LLM Law and Gender
London, United Kingdom
DURATION
1 up to 3 Years
LANGUAGES
English
PACE
Full time, Part time
APPLICATION DEADLINE
Request application deadline
EARLIEST START DATE
Sep 2025
TUITION FEES
GBP 25,740 / per year *
STUDY FORMAT
On-Campus
* for overseas student fees | home student fees: GBP 15,130 per year
Introduction
The SOAS LLM in Law and Gender offers an interdisciplinary, intellectually and politically rewarding and collegiate space, designed for critical and impactful engagements with law and gender, with a particular focus on the Global South and both historical and contemporary legal and illegal pursuits of gender, sexual, racial, Indigenous, class, caste, disability, post-conflict, post-colonial and environmental justice.
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.
The LLM 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.
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?
- SOAS is ranked in the UK top 20 (QS World University Rankings 2023)
- We're ranked 6th in the UK for employability (QS World University Rankings 2023)
- 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
- You will become a member of a vibrant, exploratory community amidst a buzzing 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
Duration
3 years full-time or part-time
Gallery
Ideal Students
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 a 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 Master's programmes.
Admissions
Program Leaders
Curriculum
Students take 180 credits, composed of a dissertation worth 60 credits and 120 credits of taught modules. Students who wish to graduate with a specialised LLM are required to take at least 60 credits associated with their specialised LLM, and the dissertation topic will be undertaken within the LLM specialisation.
Please note that not all modules listed will be available every year.
Compulsory Module
- LLM Dissertation in Law (60 credits)
Specialist Pathway Options
Students who wish to graduate with a specialised LLM in Law and Gender are required to take at least 60 credits from the following list.
- Human Rights of Women
- Law and Society in Southeast Asia
- Law and Postcolonial Theory
- Gender, Law, and Society in the Middle East and North Africa
- Gender, Sexuality, and Law: Theories and Methodologies
- Gender and the Law of War
- Gender and the Law of Peace
General Law Options
Students who wish to graduate with a specialised LLM in Law and Gender are required to take at least 30 credits from the following list.
- Gender and the Law of War
- Gender and the Law of Peace
- Human Rights of Women
- Law and Natural Resources
- Law, Religion, and the State in South Asia
- Israel, Palestine, and International Law
- International Human Rights Clinic
- Human Rights and Islamic Law
- International Commercial Arbitration
- Law and Development in Africa
- Intellectual Property Law
- International Laws on the Use of Force
- Foundations of International Law
- The Law of Armed Conflict
- Colonialism, Empire, and International Law
- Justice, Reconciliation, and Reconstruction in Post-Conflict Societies
- Water Justice: Rights, Access, and Movements
- Comparative Constitutional Law
- Law and Society in Southeast Asia
- Law and Postcolonial Theory
- International Criminal Law
- Gender, Law, and Society in the Middle East and North Africa
- Gender, Sexuality, and Law: Selected Topics
- Gender, Sexuality, and Law: Theories and Methodologies
- International Investment Law
- Law, Rights & Social Change
- Law, Environment, and Social Justice
- International Migration Law
- International Refugee Law
- Law, Environment, and the Global Commons: Ice, Sea, Space, and Beyond
- International Environmental Law
- The Prohibition of Torture in International Law
- Water and Development: Commodification, Ecology, and Globalisation
- Multinational Enterprises and the Law I
- Multinational Enterprises and the Law II
- Business and Human Rights in the Global Economy
- Comparative Company Law
- Israel, Palestine, and International Law
- Palestine, Resistance, and the Law
- Alternative Dispute Resolution I
- Alternative Dispute Resolution II
- Law and the Climate Crisis
- International Protection of Human Rights
- Islamic Family Law
- Islamic Legal Theory
- Transnational Law, Finance, and Technology
- Colonial Geographies of International Law
- Law and Society in the Middle East and North Africa
- Law and the Biodiversity Crisis
Teaching and Learning
Students will acquire specialist knowledge of the chosen subject areas of law. This includes, but is not necessarily limited to, knowledge and understanding of the following:
- The theoretical and practical underpinnings of law
- The context in which law is made, interpreted, adjudicated, and amended
- The role played by law in different social and economic environments
- The role and function of legal institutions
- The weight and significance of different sources and methodologies
- Students will develop knowledge of how to locate relevant materials and assess their relevance and/or importance.
Dissertation
It aims to provide an opportunity for students to conduct original historical, socio-legal and legal-anthropological research on their initiative, to engage in empirical, intersectional and in-depth analysis of particular subjects and to use a range of primary historical sources, fieldwork data and the like. It is assessed by a single 12,000-word dissertation (including notes but excluding bibliography).
Program Tuition Fee
Career Opportunities
SOAS Law graduates leave SOAS with a thorough understanding of the legal dimensions underlying many of our global challenges today. Our Law students are valued by employers due to their analytical skills, specialist knowledge, and global perspective.
SOAS Law graduates have found the LLM a vital boost to their work as legal professionals and that this Law Masters is an excellent base for further study towards a research degree such as a PhD leading to an academic career.
Recent School of Law graduates have been hired by:
- PwC LLP
- BLM Law
- BloombergNEF
- British Medical Association
- Clifford Chance
- DAC Beachcroft LLP
- Department for Work and Pensions
- EY
- HM Treasury
- Latham & Watkins
- Legal Cheek
- Simpson Millar Solicitors
- The Economist
- Travers Smith
- Vodafone
- World Cancer Research Fund