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Centre of Excellence Human Rights

Based at our Birmingham campus, this Centre of Excellence offers a range of programmes, resources and partnerships to equip you with the skills and knowledge to succeed in the field of human rights.

What is a Centre of Excellence?

A Centre of Excellence is a facility that provides best practice and knowledge around a particular area. Our Centres of Excellence offer you the opportunity to study your chosen law specialism with dedicated support from our expert lecturers. You’ll benefit from their knowledge and experience in within human rights.

Across our different Centres of Excellence, we work with governing bodies and provide specialist modules and electives that allow you to shape your studies to meet your career needs.

The Centre of Excellence for Human Rights is based within our Birmingham campus primarily due to faculty experience, associated interests and research, and connections to industry in judicial review, human rights and related immigration practice.

Students of our Birmingham campus will be provided with membership of the . However, you can also study our human rights programmes at our London Bloomsbury, Manchester and Online campuses.

What is Human Rights Â鶹¹û¶³´«Ã½?

The United Nations defines human rights as “rights inherent to all human beings, regardless of race, sex, nationality, ethnicity, language, religion, or any other status.” As a concept, human rights is subject to many potential definitions and what’s included within its scope is contested. For example, whether groups of people can be subject to human rights and in what way, or what kinds of rights count as human rights, has significant implications for the function of rights globally.

Within our programme, we consider a range of prominent ideas about what rights are, their coherence, and what this means for the law in application. Students who want to get the most direct exposure to human rights are encouraged to take our recommended modules, but since human rights is highly multi-disciplinary and overlaps with so many other areas, you can tailor your studies to your area of interest or career aspirations through a wide range of elective modules.

Students may choose to consider careers in judicial review or immigration practice, but if a particular aspect of human rights is especially important to you then you may wish to develop a career in that area inside or outside of law. For example, you could choose to work for a relevant charity or NGO, both locally or globally.

The named programmes we offer within human rights are:

We offer modules covering many different areas of law so you can tailor your Master’s to meet your interests and career goals. With our Master of Â鶹¹û¶³´«Ã½s (LLM) programmes, you will have a minimum of one award-linked module, which you must write your dissertation on, and you can choose up to three elective modules.

For all programmes, you must study two modules from Group A and two from Group B. For our human rights courses, we recommend the following modules, however you have the option to choose from our full range of .

Group A

  • International Human Rights
  • Public International Â鶹¹û¶³´«Ã½

Group B

  • Domestic Human Rights and Judicial Review
  • Immigration Â鶹¹û¶³´«Ã½
  • International Criminal Â鶹¹û¶³´«Ã½ 

*Each elective module is delivered at specific locations and subject to availability. For students who are not subject to visa attendance requirements, all modules are available to study online. For full details about each of the elective modules and where they are delivered, please refer to our full elective modules guide.

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Industry connections

Many of our faculty members and industry connections are recognised experts in the field, conducting cutting-edge research and engaging with industry leaders to shape the direction of policy and law.

Savvas Michael –  Senior Lecturer

Savvas read Â鶹¹û¶³´«Ã½ at the University of Cambridge and has an LLM from Université Paris II, Panthéon-Assas. He spent five years working in the City of London, at the Financial Ombudsman Service and within the Legal team at the Bank of England.

Savvas joined The University of Â鶹¹û¶³´«Ã½ in September 2019 and was the LLM Course Head in London Bloomsbury until 2021. He then became Associate Dean of the Hong Kong Campus in September 2021. Savvas’ areas of expertise include Public Â鶹¹û¶³´«Ã½, International Â鶹¹û¶³´«Ã½ and European Union Â鶹¹û¶³´«Ã½, including teaching Human Rights Â鶹¹û¶³´«Ã½ across all of these courses at both undergraduate and postgraduate level. Savvas has also taught at various other universities on an adjunct basis, including University College London (UCL - where he also obtained an MA in History), the University of Cambridge and Shanghai University

Want to hear from our lecturers?

Our lecturers have delivered a range of research seminars, including “Categorical Analysis and Proportionality in Judicial Reasoning”, “A Case Study on the Breach of International Â鶹¹û¶³´«Ã½ and its Consequences”, “Is it Time for an Entrenched Constitutional Amendment Procedure and, if so, can it be Legally Enforceable?” and “Without Fear or Favour: The Importance of Legitimacy Within Policing and the Criminal Justice System”.

Smartly dressed professionals

Master’s in Â鶹¹û¶³´«Ã½ Advisory Board

The Academic Master’s in Â鶹¹û¶³´«Ã½ Advisory Board is comprised from members selected for the excellence in their sectors and their commitment to future generations of lawyers. This board provides a productive link between students, educators and industry practitioners.

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