Program Overview

The four-year Bachelor of Civil Law (Human Rights) is an innovative and unique programme – the first of its kind in Ireland. It offers students the opportunity to combine a full undergraduate law programme with the study of human rights.

The study of human rights involves gaining an understanding of how the international human rights treaties function as tools to ensure that states respect and protect the equal human dignity of all people. Students will learn about how human rights law develops, including the influence of activism and grassroots movements for social change.

Human rights are not just legal concepts; therefore students on this course will have the opportunity to gain philosophical and political insights that will broaden their knowledge and deepen their critical thinking skills. Students will also study emerging areas of human rights law and contemporary issues of large-scale injustice such as climate change, the environment and human rights; data privacy; refugee rights; poverty; and business and human rights. In addition, this course will provide a basic introduction to International Criminal Law and International Humanitarian Law.

Students on the programme will be challenged and engaged by a rich curriculum of core and optional law modules.  Students will be trained in key legal skills such as written and oral advocacy; and they will be educated in the principles, theories and doctrines of human rights law and practice.

The School of Law and the Irish Centre for Human Rights at University of Galway are pioneers in legal education and research on human rights. Students will have access to world leading researchers, writers and lecturers in human rights at the Irish Centre for Human Rights.

Students complete all the modules required to support them to undertake the entrance exams for the Law Society of Ireland, should they wish to qualify as a solicitor. Students who wish to qualify as a barrister will have the option of taking all additional modules required by the Honourable Society of King’s Inns, through the Legal Professions specialised stream in the final year.