Course information
Entry requirements
UCAS code
M200
Entry requirements
A-level: ABB
BTEC: DDD
IB: 33 points overall with Three HL subjects at 655
Length
3 years full-time
Department
Course overview
The Criminal Justice and Human Rights pathway leads to an LLB Law (Hons) with Criminal Justice and Human Rights. This programme gives you the opportunity to obtain specialist knowledge and deepen your understanding of criminal justice and human rights, and their challenging interactions.
This programme enables you to contextualise the study of Law and broaden your horizons, opening up career opportunities in criminal justice professions, and human rights jobs in the third sector.
Why study LLB Law with Criminal Justice and Human Rights at Goldsmiths
- We’re one of the highest-rated courses in the country. We're number 1 in the UK for student satisfaction (Complete University Guide Law League Table 2024). In the NSS (National Student Survey) 2022, our Law Department was ranked number 1 in the UK for its intellectually stimulating curriculum and programme, and we were rated the best Law department in London for quality of teaching.
- Goldsmiths has a rich heritage of social awareness and engagement. You'll be part of an environment that champions human rights and social justice
- Not only is this a qualifying law degree, it has been developed in anticipation of the new Solicitors Qualifying Examinations (SQE). Training for these is integrated throughout the degree and you'll also have the option to take a specific SQE2 module in your final year
- This degree is active. You won't just be sitting and reading, you'll learn problem-solving, debating and advocating through a range of experiential learning, extra-curricular and professional development activities, on campus and beyond
- You will gain systematic knowledge and understanding of criminal justice and human rights theory and practice, and be equipped with the ability to critically engage with core debates in these areas
- The programme will provide you with the conceptual and methodological tools required to analyse and explore the ideas, actors, and practices central to criminal justice and human rights law
- This pathway of the LLB Law at Goldsmiths allows you to specialise in a range of areas related to Criminal Justice and Human Rights, including; Domestic human rights law, and European human rights law as applied in the United Kingdom; How human rights norms are implemented in criminal law and the criminal justice system; What are the causes of crime, and what can be done to prevent it; Contemporary developments in criminology and criminal justice; Sociological approaches to crime, and how crime is linked to social inequalities, such as gender, class, ethnicity, etc; Global issues of crime and crime control, populism, and international human rights responses; The use of Artificial Intelligence in policing; State surveillance and Big Data collection; Cybercrime and the regulation of internet communications; Freedom of the press
- You will also hone the essential critical thinking and practical skills needed in representing clients and defending cases as a solicitor or barrister specialised in criminal law and human rights
Specialist activities and career skills
Alongside your specialist module choices, you will have the opportunity to take part in a programme of activities designed to expose you to contemporary and historic debates in criminal justice and human rights. You will be invited to participate in events and conferences with leading organisations and experts, and will join visits in and around London that immerse you in the criminal justice and human rights policy world.
In recent years, such activities have included taking part in fictional trials at the 'Old Bailey' (the central criminal courts of England and Wales), the Royal Courts of Justice and the UK Supreme Court, visiting the 'Inns of Court' (historic associations of barristers), attending legal practice seminars at barristers' chambers or taking part in workshops that the Big Brother Watch and Fair Trials NGOs have delivered at Goldsmiths on how modern technologies such as facial recognition and predictive algorithms are used in policing.
You will also interact closely with the Departments of Sociology and Psychology at Goldsmiths and attend relevant events that they hold.
You will identify relevant volunteering and vacation opportunities, so that you are ideally placed to move into a related criminal justice or human rights career upon graduation.
Clinics, Placements and Summer Internships
In Goldsmiths’ Law and Policy Clinics, students 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.
Harvard Law School course
We’re the first Law department in the UK 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 provides you with an introduction to the legal profession, stages of litigation and citizenship rights as well as offering instruction and practise in basic skills, including how to read a case.
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.
Student life and student support
You'll belong to a close-knit community, and are 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 LLB 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.
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.
Contact the department
If you have specific questions about the degree, contact the Department of Law..