LLM in Innovation, Technology and the Law

You must select between 80 and 120 credits of the following courses: 

• Information: Control and Power (20 credits)
  This course will investigate, through a range of legal disciplines and perspectives, the growing focus placed on, and value attached to, information by society, governments, businesses and individuals; concerns as to its control and misuse; and the impact of this on all stakeholder, particularly in the light of the opportunities and challenges of evolving and converging - technologies.
   
• International and European Media Law (20 credits)
  This course will examine the impact of International and European law on, firstly, the structure of media markets and, secondly, the content of media services. The course will start with a discussion of the nature of the media, the media 'value chain', and the relationship between media freedom, freedom of expression and other human rights. It will examine the various international organisations competent in the media field and the regulatory strategies that are being adopted to deal with media convergence and globalisation. In relation to structural matters, consideration will be given to consolidation of media ownership and state funding of the media, in particular public service broadcasting. In relation to content controls, the course will examine attempts to create a more equitable flow of media content and concerns over 'media imperialism', the regulatory problems posed by pornography and hate speech and the balance to be struck between freedom of the media and privacy.

• Robotics, AI and the Law (20 credits)
  The course introduces you to the legal and wider regulatory issues raised by the increasing use of automated and autonomous devices. As we increasingly allow machines to make decisions for us, this raises significant problems for our legal concepts of liability, responsibility legal personhood.

  In addition to gaining a deeper understanding of the specific legal issues that are created by a number of particularly important applications of robotics and autonomous agent technology, you will also acquire a generic understanding of the types of problems that are raised by autonomous technologies for the theory of regulation. You will gain an understanding of the limits of regulation by law and the ability to evaluate comparatively other modes of regulation for a given problem. 

• Legal Technology and the Justice System (20 credits)
  Artificial Intelligence has the potential to change the way law operates - and with that also the future of the law firm. Some commentators, prominent amongst them Richard Susskind, have anticipated for decades major changes in the 'value chain' that law firms produce. This course introduces key technologies that have the potential to impact on the way lawyers operate in practice, with a focus on the issue of digital evidence and computer forensics.
   
• Outer Space Law and Policy (20 credits)
  The course will explore the five main UN treaties relating to space (Outer Space 1967, Rescue Agreement 1968, Liability Convention 1972, Registration Agreement 1975 and Moon Agreement 1979) and their continuing relevance to recent developments in the field of space exploration and use. In addition, each seminar will address a specific development or challenge in regulating space such as human space flight, the peaceful uses of space, remote sensing, sustainable uses of space and space communications. It will also explore the interface between international law, regional initiatives and domestic law.
   
• Software and the Law (20 credits)
  This course will examine how software is generated, protected and commercialised. It will explore the intellectual property protection afforded to software via copyright, patents or trade secrets. It will also explore more complex issues of ownership, such as in the employment context or when AI is used to generate software. The course will explore the requirements imposed on software development with respect to data protection and information security. It will also look at liability issues for software providers and risk assessments and classification of software using AI. Lastly, the course will explore competition law issues relevant to software marketplaces, the definition and compliance with interoperability requirements as well as technical standardisation
   
• EU Data Protection Law (GDPR) (20 credits)
  The purpose of this course is to consider the European Union's (EU) data protection framework as set out in the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The last decade has seen a heightened awareness of data protection and privacy issues, largely brought about by the development of new technologies and business models that rely heavily on the use of personal data. We are now operating in a world where our everyday life is increasingly dominated by 'smart' devices, apps, online platforms and AI systems, and the EU is often seen as leading the global effort in regulating this new data and technology-driven environment. This course will consider whether or not data protection laws are appropriate to cope with the pressures that developments in technology are bringing. It will focus on the principles at the heart of data protection law and examine their application to specific settings. It will also consider the impact the GDPR has already had on the global data protection landscape.
   
• Decentralised Technologies: Law, Finance and Society (20 credits)
  The purpose of this course is to consider the European Union's (EU) data protection framework as set out in the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The last decade has seen a heightened awareness of data protection and privacy issues, largely brought about by the development of new technologies and business models that rely heavily on the use of personal data. We are now operating in a world where our everyday life is increasingly dominated by 'smart' devices, apps, online platforms and AI systems, and the EU is often seen as leading the global effort in regulating this new data and technology-driven environment. This course will consider whether or not data protection laws are appropriate to cope with the pressures that developments in technology are bringing. It will focus on the principles at the heart of data protection law and examine their application to specific settings. It will also consider the impact the GDPR has already had on the global data protection landscape.
   
• Hardware and the Law: Intellectual Property, Safety, Sustainability and Sovereignty for Tech Devices (20 credits)
  The course explores the regulatory frameworks applicable to innovative technical devices such as computer microchips, solar panels, batteries or medical implants. The aim is to engage with all the legal and regulatory protections and obligations relevant to the financing, invention, deployment and commercialisation of such tech devices.
   
• The Legal Challenges of Information Technologies (20 credits)
  This course introduces you to key issues in the fast-paced area of technology law. We will consider a wide variety of hard regulatory questions posed by impacts of emerging information technologies. These systems are often changing, adapting, and shifting, meaning regulation in this domain does too. This creates a policy and legal landscape that is often in a state of flux but also gives us a wide range of case studies, examples, and legal frameworks to consider in this course.
  Each week we will explore and analyse interesting questions about the socio-technical risks and harms posed by specific new technologies, the merits and demerits of different regulatory strategies, and the role law plays in shaping how these technologies impact our everyday lives.
   
• E-Governance, Digital Change and Democritisation (20 credits)
  What is the shape of democracy in the 21st Century? Digital technologies are already impacting virtually every aspect of public life, from high-level decision-making in political spheres to the way local authorities deliver public services; from supporting the delivery of essential services to harnessing the potential of technological innovation to bridge the digital divide and promote economic development
   
• Human-Computer Interaction and Governance (20 credits)
  Technology law students increasingly need higher levels of understanding of computing, and this course explores a domain of computer science called human-computer interaction (HCI). It questions what lessons we can learn from this field for technology law and governance. This course presents a range of methodological and substantive topics to broaden law students' skill sets beyond traditional legal modes of inquiry. This is complemented by utilising novel use cases of cutting-edge technologies to ground class discussions in emerging real life governance problems. We will also reflect on practices of designers and what opportunities there are for addressing legal, cultural, design and social harms in their work.
   
• Contemporary Issues in the Law and Policy of E-Commerce, the Digital Economy and International Information Governance (20 credits)
  This course addresses some of the most topical and current issues in national and international responses to new disruptive business models. It also addresses issues of international governance of technology. It responds flexibly to the latest international developments at the intersection of law, the economy and technology, identifying challenges to current legal regimes in emerging fields of technology, where the law is either not yet settled, or not any longer achieving its purpose.
   
• Legal and Ethical Issues in Digital Journalism (20 credits)
   
• The Law of Advertising and Commercial Speech (20 credits)
  You will be introduced to the role of law and regulation relating to advertising and commercial speech and encouraged to think critically about the social, political and economic impact of advertising and the role of law in shaping this field. We will explore the human rights dimension and the public and private interests that underpin advertising law and regulation. The course will also consider the interplay of self-regulation and statutory regulation and the role of EU law in shaping domestic rules. You will also be encouraged to think about how rules are enforced and jurisdiction in an increasingly integrated international marketplace.

You will have the option to take between 0 and 40 credits of the following courses from different subject areas offered by the Law School, depending on availability and with the express permission of the Programme Director.

• Intellectual Property Law 2: Industrial Property (20 credits)
• Surveillance and Security (20 credits)
• Fundamental Issues in Medical Jurisprudence (20 credits)
• Contemporary Issues in Medical Jurisprudence (20 credits)
• Cybercrime and Cyber Security (20 credits)
• Ethics of Health Technologies (20 credits)
• Introduction to Health Law Reproduction and the Law (20 credits)
• End of Life, Ethics and Law (20 credits)
• Shaping and Regulating Modern Healthcare (10 credits)
• Clinical Negligence and the Law (10 credits)
• Advanced Issues in Patent Law and Policy (20 credits)
• Comparative Statutory Interpretation (20 credits)
• Competition Law, Intellectual Property & the Innovation Economy (20 credits)
• Current Issues in the Case Law of the European Court of Human Rights (20 credits)
• Fundamentals of Comparative Private Law (20 credits)
• Fundamentals of EU Competition Law 1 (20 credits)
• Fundamentals of EU Competition Law 2 (20 credits)
• Fundamentals of Legal Argument (20 credits)
• General Principles of Criminal Law (20 credits)
• Human Rights Law and Armed Conflict (20 credits)
• Intellectual Property Law, Innovation and Creativity (20 credits)
• International Climate Change Law (20 credits)
• International Environmental Law (40 credits)
• International Human Rights Law (20 credits)
• Law and Development (20 credits)
• Reasoning with Precedent (20 credits)
• Sustainability in Food Supply Chains: Law and Policy (20 credits)
• Sustainable Finance and the Law (20 credits)
• The Law of Integration: understanding the EU Legal System (20 credits)
• The Rule of Law (20 credits)

Having successfully completed 120 credit points of courses within the LLM, you will be ready to move onto a single piece of independent and in-depth research. The 10,000 word dissertation allows you to focus on a preferred topic from within the field of innovation, technology and the law, normally based on a subject you have studied in one of your courses during the programme.

You will be assigned an academic dissertation supervisor who will provide you with support and guidance while you prepare and write your dissertation.

The dissertation is a challenging but rewarding endeavour, asking you to demonstrate a comprehensive grasp of the relevant literature and an ability to engage critically with a range of sources, drawing on the skills and knowledge you have developed during the course of the programme. Students are encouraged to show originality and evidence of independent thinking, whether in terms of the material used, or the manner in which it is presented.

The dissertation is written in the summer months (April to August) after the taught courses are successfully completed.

Burkhard is Professor of Computational Legal Theory and Director of the SCRIPT Centre for IT and IP law. His main field of interest is the interaction between law, science and computer technology, especially computer linguistics. How can law, understood as a system, communicate with systems external to it, be it the law of other countries (comparative law and its methodology) or science (evidence, proof and trial process). He is currently working mainly on issues such as privacy compliant software architecture and more generally the scope and limits of representing legal concepts directly in the internet infrastructure.

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Morshed Mannan joined Edinburgh Law School on 1 November 2024 as a Lecturer in Global Law and Digital Technology. He was previously a postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies at the European University Institute, where he was part of the ‘BlockchainGov’ ERC project led by Dr. Primavera de Filippi. His research focuses on blockchain governance and cooperative governance. He received his Ph.D. from Leiden Law School, Leiden University in 2022 for his dissertation entitled: The Emergence of Democratic Firms in the Platform Economy: Drivers, Obstacles and the Path Ahead. 

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Judith Rauhofer is a Lecturer in IT Law and an Associate Director of the Centre for Studies of Intellectual Property and Technology Law (SCRIPT). Her research interests include the commercial and fundamental rights aspects of online privacy and electronic surveillance, data protection, information security and all areas of e-commerce and internet law and policy. Judith is particularly interested in exploring the tensions between privacy as an individual right and as a common good.

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Paolo will be on sabbatical for the 2025-26 academic year

Paolo Cavaliere joined the Law School from September 2014 as a lecturer in Digital Media and IT Law. Prior to joining the School, Paolo has been a researcher at the Programme in Comparative Media Law and Policies of the Centre for Socio-Legal Studies of the University of Oxford where he has also helped to coordinate the Monroe Price Media Law Moot Court Competition. His main interests in research include the discipline of pluralism and diversity in the media, e-democracy and the relationship between new media and politics, regulation of audiovisual industries and digital media. He has written about different aspects of Media law, including “mediacracy” and the democratic deficit of the EU; media pluralism in the European sphere; digital technologies and the political debate in the public sphere.

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Lachlan will be on sabbatical for the 2025-26 academic year

Lachlan is a Lecturer in Technology Law at the University of Edinburgh. He is also a visiting researcher at the Horizon Digital Economy Research Institute, where he was a Research Fellow in Information Technology Law from 2016-2018.

Lachlan's primarily works at the boundaries of computer science (human-computer interaction), information technology law (mainly privacy and information security), and computer ethics. He focusses extensively on the technical, socio-legal, sociological, and ethical implications of living with interactive computing (e.g. Ubicomp/Internet of Things, robotics, smart homes & cities, social media etc.).

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We require a minimum 2:1 honours degree from a UK university, or its international equivalent, in law. We may also consider a UK 2:1 honours degree, or its international equivalent, in a social science subject. Entry to this programme is competitive. Meeting minimum requirements for consideration does not guarantee an offer of study.

Supporting your application

• Relevant work experience is not required but may increase your chances of acceptance.
• Relevant professional qualifications will be considered.
• Preference will be given to those with grades above the minimum requirements due to strong competition for places on this programme.

International qualifications

You can check whether your degree qualification is equivalent to the minimum standard before applying.

Check your degree

Students from China

This degree is Band A.

Find out more about our postgraduate entry requirements for students from China

Postgraduate study in the field of law requires a thorough, complex and demanding knowledge of English, so we ask that the communication skills of all students are at the same minimum standard.

You must demonstrate a level of English language competency at a level that will enable you to succeed in your studies, regardless of your nationality or country of residence.

If you have already met our English language entry requirements for your programme at the time you apply, your application may be considered more competitive in selection than applications where you still need to take an English language test. 

English language tests

We accept the following English language qualifications at the grades specified:

Two year expiry

• IELTS Academic / IELTS Academic for UKVI and IELTS Academic Online: total 7.0 (at least 7.0 in the writing component and 6.5 in each other module)
• TOEFL-iBT (including Home Edition): total 100 (at least 25 in writing and 23 in each other module)
• Trinity ISE: ISE III with a pass in all four components
• Oxford ELLT (Global and Digital): 8 overall with at least 8 in the writing component and 7 in each other component

Three and a half year expiry

• C1 Advanced, formerly known as Cambridge English: Advanced (CAE): 185 (at least 185 in writing and at least 176 in the other modules)
• C2 Proficiency, formerly known as Cambridge English: Proficiency (CPE): 185 (at least 185 in writing and at least 176 in the other modules)

Your English language qualification must be no more than two years old from the start of the month in which the programme you are applying to study begins, unless you are using CAE/CPE, in which case it must be no more than three and a half years old on the first of the month in which the degree begins.

Degrees taught and assessed in English

We also accept an undergraduate or postgraduate degree, that has been taught and assessed in English, either:

1. In a majority English speaking country, as defined by UK Visas & Immigration (UKVI).

UKVI Majority English speaking countries

or

2. On our list of approved universities in non-majority English speaking countries.

Approved universities in non-majority English speaking countries

If you are not a national of a majority English speaking country, then your degree must be no more than five years old at the start of the month in which your programme of study begins.

Full details of the University's English language requirements are available on the University's website

Visit the University's English language requirements web page to find out more

Pre-sessional English for Academic Purposes

We also accept satisfactory completion of our English for Academic Purposes programme as meeting our English language requirements. You must complete the programme no more than two years and one month before the start date of the degree you are applying to study.

Find out more about the University's Pre-sessional English for Academic Purposes

Your application may not be successful if you do not currently satisfy any of these requirements; alternatively, you may be offered a place conditional on your reaching the satisfactory standard by the time you start the degree.

English language support

The University runs a series of programmes for English Language Education, including a pre-sessional English Language Programme intended to strengthen your English Language skills before you start your programme of study.

Find out more about English language support offered by the University

Due to high demand, this programme operates a gathered field approach to admissions, with two application deadlines as noted below.

Each application round has a decision deadline, also listed below, but note that we will make as many offers as possible to the strongest candidates on an ongoing basis, in advance of the published decision deadline. We strongly recommend that you apply as early as possible, especially if you intend to apply for funding or a visa. Applications may close earlier than published deadlines if there is exceptionally high demand. If you are considering applying for our pre-sessional English Language programme, please make sure you apply in Round 1.

Please note that for an application to be reviewed, it must be a complete application by the application deadline with all supporting documentation uploaded, including your transcripts. If you already have evidence that you meet the English language entry requirements, such as via an approved English language test, please upload this evidence at the time of your application. If you have not already met your English language requirements, we will still review your application and issue a decision providing it is otherwise complete.

Selection deadlines

After Round 2, if there are still places available, applications will remain open. As this is not guaranteed, however, you are advised to apply by the application deadlines above.

Please note that the deadline for meeting the conditions of an offer is 14 August 2026.

Applications are made online via the University Application Service, EUCLID.

Please follow the instructions carefully and make sure that you have included the following documentation with your application:

• You will need to submit a personal statement of around 500 words, outlining your academic history and relevant experience. 
  Guidance on writing your personal statement.
• If you have any other relevant experience, for example paid or voluntary work experience or additional qualifications not stated elsewhere, then please include this information in your personal statement, or you can add it to the “Relevant knowledge/training skills” field in the application form.
• Degree certificates showing award of degree.
• Previous academic transcripts for all past degree programmes (please upload the full transcript showing results from all years of study). If you haven’t yet graduated, you may be asked to upload an interim transcript for any degrees that you are currently studying.
• Evidence of English language proficiency, if required.

If you are currently studying for your degree or you are not in a possession of an English test result you may still apply to the programme. Please note that it is your responsibility to submit the necessary documents.

Please be aware that applications must be submitted and complete, i.e. all required documents uploaded, by the relevant application deadline in order to be considered in that round. Your application will still be considered if you have not yet met the English language requirement for the programme.

View full detailed application guidance

Students at this University must not undertake any other concurrent credit bearing studies in this (or in any other) institution, unless the College has granted permission. The College must be satisfied that any additional credit-bearing studies will not restrict the student’s ability to complete their existing programme of study. Students will not be permitted to undertake concurrent degree programmes in any circumstances.

If you are studying at this or another institution just prior to the start of your postgraduate studies you must have finished these studies before the start of the programme to which you have an offer.

After your application has been submitted you will be able to track its progress through the University's applicant hub.

Application processing times will vary, however the admissions team will endeavour to process your application within four to six weeks of submission. Please note that missing documentation will delay the application process.

You will be informed as soon as possible of the decision taken. Three outcomes are possible:

• You may be offered a place unconditionally
• You may be offered a conditional place, which means that you must fulfil certain conditions that will be specified in the offer letter. Where a conditional offer is made, it is your responsibility to inform the College Postgraduate Office when you have fulfilled the requirements set out. 
  Please note that the deadline for meeting the conditions of an offer is 14 August 2026.
• Your application may be unsuccessful. If your application has not been successful, you can request feedback from us or refer to our guidance for unsuccessful applicants, which explains some of the common reasons we why we reach this decision.
  View the University's guidance for unsuccessful applicants

Deferring your offer

We do not normally offer deferrals, however, we may be able to make a very limited number of offers for deferred entry in exceptional circumstances.

View full guidance on deferral requests

If you receive an offer of admission, either unconditional or conditional, you will be asked to pay a tuition fee deposit of £1,500 (within 28 days of receiving your offer) to secure your place on the programme.

Find out more about tuition fee deposits

The University’s terms and conditions form part of your contract with the University, and you should read them, and our data protection policy, carefully before applying.

University of Edinburgh admissions terms and conditions