LLM Criminal Justice

Entry requirements

Applicants will normally have a degree in Law, a related social science discipline (such as Criminology, Politics and International Relations, Sociology, Anthropology, Media & Communications, Economics or Psychology) or a humanities degree (such as English, History, Philosophy or Art).

We also accept applications from people with professional, transferrable experience working in:

• NGOs
• Charities
• Criminal justice and human rights organisations
• Journalism
• The civil service or other governmental positions

Students will normally be expected to have an upper second-class honours degree or its equivalent. There is some flexibility where applicants demonstrate exceptional commitment or abilities to study for the degree because of their possession of other qualifications, or because they have relevant experiences that would qualify them for the programme.

Months of entry

September

Course content

The LLM in Criminal Justice gives you a panoramic, 360-degree view of the criminal process, and a multidimensional perspective which explores organic synergies between domestic, transnational and international criminal justice. It opens up diverse career paths in the criminal justice and human rights sectors.

• The LLM puts you in a strong position to pursue a career as a criminal law practitioner in the UK (as a barrister, solicitor, member of the Crown Prosecution service or in other parts of the UK criminal justice system), and internationally.
• You’ll take developments in UK criminal justice as a starting point and extrapolate from their study modern trends in criminal law and criminal justice thinking worldwide.
• You’ll learn by doing, for example in the Criminal Evidence module, where you examine in chief and cross-examine witnesses in fictional criminal trials, before experienced barristers and Judges, at the Old Bailey (the central criminal court) in London.
• You’ll explore some of the most cutting-edge criminal justice debates of our times, from the relationship between counter-terrorism and family law to algorithm-based predictive policing and the use of improperly obtained evidence in criminal trials.
• You’ll learn from important legal thinkers, internationally leading barristers and politicians. Our Law faculty and Visiting Professors include pioneering criminal justice experts such as Her Honour Judge Alison Levitt KC (a Circuit Judge sitting at Snaresbrook Crown Court, who was previously the Principal Legal Advisor to the Director of Public Prosecutions), the former Attorney General, Dominic Grieve KC, the founder of Reprieve, Clive Stafford-Smith, who has gained global admiration for his work for people on death row in the US, or the barrister who prosecuted Slobodan Milošević at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, Sir Geoffrey Nice KC.
• We’re focussed on employability, and you’ll have the opportunity to gain practical experience through taking criminal justice placements and clinics modules (for credit). Our Careers Service is here to support you every step of the way.
• You’ll collaborate with renowned legal scholars, eminent legal practitioners and NGOs working in the field of Criminal Justice and International Human Rights, including leading UK NGOs such as Fair Trials, Big Brother Watch, Reprieve, as well as Liberty that leads our pioneering 'Criminal Justice and Human Rights: NGO Advocacy, Litigation and Practice' module.

Study 21st century Law, and Law in context

As well as compulsory modules that provide you with a foundational knowledge of criminal justice theory and practice, you’ll have the opportunity to choose from a wide range of specialist criminal justice (and human rights) modules delivered by the Department of Law (module details below).

To diversify your studies, you’ll also be able to choose relevant optional modules from the Department of Politics and International Relations and the Department of Psychology.

Our curriculum has been built for the 21st-century landscape of Law, including subjects from Feminist Approaches to Law to NGO Advocacy in a polarised world to Environmental Challenges, Social Justice and Human Rights. You can find our full module list below.

Active learning

Our students learn the law in action while helping local communities and developing crucial professional skills. Through our placement modules focussing on criminal justice and human rights, or by participating in Law Clinics.

Students currently have the opportunity to learn invaluable practical skills by taking part in the University of London Refugee Law Clinic or our Law and Policy clinics covering a wide range of topics.

Our leading researchers

You'll have unique access to influential legal thinkers who have undertaken high-level legal and policy work in government departments, international courts, prestigious research centres, boutique law firms and some of the top NGOs and human rights organisations in the UK. Find out more about our leading researchers.

Harvard Law School course

We are the first department outside the United States to offer free access to Harvard Law School’s pioneering Zero-L course.

Taught by 18 leading Harvard Law faculty members, it has hours of video lectures, vocabulary, and periodic comprehension checks that you can take at your own pace. The course modules cover a range of topics, including introduction to the legal profession, History of the American Constitution, separation of powers and federalism, stages of litigation and citizenship rights.

Materials developed by Goldsmiths Law academics to support the delivery of Zero-L direct you to key areas of interest in the programme and give you support to understand how Zero-L strengthens your understanding of English law and helps you to develop legal skills.

Clinics, placements and summer internships

The LLM at Goldsmiths is unique in giving students access to Law and Policy Clinics for credit. In Goldsmiths’ Law and Policy Clinics, you'll confront challenging societal issues through supervised legal research and public engagement activity. Areas of research and public engagement activity covered by the Clinics include immigration, the law of financial wrongdoing, police interrogation, and counter-terrorism law.

We also offer our students access to the University of London’s Refugee Law Clinic (awarded Best Contribution by a Law School in the LawWorks and Attorney General Student Pro Bono Awards 2023).

Students can choose a Placement module as an option and are given access to summer internships with internationally leading faculty as well as social welfare placements in law centres and legal advice clinics across London.

Study abroad, international court visit and our Athens Summer School

We take our students on an annual international court visit. Read our blog to learn more about our visit to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg on February 2023, where students attended a Grand Chamber hearing and participated in a workshop with the UK Judge at the Court, Tim Eicke KC.

We organise an annual summer school in Athens, in collaboration with leading Universities there. The week-long intensive programme provides a range of courses (in e.g. refugee law and migration studies, EU law, criminal law, law and technology), connects our students with high-profile institutions and authorities there, such as the British Ambassador and British Council in Greece, as well as giving them unprecedented access to cultural visits and experiences. Read more about our summer schools in Athens in June 2022 and June 2023.

In recent years, our students have also attended summer schools at the University of Geneva and Amsterdam Law school.

Students are supported through substantial Department of Law scholarships to participate in our summer school and international court visit. Funding is reviewed on a yearly basis. To find out more about funding and other global opportunities at Goldsmiths, visit our Study Abroad pages.

Student life and student support

You'll belong to a close-knit community, and will be supported by a network which includes academic personal tutors, career advisers, disability officers and other student support staff. We work in small groups in lectures and research seminars, and immerse in legal London as a group on a regular basis. The legal, institutional and cultural experiences you will gain in the LLM Law will stay with you forever.

Find out more about student life and studying in London, explore 'a day in the life' in the Law department, and visit the Department of Law Instagram page for a behind-the-scenes look at what it's like to study Law at Goldsmiths.

Information for international students

We accept a wide range of international qualifications. Find out more about the qualifications we accept from around the world.

If English isn’t your first language, you will need an IELTS score (or equivalent English language qualification) of 6.5 with a 6.5 in writing and no element lower than 6.0 to study this programme. If you need assistance with your English language, we offer a range of courses that can help prepare you for postgraduate-level study.

Fees and funding

Find out more about postgraduate fees and explore funding opportunities. If you're applying for funding, you may be subject to an application deadline.