Dear all,
I have more or less decided to attend the LLM programme in Cambridge in autumn. Now I have just talked to a girl (like me from Germany) who spent a year at Cambridge and who told me that her courses (undergraduate courses though) were not especially demanding, that she studied very little and that she spent most of her time enjoying the social life. I really intend to enjoy the social life in Cambridge, but I would like to learn something in my courses as well. Does anybody have an idea about the academic quality of the LLM courses (especially in European and public international law)?

I am planning to undertake an LLM at Cambridge (at Jesus College) this year but have also been accepted to the BCL program at Oxford (my main interest is in international law). I have friends who are currently undertaking the LLM and BCL programs so I got their views on which is the better program for me (must say I did find it all a bit confusing and have not made my final choice yet).

In summary, their views were as follows

BCL - very happy with the course and the quality of the teaching. Their recommendation to me though was that if I wanted to study international law (with the exception of European Union law) then Cambridge is the place to be.

LLM - the standards of the teaching had not quite lived up to what they had hoped for (with the exception of Professor Crawford who, apparently, is exceptional). However, they had not regretted their experience and have got many fantastic opportunties from undertaking the LLM. I understand that at Cambridge LLM courses are taught in two 8 week blocks meaning that you only have sixteen 2 hour lectures for the whole year.

Hope this helps.

That doesn't sound too promising... I think I will still go to Cambridge though - the experience will go far beyond the courses, I guess! As I said, I'm interested in European and public international law. I intend to attend the following courses: European and International Environmental Law, Contemporary Issues in the Law of European Integration, Competition Law and The WTO and International Economic Law. Have your friends told you anything about these courses (e.g. about how Joanne Scott teaches)? As I already heard twice now how great Professor Crawford is, I am considering attending the lectures on Settlement of International Disputes as well - just for the fun :-)
Would be nice to meet you in Cambridge in autumn!

LL.M programmes in the UK have 'quality' requirements set by the government through agencies such as http://www.scqf.org.uk/ in Scotland and http://www.qca.org.uk/ in England.

I'd expect taught masters programmes in the UK to require 180 credit points, where each credit point is approximate to ten hours consisting of lessons, other study, research or assessment.

It sounds like the figure quoted of two hours per week, is a per-course-per-semester figure and not per-programme-per-semester.

Some students will be able to carry out the work faster than others, for which they are not penalised in any way, but achieving good scores on any LL.M of value should demand a lot of work from students.

I'm only talking in general terms about LL.M programmes. I hope it provides some useful background information to the original question about the quality of the Cambridge LL.M.

I don't mean to put you off. After I spoke to my friend she sent me an email with the following: "again, I should emphasise that I think you'll have an amazing time and my experience has definitely been worthwhile, I just think it is good to have a realistic view of what it will be like in advance. But I'm sure it will be awesome. I hope I didn't put a dampener on things."

At least one of my friends is doing International Economic Law - I have not asked them about it specifically though. I have not heard anything about Joanne Scott.

I am undecided about exactly what courses I will do (will all be international law subjects though). I understand that it is quite common for students to "audit" other subjects i.e. sit in on lectures for a course but not undertake any of the assessment.

Colin - my email was not very clear. I meant that you have (as I understand it) sixteen 2 hour lectures per course (4 courses for the LLM program) per year. This means that you would have 128 hours of teaching throughout the year for the LLM program at Cambridge - could be wrong on this though.

You didn't put me off. I think as well that it is good to be prepared as to what to expect (in this case: a marvellous time with not too much stress and many interesting people around, I hope!) and what not (very good courses). If you speak by accident with your friend who did International Economic Law, it would be great if you could ask him how the course was. I am going to write a thesis either in this course or in European and International Environmental Law. Both courses are mainly taught by Joanne Scott, which is the reason why I am particularly interested in knowing more about her.