Hello all,

Do anyone knows if King` s College London (University of London) still run the LLM in Maritime Law? If they do, can anyone give me more info on the course, as I can not find any details on that course on their website.

Your help will be appreciated

I could find anything about the LLM in Maritime Law either. I know that there has been such an LLM in the last years (see 2006 prospectus at http://www.kcl.ac.uk/pgp06/programme/148).

It looks like KCL and UCL are just redesigning their programmes and their programme websites after having withdrawn from the intercollegiate LLM - which is a pity in my view. I did the intercollegiate LLM at King's some time ago, and I enjoyed the opportunity to do courses at and meet students from the other colleges. I have not found any official statement about the end of the intercollegiate LLM, but there is not reference to the intercollegiate degree anymore on the KCL website.

I would email them or call them to find out what happened to the maritime law courses (and use this opportunity to protest against the end of the intercollegiate degree...).

BTW: UCL does still offer an LLM in Maritime Law.

Hi, im not for sure that reputation of these universities, obviusly its great, but in this area, Southampton its the best, because have a Intitute of Maritime Law, the largest in Europe.

Thank you guys for the advice...

As I am an interntioanl student in London (LSE), i would prefer staying in London, rather than going to Soton or elsewhere to do my LLM in Maritime Law...

I recently found out that City University runs LLM in Maritime Law..

Can anyone advice me on that course in City Uni?
How is the City Law School?

your help will be appriciated

AK.

Outside Southampton and Swansea you might wish to consider Westminster - I did the LLm at UCL last year - rubbish place. Students were pretty much left to fend for themselves. I did Int Trade Law and we had someone who lectured us on Carriage of Goods by Sea from Westminster. He was really (honestly) good. If you want to be in London, Westminster seems ok - since graduating, I have met people who did the LLM in International Commercial Law there and they say how great the support was. Small group teaching and a friendly place.

Good luck.

amanda

Thanks for your advice amanda. I would indeed consider your option.

Thanks to Russ as well.

...you might wish to consider Westminster - I did the LLm at UCL last year - rubbish place.

I know the LLM in trade at UCL left much to be desired - I was registered at UCL last year but was forced to do the trade course at KCL due to a timetable clash - but hnoestly the KCL teaching was in parts worse. The banking/finance stuff was great as was the conflicts element but the sales and carriage sections were painfully, painfully bad. Genuinely toe curling stuff. So please don't go anywhere near the KCL trade course if you are in any way interested in sales or carriage law - you won't learn any.

Don't be obsessed with UCL- Kings or any other London Colleage if you are serious about shipping and trade law! They might have a high standing in academia but in shipping circles they are unknown quantities! That's why they ask retired academics or retired practicioners to come and teach in their LLM! They have no permanent teaching team in this area. You should go somewhere which has an Institute and a team specialising in maritime law. I've completed Swansea LLM in International Maritime Law. As far as I know, at least 2 students from my class are now in City firms. Swansea does training programmes for City Law firms, BIMCO and BP. Professor Williams who teaches Carriage of Goods by Sea at Swansea is an ex-senior partner of Ince & Co and he is consultant with the firm. Professor Thomas is famous in maritime law: he is the author of various books.

With respect neither KCL nor UCL are "unknown quantities" in shipping circles. That can quite clearly be seen from the London Shipping Centre which is based at UCL which is populated by some of the areas most dominant practictioners. I'm not saying that UCL or KCL are the be all and end all, certainly not - Southampton for example is probably the market leader in terms of maritime law - but don't write off the reputation that UCL especially has in Chambers and firms.

Shipping Institute at UCL is a one woman show!!! No substance at all!!

interseting ~~i think i would not consider UCL~~~

hi,

I am currently working as a second officer onboard Maersk vessels. I am planning to complete my Masters exam from southampton UK in April 2013. After that I am currently planning to do my LLM (maritime law). I would like to know which are the best places to do LLM from and what are my career prospects (having a background in the merchant navy). Also how much will it cost (rough estimate)?

I joined this platform a few weeks ago and since then I am observing the correspondence and views expressed with interest. I must tell that I am very surprised with some of the comments made. I see lots of foreign students expressing concerns as to the reputation of law schools and making decisions purely on that. Well I was one of them last year and chose to go to St to do my maritime law llm. Let me tell you one thing: what you read on the School website is very far from reality. When I arrived in September, I discovered that Professor Charles Debatista who is a very big name left the Law School- that was not mentioned on the web-site. I also soon discovered that Professor Merkin teaches only 2 weeks in the LLM programme as he is a research professor- there was no reference to that in the web-site. I also learnt from other students that Professor Gasskel who founded maritime at left the School a few years ago. I ended up taking lectures in key subjects from someone I had never heard about before. I also read comments from people saying go to Bristol or UCL for maritime law as they have good reputation. True UCL has a very good reputation in philosophy of law and Bristol likewise in feminist studies and social studies but do these people know how many maritime/trade lecturers professors exist in Bristol or UCL- not many is the answer as I have friends doing LLMs in those places. All I am saying is that dont be fooled like I was with websites and rankings! Does anyone commenting here know the fact that all rankings published in Newspapers such as Times and Guardian the essential data is obtained from undergraduate courses? I learned all these after I came here. I hope I can help some of you by sharing my disappointment. Be smart and choose a ppace where there is a vibrant environ,ment and people do not live on reputations. Choose somewhere where you will learn a lot. Rankings give you a general idea but no one can claim that Cambridge is the best place for transport law studies! Good luck my friends

Hello Liyin84,
thanks for sharing your experience - it is always interesting to read statements off the beaten "You will have the time of your life at (Insert name of the university attended by the poster himself) - go for it"-track.

Having read your posting I am left with one open question: Did you learn a lot at Soton? If so, I would not care whether the lecturer has already built up his own "brand", as the general prestige held by the law school in maritime circles should suffice for the business card/namedropping/etc-purpose.

Bye
flori
P.S.
As far as the up-to-dateness of the data presented on the webpage is concerned, I give the law school the benefit of doubt that it has implemented a system to ensure that such "big" news are promptly communicated to prospective students.

However, if this was not the case or if the Law School deliberately mislead prospective students....

With all due respect to Linyin84, the things s/he says about all three professors are untrue... Prof Rob Merkin is teaching almost half of the lectures in marine insurance this year, not just two and this is clear from the schedule that has been on Blackboard since before the start of the course. Last year he taught more than half tof the lectures. Charles Debattista taught carriage of goods by sea and trade in their entirety last year and left in September this year. There was no course with Charles Debattista's name on it on the web page this summer: care was taken to ensure that other colleagues' names appeared on the courses he used to teach. He did appear on the web site for as long as he was still a colleague, because for there are purposes outside the LLM context for which this is appropriate, but definitely not on any of the courses. Nick Gaskell did not start maritime law at Soton - he spent 33 very important years at Soton but maritme law has been going on since the early seventies at least. I believe Emeritus Professors John Wilson, David Jackson and Robert Grime were the ones who started it.

In particular because of the quite basic factual mistake in relation to Rob Merkin's teaching schedule, I must say that with all due respect, I cannot dispel a doubt as to whether Linyin84 is genuinely a student at Southampton. This is unfortunate: it would be very good to have more genuine expressions of student opinion on this forum. To the extent that I am simply misreading Linyin84 on the facts and they mean something different, I would love to know this - anonymously if s/he prefers, but I have PMd him/her without any response.

Cambridge cannot be the only university that offers you the best courses in maritime law. However,I truly hope that u didn't turn down Cambridge for Southampton.
Obviously,you are right that noone should make a choice based on rankings and websites. I must say that UK unis turn out to be a great disappointment for most students...
Anyway, hope that you get over your disappointment.