The Institute offers an expanding range of professionally-oriented legal training.

This autumn, the first class of the Institute’s LL.M. in International Law will come to Geneva to begin their year-long programme. This new LL.M. programme, as well as the other LL.M. programmes on offer at the Graduate Institute, aims to provide lawyers with a year of intensive training in a specific area of law that they will be able to put to use in their careers in international and non-governmental organisations, governmental agencies or private legal practice once they complete the programme.

LL.M. Programmes

In addition to the LL.M. in International Law, the Institute offers LL.M.s in International Dispute Settlement, jointly with the University of Geneva, and in International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights as well as in International Law in Armed Conflict, through the Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights, a joint Centre of the University of Geneva and the Institute. Together with the Georgetown University Law Center, the Institute also offers an LL.M. in Global Health Law and International Institutions.

International Law at the Institute

“On top of the traditional Master and PhD programmes in International Law, the Institute has a strong offering of LL.M. programmes which can provide a spring board for lawyers’ careers in specialised areas of international law. Promising international lawyers from all over the world are attracted to Geneva by these programmes and the Institute’s renowned law faculty”, said Professor Andrea Bianchi, Director of the International Law Department at the Graduate Institute.

Areas of Focus

The LL.M. programmes offer international lawyers a number of possibilities for specialisation. In the LL.M. programme in International Law, participants can choose to focus on environment, energy and natural resources, international economic law (investment and trade), or the international protection of vulnerable groups (in cooperation with the Geneva Academy). The Master in International Dispute Settlement focuses on the process of dispute settlement, but also includes optional coursework on substantive areas of law taught by the faculty of the Institute and the University of Geneva. The LL.M. programmes offered through the Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights cover all branches of international law applicable to armed conflict, such as public international law, human rights and humanitarian law, and refugee and criminal law. Participants of the LL.M. in Global Health Law can take courses on trade, intellectual property and health, international organisations law and more.

Recent Support

As a show of support for the LL.M. in International Law, the Canton of Geneva’s Service de la Solidarité internationale recently awarded the Institute with CHF 100,000 to fund four scholarships for participants from developing countries. These scholarships will be used to cover the tuition fees of outstanding candidates from Africa and Asia. The Institute is grateful to the Geneva authorities for their support, and it will strive to increase the financial basis available for promising candidates in the future.