LLM International Business Law and Practice
Develop the knowledge and skills to advise businesses, and gain unique experience of real cases and projects, assisting clients in our Baroness Hale Legal Clinic.
Year of entry: 2025 (September)
Understand how lawyers use the law and legal structures to formalise business relationships and transactions, and manage clients’ commercial risks. Then, put this into practice advising clients, under the supervision of a lawyer, on their legal business issues in our Baroness Hale Legal Clinic.
On our International Business Law and Practice course, you can personalise learning to gain international perspectives on business, trade and commerce; engage with commercial, corporate and financial transactions; and gain insight into corporate finance, intellectual property and employment law.
You'll also develop legal skills in research, document analysis, drafting, problem-solving and advising, as well as your commercial awareness. You can also select specialist modules on business negotiation and arbitration.
Your course culminates with a unique opportunity to gain legal experience in our Baroness Hale Law Clinic. Working in a small group student law firm, supervised by a qualified lawyer, you will advise real clients on a range of business and related issues, further developing your professional legal skills and commercial awareness.
Course content
Through our combination of core and option modules, you'll develop a solid knowledge base of business law and practice, while also tailoring the course to focus on areas of practice and commercial activity that interest you most.
The York Law School pedagogy combines academic rigour with a professional, practical focus, and therefore whatever options you select will provide a platform to benefit from the experience and learning opportunities provided in the Business Law Clinic capstone module in the summer semester.
Modules
Core modules
Option modules
You will also study three option modules in Semester 2. Examples can be found below. Some option module combinations may not be possible. The options available to you will be confirmed after you begin your course. In previous years, options have covered topics such as:
- International Corporate Governance
- Company Law
- Practice of Commercial Transactions
- Practice of Corporate Transactions
- Corporate Finance: Debt and Equity
- Employment Law
- International Business Negotiation
- Intellectual Property
- International Commercial Arbitration
- International Trade Law and Regulation
- Law and Circular Economy
Our modules may change to reflect the latest academic thinking and expertise of our staff, and in line with Department/School academic planning.
Learning outcomes
Every course at York is built on a distinctive set of learning outcomes. These will give you a clear understanding of what you will be able to accomplish at the end of the course and help you explain what you can offer employers. Our academics identify the knowledge, skills, and experiences you'll need upon graduation and then design the course to get you there.
Learning outcomes for this course
- Demonstrate a systematic understanding of the legal forms and regulation of businesses and their activities.
- Critically analyse and evaluate proposed business activities and transactions to identify legal, commercial and procedural issues .
- Apply appropriate research techniques to locate relevant primary and secondary sources, including practitioner know-how and precedents, applicable to the issues in hand.
- Analyse and interpret business contracts to be able to advise on the impact of specific provisions on business clients.
- Apply relevant regulation, and adapt legal problem-solving strategies, to develop and advise on proposed solutions to meet the interests and objectives of business clients.
- Communicate their analysis of legal and procedural issues, and legal advice, clearly and concisely to specialist and non-specialist audiences.
- Act autonomously and as part of a team in planning and implementing tasks at a professional level to respond to business clients.
- Apply, in business-related legal scenarios, an advanced awareness of ethical and professional values and codes of conduct.
The staff are the best part of studying at the University of York, their expertise and style elegantly guided me through each subject area. The student body is actively invited to work alongside staff for the betterment of the students, courses and university as a whole.
Fees and funding
Annual tuition fees for 2025/26
| Study mode | UK (home) | International and EU |
|---|---|---|
| Full-time (1 year) | £11,200 | £25,900 |
Students on a Student Visa are not currently permitted to study part-time at York.
Fees information
UK (home) or international fees? The level of fee that you will be asked to pay depends on whether you're classed as a UK (home) or international student. Check your fee status.
Find out more information about tuition fees and how to pay them.
Funding information
Discover your funding options to help with tuition fees and living costs.
We'll confirm more funding opportunities for students joining us in 2025/26 throughout the year.
If you've successfully completed an undergraduate degree at York you could be eligible for a 10% Masters fee discount.
Funding opportunities
Chevening Scholarships
We are pleased to work with Chevening Scholars to offer funding for our Masters programmes. Chevening Scholarships provide one year of fully-funded postgraduate study in the UK for international (including EU) students. The scholarships are open to early and mid-career professionals who have the potential to become future leaders.
Teaching and assessment
Throughout the programme, you will study, learn and be supported and supervised by a faculty of experienced legal practitioners and leading academics. Our transactional and problem-based learning approaches to learning will provide you with the understanding, skills and experience needed to develop and succeed in a global workplace.
Teaching format
Dependent on your option choices, teaching methods will include problem-based learning, transaction simulations, and working in student law firms.
Problem-Based Learning
A core teaching method employed in some of our modules is problem-based learning. This will involve you working in a “student law firm” in which you will work on simulated, real-life corporate and commercial law problems brought to you by virtual clients. You'll learn to identify the relevant legal principles, and unravel the legal and contextual issues that lie at the heart of the problem. As in real life, the problems are messy, and typically involve several legal topics interacting and overlapping.
Additional learning resources
You'll also learn through a range of other resources, including practical workshops, practitioner know-how, transactional documentation, and a variety of relevant material in our virtual learning environment.
Teaching location
York Law School is located on Campus East. Nearly all of your teaching will take place within the Law building or nearby on Campus East.
About our campus
Our beautiful green campus offers a student-friendly setting in which to live and study, within easy reach of the action in the city centre. It's easy to get around campus - everything is within walking or pedalling distance, or you can always use the fast and frequent bus service.
Assessment and feedback
We use a variety of assessment methods to help you develop different transferable skills. These include client advice, coursework, file management, presentations and participation in workshops.
Careers and skills
The opportunity to engage with real cases and projects for business clients through the York Law Clinic will provide invaluable experience in developing the skills required for employability in the legal sector, which skills are also transferable to a wide range of alternative professions and employment. The range of options open to students provides additional opportunities to advise simulated clients on transactions and problems that have been developed by tutors with experience as legal practitioners.
You will also be supported by a dedicated law specialist employability tutor, who will provide support and feedback on applications, assessment centres and interviews, as well as opportunities to participate in a range of interactions with law firms and practitioners.
Career opportunities
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Lawyer
-
Commercial in-house lawyer
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Banking and finance
-
Business consultancy
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Government and civil service
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Local government
Transferable skills
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Advising business clients
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Commercial awareness
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Problem-solving
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Critical thinking
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Document analysis
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Legal writing and drafting
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Practical legal research
Entry requirements
| Qualification | Typical offer |
|---|---|
| Undergraduate degree | 2:2 or equivalent in Law or Management. |
| Other international qualifications | Equivalent qualifications from your country |
English language
If English isn't your first language you may need to provide evidence of your English language ability. We accept the following qualifications:
| Qualification | Minimum requirement |
|---|---|
| IELTS (Academic and Indicator) | 6.5, minimum 6.0 in each component |
| Cambridge CEFR | B2 First: 176, with 169 in each component |
| Oxford ELLT | 7, minimum of 6 in each component |
| Oxford Test of English Advanced | 136, minimum 126 in each component |
| Duolingo | 120, minimum 105 in all other components |
| LanguageCert SELT | B2 with 33/50 in each component |
| LanguageCert Academic | 70 with a minimum of 65 in each component |
| Kaplan Test of English Language | 478-509, with 444-477 in all other components |
| Skills for English | B2: Merit overall, with Pass with Merit in each component |
| PTE Academic | 61, minimum 55 in each component |
| TOEFL | 87, minimum of 21 in each component |
| Trinity ISE III | Merit in all requirements |
For more information see our postgraduate English language requirements.
If you haven't met our English language requirements
You may be eligible for one of our pre-sessional English language courses. These courses will provide you with the level of English needed to meet the conditions of your offer.
The length of course you need to take depends on your current English language test scores and how much you need to improve to reach our English language requirements.
After you've accepted your offer to study at York, we'll confirm which pre-sessional course you should apply to via You@York.
Next steps
Contact us
Get in touch if you have any questions
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