Global Legal Studies

Global legal studies is a degree that takes the study of law out of the purely national context in which it is usually taught and examines it as a phenomenon that operates across and between legal systems, shaped by international institutions, transnational norms, and the globalisation of commerce, human rights, and governance. It asks how law operates at the international and transnational level, how different legal traditions, including common law and civil law systems, interact and converge, what the role of global institutions such as the United Nations, the World Trade Organisation, and the International Criminal Court is, and how law addresses the genuinely global challenges of climate change, migration, and corporate accountability.

At the University of Newcastle, you will study global legal studies over four years of full-time study. The programme includes core legal content covering the foundations of the English legal system alongside a substantial international and comparative dimension. You will study international law, including public international law, international human rights law, and international commercial law, and engage with comparative law, exploring how different legal systems approach similar problems.

The global focus of the degree is reflected in the opportunity to engage with legal questions relating to specific regions and challenges, from the law of the sea and environmental law to the governance of technology and global financial regulation. Research skills and critical legal theory are central to the programme.

Graduates from global legal studies programmes are well placed for careers at the intersection of law and international affairs. International law firms with practices in cross-border transactions, arbitration, or human rights are natural employers for graduates with both legal training and global orientation. International organisations, including the UN, EU, and their associated bodies, employ legal professionals in a range of roles.

Governmental foreign legal advisers, diplomatic services, and NGOs working on international justice and human rights draw on graduates with this combination. Non-qualifying law degrees such as this provide a strong foundation for further legal study, and many graduates proceed to a Graduate Diploma in Law or to postgraduate study in international law, comparative law, or global governance.