This programme is designed to provide you with an advanced understanding of key issues in the place and role of law in international affairs. The actions of individuals and states in international relations raise crucial questions of legality. This has been seen in recent years in relation to wars and state interventions, migration of peoples, and justice and retribution. The programme is a joint offering of the Schools of Politics and International Relations and Law. It provides a rare opportunity to study the nature of international law and its application within the field of global politics. You gain a detailed understanding of the theory and practice of public international law and of how those principles and practices apply to relations between states. This programme aims to: provide a programme that will attract, and meet the needs of, those seeking advanced training in the disciplines of international relations and law; provide you with a research-active teaching environment which gives you a good grounding in the study of international relations, including its political, social, and economic aspects; examine how state, non-state and supra-national actors behave and interact through a dynamic appreciation of different levels of analysis; ensure that you acquire advanced knowledge of the theories of international relations, the heritage and development of the discipline, its major debates, its inherent nature as an interdisciplinary study, and a critical appreciation of the essentially contested nature of politics in general and international relations in particular; provide a sound knowledge and systematic understanding of the institutional structures, key legal principles and particular contexts of international law and international relations; encourage you to develop a critical awareness of the operation of public international law, particularly in contexts which are perceived to be controversial or in a state of evolution; ensure that you acquire an advanced understanding of the relationship between theoretical, methodological, and empirical content of the issue-areas studied; develop your general research skills and personal skills (transferable skills), in particular through a substantial dissertation. Students will also achieve PgDip in this course.