Law with International Arbitration & Commercial Law LLB

About the Course

'The LLB Law with International Arbitration and Commercial Law' offers students a unique preparation for the realities of modern commercial law, by helping students develop expertise both in the substance of contemporary commercial law and in the most important method for the resolution of contemporary business disputes. Developed in collaboration with an advisory board of internationally-recognised specialists, the LLB introduces students to specialised area of knowledge in the first year of study, while ensuring that students receive the broad legal education offered on a standard LLB course. Over the course of their study at Brunel, students increasingly specialise in arbitration and areas of commercial law of their choice, resulting in a degree that is both focused on their specific interests, and uniquely prepares them for one of the few genuinely cross-border fields of legal practice.

The School offers two exciting options to undertake the LLB Law with a specialisation in International Arbitration and Commercial Law, the 'LLB Law with International Arbitration & Commercial Law', and the 'LLB Law with International Arbitration & Commercial Law (Professional Placement)', which includes one year in industry. Previous placements at Brunel have been in solicitors' firms, barristers' chambers, governmental institutions and related organisations). The 'LLB Law with International Arbitration & Commercial Law' is available for part-time study.

'The LLB Law with International Arbitration & Commercial Law' fulfills all the requirements of the traditional LLB Law, giving graduates qualifying law degree status that satisfies the requirements of the Law Society and the Bar Council. Graduates gain the advantage of recognised specialised knowledge in the area of international arbitration and commercial law, and leave with a thorough knowledge and understanding of commercial law, cross-border transactions, international and comparative law, and cross-cultural dispute resolution.

Throughout the degree, students in this specialist programme attend the monthly Arbitration and Commercial LLB seminars/clinics delivered by a combination of the School's experts and leading researchers and practitioners. Following an introduction into the major concepts and theoretical principles necessary for an understanding of the field, monthly seminars develop into research clinics. Students get the opportunity to work in small groups on topical and controversial issues, with a view to deliver reports to scholars and practitioners in the field.

Students benefit from the opportunity to participate in study visits to institutions in both the UK and abroad, with visits potentially including such institutions as the London Court of International Arbitration, the UK Supreme Court, and the ICC Court of International Arbitration in Paris. Students can engage in a wide variety of on-campus activities, including the Brunel Law Reading Group sessions and Brunel Law Film screenings, with opportunities for active engagement in mooting, debating and the Pro Bono centre. These activities are supported by the Centre for the Study of Arbitration and Cross-Border Investment (SACI), and the Company and Commercial Law group (CCLG), which benefit from extensive links with both scholars and practitioners in arbitration and commercial law.

The monthly seminars and relevant foundation/ qualifying law degree first year subjects prepare students for an in depth examination of arbitration and commercial law subjects in the final year of the programme. These include a mandatory module in International Sales Law & Arbitration (with moot participation, both speaking and non-speaking), two of the following commercial law subjects: Banking Law, Company Law, Competition Law, Consumer Law or Employment Law, Intellectual Property Law, Taxation of Income, and either Consumer Law or Employment Law. A fourth module may be selected from any Level 3 modules offered at Brunel.

Brunel Law School invests heavily in supporting students in the development of their professional and business skills, working closely with the award winning Placement and Careers Centre (PCC). The PCC provides students in the 'LLB Law with International Arbitration & Commercial Law' programme specialist guidance and support with securing placements, mini pupillages and training contract/ pupillage interviews, and career paths within law firms, as part of an in-house legal team at a business, or even at an arbitral institution. All LLB Law programmes provide students with an essential foundation in 'Legal Skills and Method' in year 1. Students are also offered a range of master classes, workshops and training opportunities throughout each academic year.

Students on the 'LLB Law with International Arbitration & Commercial Law (Professional Placement)' spend a year working in industry gaining valuable experience. We are one of only a few UK law schools offering this unique opportunity as a part of the degree programme (and have extensive experience in doing so). Students on the four-year placement programme graduate with a degree from a respected law school, a more distinct CV, work experience and excellent links with legal practitioners.

Aims

The LLB Law provides students with an opportunity to earn a qualifying law degree and develop a dynamic perspective of International and English law.

'LLB Law with International Arbitration & Commercial Law' gives students a thorough knowledge and understanding both of the substance of contemporary commercial law, and of the functioning of international arbitration works as a form of dispute resolution. The course gives students an ability to: think critically about methods for the resolution of commercial disputes and the importance of cross-border transactions in the contemporary world; apply relevant substantive and procedural law; and demonstrate relevant career skills, especially skills which are pertinent to commercial law professions.

Students are drawn into the front lines of legal scholarship and  have opportunities to further their knowledge by participating in conferences, seminars and workshops hosted by two of the Law School’s centres, the Centre for the Study of Arbitration and Cross-Border Investment (SACI), and the Company and Commercial Law group (CCLG), membership of which will be offered to those who participate in relevant activities.

Students are encouraged to get involved in activities that will foster the development of social and professional skills by joining the Pro Bono centre, mooting and/or the debating team, and participating in international programmes and professional development seminars. Our reading and film groups, much enjoyed by our students, are fantastic ways to explore facets of law in a different context. These extra-curricular opportunities challenge students to take a fresh and contemporary view of law and to think outside the box when faced with new concepts.

Throughout their programme, students are required to confront contemporary, real-world legal challenges, particularly in a cross-border context, and to develop skills of analysis and critical thinking. The School prides itself on developing students for professional life and challenges them to cultivate the skills required to succeed in 21st century legal practice. 

Enquiries

Candidates are advised to address admissions queries to:

Admissions Office
Wilfred Brown Building
Brunel University
Uxbridge
Middlesex
UB8 3PH

Tel: +44 (0)1895 265265
Fax: +44 (0)1895 269790
Contact Admissions

Related Courses

• Law LLB
• Law with Professional Placement LLB
• Law with Criminal Justice LLB

Special Features

• The degree gives students full exemption from Part 1 of the Professional Examinations for the Law Society and Bar Council. This is a qualifying law degree containing training in the seven foundations of legal knowledge (specified by the Solicitors Regulation Authority and the Bar Standards Board). The degree is one of requirements needed to practise law.
  
  
• The programme offers great flexibility. Students can choose to combine the sandwich degree (a superb opportunity to spend 1 year in industry) with either the commercial law or arbitration specialism, and gain the 'LLB Law with International Arbitration and Commercial Law (Professional Placement)' qualification. Students can also switch from the LLB Law or other programme to the 'LLB Law with International Arbitration and Commercial Law' (and vice versa) at any time, up to the beginning of level 3. Students can decide to do any part of the programme part-time, by completing one (or more) level(s) of study in two years rather than one.
  
  
• A monthly International Arbitration & Commercial Law LLB Seminar will provide students exposure to a plethora of arbitration and commercial law perspectives from a range of law scholars and practitioners, and will offer students the chance to undertake research and write reports on topical issues.
  
  
• Students will benefit from the active connections that have been developed between Brunel and leading practitioners within the field of international arbitration. This connection is most clearly seen through the incorporation into the programme of an Advisory Board of leading arbitration practitioners and academics, who have actively participated in the development of the programme, and will be supervising its implementation. The members of the Advisory Board are:
  - Tecle Hagos Bahta, Assistant Professor, Mekelle University, Ethiopia
  - Gary Born, Chair, International Arbitration Practice Group, Wilmer Hale
  - Hew Dundas, Independent arbitrator, former President of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators
  - Louis Flannery, Head of International Arbitration, Stephenson Harwood
  - Michael McIlwrath, Senior Counsel, G.E. Oil & Gas (Florence)
  - Sophie Nappert, Independent arbitrator, Three Verulam Buildings chambers
  - Luke Nottage, Professor of Comparative and Transnational Business Law, Sydney
  - University, Australia
  - Baiju Vasani, Partner, Jones Day
  
  
• Students can complete the programme part-time to fit studies around their existing commitments or earn while learning.
  
  
• At level 1, students examine Contract Law in parallel with the Civil Justice System, and are holistically assessed in these areas (a distinctive feature of the Brunel LLB Law programme).
  
  
• In the 'Legal Skills & Method' module, students are introduced to fundamental legal skills which are indispensable to successfully progressing through the programme and succeeding in the legal professions (eg legal reasoning and legal argumentation, legal writing as well as research, analysis and interpretation of sources of law). This, again, is a unique feature of the Brunel approach to learning.
  
  
• Students can participate in arbitration and commercial law related extra-curricular activities, such as mooting, debating, the Pro Bono centre, the advocacy, fraud examination and client interviewing short courses, reading group sessions and law film screenings.
  
  
• Students benefit from the active programme of research activities that have been generated relating to arbitration. In recent academic years, this has consisted of public lectures, visiting lectures to classes and workshops on psychology and arbitration.
  
  
• This programme benefits from the support of two research centres, the Centre for the Study of Arbitration and Cross-Border Investment (SACI), and the Company and Commercial Law group (CCLG), both of which offer a forum for students to interact with members of the specialist LLB team, in the context of seminars, workshops and collaborative projects. The research groups’ activities have both a direct and indirect contribution to the programme. Directly by ensuring that students are exposed to the latest thinking in criminal justice and indirectly to the enhancement of teaching and supervision.

Facts and Figures

Brunel Law School

For over 45 years students from throughout the UK and over 100 countries have made Brunel Law School their first choice for its outstanding reputation as a respected London law school.

Brunel law students have amongst the highest graduate employment rates in the country (84%) and the School has excellent links with industry. Our students are encouraged to take advantage of the many opportunities available to enhance their employability. Brunel University is proud of our award-winning Placement and Career Centre, acknowledged as one of the best in the country.

Brunel Law School offers exceptional student support. We are one of the few UK law schools with a dedicated skills tutor who runs workshops designed to meet the needs of law students in the areas of essay writing, critical thinking, analysis and examination, presentations and time management among other subjects. International students can take advantage of free in-sessional English language classes.

Brunel Law School is an exciting place to study with many extra-curricular opportunities to provide an undergraduate experience that is as outstanding as you want to make it. Activities include:

• Mooting Society
• Debating Society
• Film Group
• Book Group

We believe that education should not only include developing competency in a subject, but opportunities to create a well-rounded life and cultivate interests that will last a lifetime. Our lively Union of Brunel Students is home to the Guild of Societies, offering many activities to keep you engaged, including an active student law society.

Course Content

All students take a core set of modules. At Level 3 you will take a number of law options and you will focus your study on Criminal Justice and also study a particular area of law in depth for your major final year dissertation.

Typical Modules

Level 1 Core

• Contract Law
• The Civil Justice System
• Criminal Law
• The Criminal Justice System
• Public Law in Context
• Legal Skills & Method

Level 2 Core

• European Union Law
• Land Law
• Tort Law
• Trusts

Level 3 Core

• Dissertation
• International Sales Law & Arbitration

Students are expected to take two modules from the following:

• Banking Law
• Company Law
• Competition Law
• Consumer Law or Employment Law
• Intellectual Property Law
• Taxation of Income

Level 3 Options

Students are expected to take one additional module, and the following are examples of other modules that may be available. These can change from year to year and there is no guarantee that an option will run in any particular year.

• Banking Law
• Children and the Law
• Company Law
• Competition Law
• Consumer Law
• Criminology
• Employment Law
• Evidence
• Family Law
• Intellectual Property Law
• International Human Rights
• International Law
• Jurisprudence
• Sentencing and Penology
• Taxation of Income

See module descriptions.

Teaching and Learning

Expert teaching staff

Brunel Law School is research driven and had outstanding results in the 2008 RAE. Through their research, the School’s lecturers are constantly extending the frontiers of domestic and international legal scholarship. Staff expertise and research culture are reinforced by the existence of very active research centres, the Centre for the Study of Arbitration and Cross-Border Investment (SACI), and the Company and Commercial Law group (CCLG).

Members of the Centres are engaged in a range of research initiatives including publishing in and editing international journals, authoring books, organising conferences, presenting conference papers, chairing conference sessions, editing book collections, membership of external committees, and involvement in external bodies Such research activity constantly feeds into teaching, as academic members of staff who are members of the Centres undertake teaching in the 'LLB Law with International Arbitration and Commercial Law'.

How will I be taught?

Lectures are formal presentations by staff which normally last two hours at levels 1 and 2, and one hour at level 3, covering general principles and explaining difficult concepts. Handouts giving references, further reading and summaries of points covered, are provided. Some lecturers use some very innovative IT tools for presentations. Lectures in some modules are audio recorded and made available as podcasts.

Seminars are smaller groups of a maximum 15 students, meeting for an hour to discuss practical scenarios and essay questions with a tutor. In each subject there are fortnightly seminars following up on lectures. Students have to prepare in advance and can provide their lecturers with written answers for the purposes of formative feedback. Seminars also allow students to engage with practical exercises such as mooting, debating, oral presentations, role-playing, case comments, writing legal briefs etc.

Personal tutor: at all levels students have a personal tutor who is available to discuss personal and academic problems. Students who go on placement will also be allocated a work placement tutor who will monitor their progress, visit them in their placement and provide further support if they need it.

Legal Skills: Brunel Law School offers exceptional opportunities for the development of legal skills. We are one of the few UK law schools with a dedicated skills tutor who runs weekly essay clinics, designed to meet the needs of law students in the areas of essay writing, critical thinking, analysis and examination, presentations and time management among other subjects. International students can take advantage of free in-sessional English language classes as well. In the first year students take the 'Legal Skills & Method' module, which introduces the indispensable legal skills that are required to successfully progress through the programme and succeed in the legal professions (eg legal reasoning and legal argumentation, legal writing as well as research, analysis and interpretation of sources of law), and which helps students acquire relevant career skills. Students taking this study block are introduced to generic skills in term I (eg how to write a bibliography, how to use electronic databases for legal research, how to write academically), then throughout term II they apply them in practice, in the context of moots, debating, role-playing, case comments etc, using examples from the level 1 foundation modules (Criminal Law, Public Law, Contract Law).

Private study is at the centre of learning in higher education. Students study specific materials (textbooks and monographs, academic articles, judgments, official reports etc.) in advance of lectures and seminars.

Online provision: Lecture and seminar materials are made available through Blackboard learn, Brunel’s virtual learning environment. Module sections in Blackboard learn also give students access to podcasts (when available), online discussions, revision tests and links to other sources of interest.

One-to-one expert supervision is provided to students undertaking the compulsory final year dissertation. Students in this specialist programme are guaranteed supervision of their final year dissertation by an academic member of staff who will be a specialist in international arbitration and commercial law (subject to students attending the monthly seminars/ clinics).

Learning by participating in extra-curricular activities: We believe that education should not only include developing competency in a subject, but opportunities to create a well-rounded life and cultivate interests that will last a lifetime. Brunel’s Student Union is one of the best in the country (National Students Survey 2011-12), offering many activities to keep students engaged. The student law society is extremely active, organising study visits, career events, student mentoring, debating, sports and other social gatherings. They are also heavily involved in the extra-curricular activities organised by the School such as mooting.

Assessment

We expect students not just to convince themselves that they have understood legal principles, but also to be able to convince their fellow students, their teachers and, perhaps most importantly, their potential employers.

At Levels 1 and 2, all foundation courses are assessed by essay and examination. Legal Skills & Method at level I is a novel study block assessed by the successful completion of certain tasks, such as writing a bibliography, a case comment, a CV, and by active participation in seminars and related extra-curricular activities.

At Level 3, all modules are assessed by essay and examination. International Sales Law & Arbitration and the dissertation are the only exceptions. The former is partly assessed on the basis of participation in an international moot.

Essays are designed to help students learn and practise skills in legal analysis and expression.

Employability

84% of our LLB Law graduates are in employment or further study. While most students study law with a view to progress into the legal profession, some students opt to study law as a first degree as a foundation for careers in the corporate world, government or international relations-related professions. Graduates can take advantage of the professional exemptions available with a Brunel Law Degree, and train to become barristers or solicitors.

Regular career events for law students are offered by the University's award-wining Placement and Careers Service (PCC) and the School avidly supports the professional development of our students, for example by offering weekly career clinics in collaboration with the PCC. The Legal Skills & Method study block at level 1 introduces students to fundamental career skills, such as writing a CV and performing well in interviews. The Legal Professionals Master Class (short course) gives students the chance to further enhancement such skills.

Careers

Opportunities for law graduates arise in a wide range of activities. You may take advantage of your professional exemptions and train to become a barrister or solicitor, but your degree could take you into careers other than law, including mediation, consultancy, industry, commerce, public administration, the social services, management and humanitarian aid.

Placements

Students opting for the four-year thick-sandwich degree will have the opportunity to carry out professional law placements. This provides students with highly valued experience which allows them to sample different types of Law work before making a long-term career decision.

Most placements are with firms of solicitors, in the courts and the Crown Prosecution Service, and in the legal departments of commercial organisations, government departments and local councils.

The four-year route can also reduce the time required to become a solicitor after graduation, since the Law Society may credit your work experience against the solicitors' two year traineeship requirement.

The sandwich course also gives you valuable contacts for securing traineeships.

Fees for 2013/14 entry

UK/EU students: £9,000 full-time; £6,750 part-time ; £1,000 placement year

International students: £12,000 full-time

We are introducing over 700 scholarships for 2013, meaning that one in five applicants who join Brunel next year will receive financial support from the University. See our fees and funding page for full details

Fees quoted are per annum and are subject to an annual increase.

Entry Requirements for 2013 Entry

• GCE A-level Typical offer AAB, excluding General Studies. Applicants who have already achieved at least ABB at A-level and have Personal Statements showing a strong interest in the course and transferable skills will also be considered. Please check our Admissions pages for more information on other factors we use to assess applicants within this range.
  
• Irish Leaving Certificate AAABB.
• Scottish Advanced Highers AAB.
• Advanced Diploma Progression Diploma Grade A in Society, Health and Development or Business, Administration and Finance, plus an A-level at Grade B in a relevant subject for Additional and Specialist Learning (Extended Project Qualification in a relevant subject preferred).
• BTEC Level 3 Extended Diploma D*D*D* in Business or Public Services.
• IBDP 35 points.
• Access to Law Complete and pass Access to Law course with 45 credits at Level 3 Distinction and 15 credits at level 2.
  

For all of the above, 5 GCSEs or equivalent at Grade C or above are also required, to include English and Maths (please note that these must have been gained by the time you submit your UCAS application).

English Language Requirements

Brunel also offers our own BrunELT English Test and accept a range of other language courses. We also have a range of Pre-sessional English language courses, for students who do not meet these requirements, or who wish to improve their English.