Ghent University Law School

Master of Laws in International and European Law: Comparative Law and transnational dispute resolution

International and National Legal Orders specialization offers the broadest spectrum of options available for students with an international career or research orientation in comparative law. It allows students to handpick courses from a wealth of topics of European (EU) or international relevance, enabling students to create an educational programme tailored to their personal interests and career needs. This flexibility is balanced out by the presence of a solid basis in the form of carefully selected mandatory courses on national and international legal systems and their interplay.

About the programme

What

Ghent University Law School has a wide array of English language courses on a great variety of European and international law issues. This LLM specialisation provides students with an opportunity to design their own curricula in accordance with their career priorities. It enables them to gain expertise on many contemporary topical issues of European, international and comparative law.

For students seeking to broadly develop their skills and knowledge for a career with an international dimension, this programme offers many opportunities. While enabling students to focus on particular subjects of interest, it also fully accommodates the needs of those students who seek a general European and international law education. With its combination of academic modules and supporting skills, the specialisation prepares students for the international professional life that is increasingly the reality of law professionals all over the world.

Structure

Students need to obtain 60 credits, over a period of two semesters. There is great flexibility in shaping one’s own curriculum.

Fifteen credits cover courses specializing in comparative law and method, international and European procedure law and international private law. Ten more credits are dedicated to the compulsory supporting courses dealing mainly with various legal and political developments in order to broaden the horizons of legal professionals. Students are also required to write a fifteen-credits’ worth LLM Paper in connection with one of the courses on the curriculum.

The remaining credits are filled with elective courses on a variety of topics from the following fields: European Law, Economic and Social Law, Environmental Law, Public International Law, Criminal Law and Human Rights Law. Students can choose from approximately fourty five different courses, all of which are taught exclusively in English. Teaching is generally done interactively, requiring advanced reading and class participation. The programme typically hosts several internationally reputed guest professors with a rotation on a yearly basis. Students can also choose to participate in one of the various moot courts or legal clinic as an official part of their curricula.

Organised social activities are an important part of the LLM-experience, and not all are extracurricular. Curricular activities include guided visits to important EU and international institutions, and participation in several colloquia.

Master's dissertation

The master's dissertation is a requirement for every candidate to obtain a master’s degree. The master's dissertation is an original piece of research work. It aims to develop and strengthen the research capacity skills of the students. The student selects a topic and is given guidance by a promoter or supervisor throughout the academic year.