International Dispute Resolution LLM pathway

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The International Dispute Resolution LLM, prepares you for a career in the challenging and exciting ﬁeld of international dispute resolution. It provides you with a solid foundation in all relevant areas including both private and public international means of dispute resolution and allows you to specialise in the ﬁelds of your choice. This specialist pathway is taught by King’s award-winning academics, and some of the world’s leading practitioners.

Key benefits

King’s LLM in international dispute resolution (IDR) will introduce you to the whole breadth of IDR. The program includes three mandatory modules, on private, public international and EU law mechanisms as well as on current developments in IDR.
Students without any background in international or EU law can acquire the relevant basic knowledge in this field in the first weeks of the pathway, through two not-for-credit optional ‘foundational seminars’.
Students have a wide range of options of specialised fields of international dispute resolution, ranging from modules on international commercial arbitration and international investment arbitration, exclusively taught by some of the world’s leading barristers, human rights law and litigation, international investment law as well as policy, negotiation, transnational litigation and world trade law.

What you will study

Once enrolled on the General LLM at King’s, students can choose modules to follow the International Dispute Resolution pathway and achieve a specialist LLM in International Dispute Resolution. Full-time students who complete the programme in one year will normally take modules totalling 180 credits.  To graduate with an International Dispute Resolution LLM at least 120 credits must be taken within the pathway. This can be optional modules alone or a combination of optional modules and a writing project, providing its content is relevant to the pathway.    The range of International Dispute Resolution LLM optional modules may typically include:  

Authoritarianism, Populism and the Law (15 credits)
Human Rights in International Dispute Settlement (15 credits)
Public International Law (15 credits)
International Investment Law (15 credits)
International Commercial Arbitration (15 credits)
Transnational Human Rights Litigation (15 Credits)
Transnational Remedies for Environmental Harm (15 credits)

In addition, all students are required to take one of the following writing projects, detailed further on the General LLM prospectus page: 

Dissertation (45 credits)
Dissertation (60 credits)
10,000 word practice or research module (45 credits)

What our students and alumni say

“I have found the high reputation and quality of the professors and the multicultural environment felt in every class I attend particularly attractive. My professors make a big effort to obtain and facilitate lots of useful material on the module being taught.”

Sigfredo, International Dispute Resolution

King’s Forum on International Dispute Resolution

King’s law students benefit from an impressive range of events organised by the law school. As to IDR, the King’s Forum invites distinguished speakers to present on the latest developments in various areas of IDR. Former speakers include the former Vice-President of ITLOS, the President of the LCIA and the South African member of the ILC. The Shearman & Sterling International Arbitration Speakers Series in association with King’s offers additional events in the field.

Every year, one former King’s student has the opportunity to kick-start her or his career in international dispute resolution by working as an assistant legal counsel of the Permanent Court of Arbitration as a King’s Forum fellow for a year.

To follow the International Dispute Resolution pathway, you must first apply for the General LLM at King's. After enrolment you will select your pathway modules.

Find out more about the LLM at King's and apply

Pathway Director

Dr Niccolò Ridi

Lecturer in Public International Law

Niccolò is Associate Director of the Centre for International Governance and Dispute Resolution (CIGAD) and Lecturer in Public International Law at The Dickson Poon School of Law, King's College London. Niccolò joined King's in 2021 having previously worked at the University of Liverpool, the University of Copenhagen, and the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies. He holds a PhD from King’s College London, an LLM from the University of Cambridge, and an LLB/MA from the University of Florence. He is also an alumnus of the 'Silvano Tosi' Research Seminar in Parliamentary Studies.