MSc in International Human Rights Law
About the course
This is a part-time degree offered over two academic years. It is designed in particular for lawyers and other human rights advocates who wish to pursue advanced studies in international human rights law but may need to do so alongside work responsibilities.
The MSc in International Human Rights Law is offered by the Faculty of Law in collaboration with the Bonavero Institute of Human Rights.
Course Structure
This course includes two periods of online distance learning as well as two summer residentials held at New College, Oxford.
A central objective of the course is to ensure that you not only know about but can also effectively and expertly apply human rights law. The curriculum places equal emphasis on the substance of human rights law, its implementation and research.
Students come from all over the world and from a variety of advocacy settings; from various international and non-governmental organisations, governments, universities, foundations, the media, the armed forces, medicine and other fields and from private and corporate practice. The faculty is also diverse and includes internationally recognised human rights scholars and advocates. The programme seeks the widest possible diversity among both students and tutors.
The first period of distance learning comprises guided online study over two terms, with each of its units including reading periods followed by tutor-guided asynchronous seminars supplemented by some live encounters.
For the second period of distance learning students work independently on researching and writing their dissertation with one-to-one online support from their supervisor.
For both periods of distance learning, students will require consistent, ready and reliable internet access.
Summer residentials in Oxford comprise three weeks of tutor-led small group seminars plus a week for independent revision and two exams. In addition, the first summer session includes dissertation-related exercises to prepare students for the independent dissertation work they will undertake in their second year.
Past students have found it beneficial to immerse themselves within the MSc in International Human Rights Law community during the residential sessions. If your personal circumstances permit therefore, we strongly encourage you to consider booking your accommodation during the residential sessions with New College, which will be facilitated by the course organisers. This may help you to benefit from what the course offers in terms of additional opportunities for discursive engagement and networking. Lunches and dinners are already included in the course fee and will also be provided at New College. If you have any concerns around this, for example regarding dietary restrictions, please get in touch with the Course Administrator to discuss them.
Course content
The course is undertaken part-time over a period of 24 months. It comprises one compulsory course – the Fundamentals of International Human Rights Law course, taken online in the first year - and four electives, two per year, taken in-person at the summer residence. Electives will be selected from a list of options. Not all are offered every year.
Previous options have included:
- Business and Human Rights
- International Rights of Children
- International Criminal Law
- Economic Social and Cultural Rights
- Domesticating International Human Rights Law
- Human Rights and Environmental Law
- International Humanitarian Law
- Racial Discrimination, Minorities and Indigenous Peoples
- Right to Life
- Refugees, Asylum Seekers and Human Rights
- Comparative Regional Human Rights Systems
- Religion and Human Rights
- Transitional Justice
- International Rights of Women and Gender-Related Discrimination.
In addition, students submit a dissertation on a topic of their choice related to international human rights law in their second year. The topic must be approved by the course examiners.
Supervision
An important person in helping your intellectual development during the degree programme will be your academic supervisor. This person will oversee your academic work and submit progress reports.
For the first three terms of your degree, your academic supervisor will be your tutor for the online Fundamentals of International Human Rights Law course. For the next two terms, your academic supervisor will be the person allocated to supervise your dissertation. The allocation is dependent on the subject area of your dissertation. For the final term, your supervisor is expected to be another Oxford University faculty member.
For this course, the allocation of graduate supervision is the responsibility of the Law Faculty and it is not always possible to accommodate the preferences of incoming graduate students to work with a particular member of staff.
Efforts will be made to meet the preferences of graduate students to work with a particular member of the course team for the dissertation. Tutors and supervisors join as academic contributors to the programme from around the world, and there is therefore a wide range of experts supporting its offerings.
Assessment
The degree is assessed by coursework (20%), examinations (50%) and a dissertation (30%).
Your first period of distance learning is assessed by way of assignments, and the second by way of a dissertation. You will sit two examinations during each of the two summer residentials.
Graduate destinations
Students have gone on to work as prosecutors and defence lawyers at the International Criminal Court, other UN criminal tribunals, and various regional human rights bodies. They work in private and multi-national corporate practice; in various ministries in their national governments and as UN officials ranging from refugee legal protection officers to country representatives. Others are judges, university professors, lawyers with their national armed forces, heads of NGOs and journalists.
Graduates from the course also include economists, obstetricians, epidemiologists, psychiatrists and forensic anthropologists. They are senior advisors in government around the world, Foreign Ministries, Defence Ministries and each and every one of the regional human rights bodies. They are defence counsel at Guantanamo Bay, do front-line community work in Afghanistan and emergency co-ordination in Sudan, Haiti and many other places. They represent indigenous peoples in northern Canada, Western Australia, the Philippines and Brazil.
Changes to this course and your supervision
The University will seek to deliver this course in accordance with the description set out in this course page. However, there may be situations in which it is desirable or necessary for the University to make changes in course provision, either before or after registration. The safety of students, staff and visitors is paramount and major changes to delivery or services may have to be made in circumstances of a pandemic, epidemic or local health emergency. In addition, in certain circumstances, for example due to visa difficulties or because the health needs of students cannot be met, it may be necessary to make adjustments to course requirements for international study.
Where possible your academic supervisor will not change for the duration of your course. However, it may be necessary to assign a new academic supervisor during the course of study or before registration for reasons which might include illness, sabbatical leave, parental leave or change in employment.
For further information please see our page on changes to courses and the provisions of the student contract regarding changes to courses.
Entry requirements for entry in 2024-25
Proven and potential academic excellence
Degree-level qualifications
Applicants are normally expected to have achieved the equivalent of the following UK qualifications:
- a first-class or strong upper second-class undergraduate degree with honours in any relevant subject.
Applicants with a lower second-class (2.2) degree or a GPA lower than 3.0 are unlikely to be admitted. This is the case even if you took your degree long ago, have extensive experience or hold a senior position.
The degree is designed primarily for mid-career lawyers (with at least 3 years full-time human rights law experience or its equivalent) and the majority of admitted students have a legal background and experience of international human rights law. However, in certain circumstances, applications from persons with degrees in other subjects who have extensive human rights experience will be considered.
For applicants with a degree from the USA, the minimum GPA normally sought is 3.5 out of 4.0.
If your degree is not from the UK or another country specified above, visit our International Qualifications page for guidance on the qualifications and grades that would usually be considered to meet the University’s minimum entry requirements.
GRE General Test scores
No Graduate Record Examination (GRE) or GMAT scores are sought.
Other qualifications, evidence of excellence and relevant experience
- Professional experience is a requirement for admission. Work experience in human rights may be either paid or voluntary. No matter how outstanding your academic record, if you cannot demonstrate a commitment to human rights based on your work, volunteer activities or concentration on human rights and international law at university, you are unlikely to be admitted. The selection committee looks closely at your statement of purpose and your CV/résumé to assess your eligibility.
- Publications are not required for admission to this course but may be helpful.
- Your degree experience will be enriched by the diversity of your classmates. How one views human rights is influenced by one’s background. Diversity means more than gender and nationality, although these of course are considered. The sector you work in is also important, as are other factors. The course does not ‘preach to the converted’ and applicants from all ideological, religious and cultural backgrounds are welcome. Diversity is an important admissions criterion but your academic record, work experience and commitment to the advancement of human rights are more so.
English language proficiency
This course requires proficiency in English at the University's higher level. If your first language is not English, you may need to provide evidence that you meet this requirement. The minimum scores required to meet the University's higher level are detailed in the table below.
| Test | Minimum overall score | Minimum score per component |
|---|---|---|
| IELTS Academic (Institution code: 0713) | 7.5 | 7.0 |
TOEFL iBT, including the 'Home Edition' (Institution code: 0490) | 110 | Listening: 22 Reading: 24 Speaking: 25 Writing: 24 |
| C1 Advanced* | 191 | 185 |
| C2 Proficiency† | 191 | 185 |
*Previously known as the Cambridge Certificate of Advanced English or Cambridge English: Advanced (CAE)
†Previously known as the Cambridge Certificate of Proficiency in English or Cambridge English: Proficiency (CPE)
Your test must have been taken no more than two years before the start date of your course. Our Application Guide provides further information about the English language test requirement.
Declaring extenuating circumstances
If your ability to meet the entry requirements has been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic (eg you were awarded an unclassified/ungraded degree) or any other exceptional personal circumstance (eg other illness or bereavement), please refer to the guidance on extenuating circumstances in the Application Guide for information about how to declare this so that your application can be considered appropriately.
References
You will need to register three referees who can give an informed view of your academic ability and suitability for the course. The How to apply section of this page provides details of the types of reference that are required in support of your application for this course and how these will be assessed.
Supporting documents
You will be required to supply supporting documents with your application. The How to apply section of this page provides details of the supporting documents that are required as part of your application for this course and how these will be assessed.
Performance at interview
Interviews are not normally held as part of the admissions process.
How your application is assessed
Your application will be assessed purely on your proven and potential academic excellence and other entry requirements published under that heading.
References and supporting documents submitted as part of your application, and your performance at interview (if interviews are held) will be considered as part of the assessment process. Whether or not you have secured funding will not be taken into consideration when your application is assessed.
An overview of the shortlisting and selection process is provided below. Our 'After you apply' pages provide more information about how applications are assessed.
Shortlisting and selection
Students are considered for shortlisting and selected for admission without regard to age, disability, gender reassignment, marital or civil partnership status, pregnancy and maternity, race (including colour, nationality and ethnic or national origins), religion or belief (including lack of belief), sex, sexual orientation, as well as other relevant circumstances including parental or caring responsibilities or social background. However, please note the following:
- socio-economic information may be taken into account in the selection of applicants and award of scholarships for courses that are part of the University’s pilot selection procedure and for scholarships aimed at under-represented groups;
- country of ordinary residence may be taken into account in the awarding of certain scholarships; and
- protected characteristics may be taken into account during shortlisting for interview or the award of scholarships where the University has approved a positive action case under the Equality Act 2010.
Processing your data for shortlisting and selection
Information about processing special category data for the purposes of positive action and using your data to assess your eligibility for funding, can be found in our Postgraduate Applicant Privacy Policy.
Admissions panels and assessors
All recommendations to admit a student involve the judgement of at least two members of the academic staff with relevant experience and expertise, and must also be approved by the Director of Graduate Studies or Admissions Committee (or equivalent within the department).
Admissions panels or committees will always include at least one member of academic staff who has undertaken appropriate training.
Other factors governing whether places can be offered
The following factors will also govern whether candidates can be offered places:
- the ability of the University to provide the appropriate supervision for your studies, as outlined under the 'Supervision' heading in the About section of this page;
- the ability of the University to provide appropriate support for your studies (eg through the provision of facilities, resources, teaching and/or research opportunities); and
- minimum and maximum limits to the numbers of students who may be admitted to the University's taught and research programmes.
Offer conditions for successful applications
If you receive an offer of a place at Oxford, your offer will outline any conditions that you need to satisfy and any actions you need to take, together with any associated deadlines. These may include academic conditions, such as achieving a specific final grade in your current degree course. These conditions will usually depend on your individual academic circumstances and may vary between applicants. Our 'After you apply' pages provide more information about offers and conditions.
In addition to any academic conditions which are set, you will also be required to meet the following requirements:
Financial Declaration
If you are offered a place, you will be required to complete a Financial Declaration in order to meet your financial condition of admission.
Disclosure of criminal convictions
In accordance with the University’s obligations towards students and staff, we will ask you to declare any relevant, unspent criminal convictions before you can take up a place at Oxford.
Resources
Members of the University are entitled to use a wide range of academic, welfare, social and sporting facilities. This includes access to the University’s main reference library, the Bodleian Library, and the Bodleian Law Library which keeps also extensive electronic resources.
In addition to the services and facilities offered by the central University and the Faculty of Law, you will also be entitled to use the resources and facilities at your college. Apart from the Bodleian Law Library, the Law Faculty building also houses a café/study space and the Faculty itself organises many academic events intended for graduate students (mainly in the form of ‘discussion groups’), some of which are available online. The Bonavero Institute of Human Rights, which is part of the Faculty of Law, convenes a range of interesting events and seminars during the year focused specifically on topics related to human rights, the rule of law and democracy, some of which are hosted online. Students on the course would be welcome to attend these events.
The Law Library offers the vast majority of its holdings - some 550,000 items - on open shelves across four floors. Selected low-use material is housed in a book storage facility and is retrievable within half a day. The library serves a large community of graduate readers and academics in their research requirements. The strength of the collection lies in the depth of its UK holdings, combined with extensive holdings for European and Commonwealth jurisdictions. In addition the library holds materials relating to international law, Roman law, and jurisprudence. To complement the paper collection, the Law Library provides a wide range of online legal resources. The Bodleian’s collection of Official Papers is also housed in the Law Library.
The library has 40 reader workstations, which provide access to the internet, legal databases, and Microsoft Office applications. There is a Graduate Reading Room, a large seminar room, two IT rooms and three small ‘discussion rooms’ for private study or group work. The wireless network extends throughout the library. The law librarians offer a range of classes and one-to-one sessions to support the specific research needs of graduate students.
Law
Oxford’s Faculty of Law, one of the largest in the UK, offers you the opportunity to study alongside some of the best law graduates of your generation, under the direct supervision of some of the world’s leading legal scholars.
Oxford's reputation for master's-level legal education has few equals. All of the courses on offer involve intensive work to a very high academic standard, and the BCL and MJur are exceptional in their use of tutorials as a principal means of course delivery. Both of these programmes offer an extensive variety of options and the opportunity to specialise in certain fields or to select a diverse combination of courses. For those with more specialist interests, the faculty also offers the MSc in Law and Finance, the MSc in Criminology and Criminal Justice, the MSc in Taxation, and the Postgraduate Diploma in Intellectual Property Law and Practice, the MSc in Intellectual Property, and the MSc in International Human Rights Law (formerly known as the MSt in International Human Rights Law and offered by the Department of Continuing Education).
For its research students, the faculty offers a wider range of legal and interdisciplinary specialisms corresponding to the diverse interests of faculty members. For many research students the ultimate goal will be a DPhil, the Oxford term for a doctoral qualification, but the faculty also offers a one-year MPhil course which can either be taken in its own right or as a route into the DPhil. As a research student, you can expect to work closely with a specialist supervisor who will help you develop your ideas and pursue your thesis to a successful conclusion.
Research students play a central role in the intellectual life of the faculty, collaborating in numerous discussion groups and colloquia and participating in many BCL, MJur and MSc course seminars.
Centre for Criminology
Pursuing an innovative programme of criminological research and delivering high quality education.
The Centre for Criminology is an independent unit of the University’s Faculty of Law. The centre is dedicated to pursuing an innovative programme of criminological research and to delivering high-quality graduate education in criminology. It has a vibrant programme of research, aimed principally at fostering and developing clusters of research activity around seven substantive areas:
- security, rights and justice
- penal culture, policy and practice
- politics, legitimacy and criminal justice
- crime and the family
- psychology, criminal justice and law
- victims and victimisation
- criminal justice, citizenship and migration.
Members of the centre are committed to:
- connecting criminological work to the broader concerns of the social sciences;
- thinking comparatively about crime and punishment;
- bringing together sociological and normative approaches to the analysis of crime and justice; and
- working at the intersections between criminology and public policy.
These approaches to the study of crime and criminal justice inform teaching and doctoral supervision in the centre. They create an intellectually stimulating and collaborative environment to pursue your study in criminology.
Centre for Socio-Legal Studies
At the forefront of multidisciplinary research into the nature and role of law in society.
The Centre for Socio-Legal Studies (CSLS) brings together scholars with diverse academic backgrounds and ambitions, who pursue their own research topics and are also encouraged to collaborate widely and develop multifaceted research programmes. Researchers address fundamental questions about the nature of law, its relations with morality, religion, and justice, and its role in regulation, government and community, the nature of rules and legalistic thought, the development of laws, legal systems and legal cultures, and the social character of the rule of law.
The CSLS welcomes students who wish to pursue research in any aspect of socio-legal studies, broadly defined. The centre's staff have a range of expertise in socio-legal research and methodologies and draw on a range of cognate fields, including anthropology, jurisprudence, political science, regulation studies, economics and sociology. Supervision can be offered in most areas of social-legal studies.
The CSLS has a community of around thirteen full-time research staff and thirty-three graduate research students. Links with leading scholars in Oxford’s Faculty of Law and throughout the University enhance the breadth of the centre’s research and the resources made available to students.
Courses offered by the faculty
Funding
The University expects to be able to offer over 1,000 full or partial graduate scholarships across the collegiate University in 2024-25. You will be automatically considered for the majority of Oxford scholarships, if you fulfil the eligibility criteria and submit your graduate application by the relevant December or January deadline. Most scholarships are awarded on the basis of academic merit and/or potential.
For further details about searching for funding as a graduate student visit our dedicated Funding pages, which contain information about how to apply for Oxford scholarships requiring an additional application, details of external funding, loan schemes and other funding sources.
Please ensure that you visit individual college websites for details of any college-specific funding opportunities using the links provided on our college pages or below:
Please note that not all the colleges listed above may accept students on this course. For details of those which do, please refer to the College preference section of this page.
Further information about funding opportunities for this course can be found on the faculty's website.
Costs
Annual fees for entry in 2024-25
Fee status | Annual Course fees |
| Home | £16,985 |
| Overseas | £16,985 |
Further details about fee status eligibility can be found on the fee status webpage.
Information about course fees
Course fees are payable each year, for the duration of your fee liability (your fee liability is the length of time for which you are required to pay course fees). For courses lasting longer than one year, please be aware that fees will usually increase annually. For details, please see our guidance on changes to fees and charges.
Course fees cover your teaching as well as other academic services and facilities provided to support your studies. Unless specified in the additional information section below, course fees do not cover your accommodation, residential costs or other living costs. They also don’t cover any additional costs and charges that are outlined in the additional information below.
Deposits
If your application is successful, you will be asked to pay a deposit against your course fees at the application stage as a condition of your offer. The deposit amount and date by which payment must be made are shown below.
Amount of deposit |
Date by which deposit must be paid |
| £1,000 | 15th May 2023 |
The department's website provides further information about deposits for this course.
Where can I find further information about fees?
The Fees and Funding section of this website provides further information about course fees, including information about fee status and eligibility and your length of fee liability.
Additional information
This course has residential sessions in Oxford so you will need to meet any travel, accommodation and breakfast costs you will incur in attending these sessions. The tuition fee includes the cost of all compulsory reading materials plus lunches and dinners at the summer residential sessions. Students will need to pay accommodation (‘bed and breakfast’) costs whilst attending the summer residential sessions (five weeks in Year 1 and four weeks in Year 2). Accommodation is usually offered to students on the MSc by New College, and this accommodation is likely to cost approximately £60-70 daily (‘bed and breakfast’) (this is an estimated figure only) for each of the two summer residential sessions – approximately £2,000 per residential. Students who wish to make other arrangements will need to book accommodation in central Oxford. The estimated cost of this is approximately £2,000 to £3,500 per residential. Further, as part of your course requirements, you will need to choose a dissertation topic. Depending on your choice of topic and the research required to complete it, you may incur additional expenses. You will need to meet these additional costs, although you may be able to apply for small grants from your department and/or college to help you cover some of these expenses.
Living costs
In addition to your course fees, you will need to ensure that you have adequate funds to support your living costs for the duration of your course.
For the 2024-25 academic year, the range of likely living costs for full-time study is between c. £1,345 and £1,955 for each month spent in Oxford. Full information, including a breakdown of likely living costs in Oxford for items such as food, accommodation and study costs, is available on our living costs page. The current economic climate and high national rate of inflation make it very hard to estimate potential changes to the cost of living over the next few years. When planning your finances for any future years of study in Oxford beyond 2024-25, it is suggested that you allow for potential increases in living expenses of around 5% each year – although this rate may vary depending on the national economic situation. UK inflationary increases will be kept under review and this page updated.
If you are studying part-time your living costs may vary depending on your personal circumstances but you must still ensure that you will have sufficient funding to meet these costs for the duration of your course.
College preference
Students enrolled on this course will belong to both a department/faculty and a college. Please note that ‘college’ and ‘colleges’ refers to all 43 of the University’s colleges, including those designated as societies and permanent private halls (PPHs).
If you apply for a place on this course you will have the option to express a preference for one of the colleges listed below, or you can ask us to find a college for you. Before deciding, we suggest that you read our brief introduction to the college system at Oxford and our advice about expressing a college preference. For some courses, the department may have provided some additional advice below to help you decide.
The following colleges accept students on the MSc in International Human Rights Law:
Before you apply
Our guide to getting started provides general advice on how to prepare for and start your application. Check the deadlines on this page and the information about deadlines in our Application Guide. If it's important for you to have your application considered under a particular deadline – eg under a December or January deadline in order to be considered for Oxford scholarships – we recommend that you aim to complete and submit your application at least two weeks in advance.
Application fee waivers
An application fee of £75 is payable per course application. Application fee waivers are available for the following applicants who meet the eligibility criteria:
- applicants from low-income countries;
- refugees and displaced persons;
- UK applicants from low-income backgrounds; and
- applicants who applied for our Graduate Access Programmes in the past two years and met the eligibility criteria.
You are encouraged to check whether you're eligible for an application fee waiver before you apply.
Do I need to contact anyone before I apply?
You do not need to make contact with the department before you apply but you are encouraged to visit the relevant departmental webpages to read any further information about your chosen course.
Completing your application
You should refer to the information below when completing the application form, paying attention to the specific requirements for the supporting documents.
For this course, the application form will include questions that collect information that would usually be included in a CV/résumé. You should not upload a separate document. If a separate CV/résumé is uploaded, it will be removed from your application.
If any document does not meet the specification, including the stipulated word count, your application may be considered incomplete and not assessed by the academic department. Expand each section to show further details.
Referees:
Three overall, academic and/or professional
Whilst you must register three referees, the department may start the assessment of your application if two of the three references are submitted by the course deadline and your application is otherwise complete. Please note that you may still be required to ensure your third referee supplies a reference for consideration.
Your references should be from people who can provide an informed view of your academic ability and suitability for the course. Professional references are acceptable as long as they are relevant to the course of study but academic references are preferable. Where possible, at least one reference should be from one of your academic advisors. Personal references, such as those from family and friends, are not acceptable.
If you are a current or recent master’s student, one of your referees should be your supervisor, teacher or course director from that master’s programme. If you do not provide a reference of this kind with your application, we will usually ask you to do so before completing the assessment of your application.
Your references will support intellectual ability, academic achievement and motivation.
Official transcript(s)
Your transcripts should give detailed information of the individual grades received in your university-level qualifications to date. You should only upload official documents issued by your institution and any transcript not in English should be accompanied by a certified translation.
More information about the transcript requirement is available in the Application Guide.
Personal statement:
A maximum of 500 words
Your personal statement should be written in English and should explain your motivation for applying to this particular course and should focus on your academic, professional and voluntary experience in the human rights field.
If possible, please ensure that the word count is clearly displayed on the document.
This will be assessed for your education and work experience related to human rights, your reasons for applying and your career plans.
Start or continue your application
You can start or return to an application using the relevant link below. As you complete the form, please refer to the requirements above and consult our Application Guide for advice. You'll find the answers to most common queries in our FAQs.