We aim to provide some flexibility for students with full-time work commitments by offering a restricted election choice of modules on the part-time mode of study, meaning that modules would be scheduled on the same day.