Suspended in 2025/26
LL4BA Half Unit
International Law and the Movement of Persons within States
This information is for the 2025/26 session.
Course Convenor
Dr Chaloka Beyani
Availability
This course is available on the LLM (extended part-time), LLM (full-time), MSc in Human Rights, MSc in International Migration and Public Policy, MSc in International Migration and Public Policy (LSE and Sciences Po), MSc in Law and Finance and University of Pennsylvania Law School LLM Visiting Students. This course is available with permission as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit. This course uses controlled access as part of the course selection process.
How to apply: Priority will be given initially to LLM, MSc Regulation and MSc Law and Finance students on a first-come-first-served allocation.
Spaces permitting, requests from all other students will be processed on the same first-come-first-served allocation from 10am on Thursday 2 October 2025
By submitting an application, students are confirming that they meet any pre-requisites specified. Providing an additional written statement will not aid a student's chances of being accepted onto a course, and statements are not read.
Deadline for application: Not applicable
For queries contact: Law.llm@lse.ac.uk
This course has a limited number of places and we cannot guarantee all students will get a place.
Course content
The course provides a detailed study of the international legal framework in which the causes, problems, policies, standards, techniques and institutions concerning the movement of persons within States are situated. The substantive course content explores the overlap between International Human Rights Law, International Humanitarian Law, International Criminal Law, Climate Change, and International Humanitarian Assistance. It covers: standards governing the movement of persons within States; the protection of persons displaced within States forcible transfer of populations in occupied territory; individual criminal responsibility for forcible displacement before ad hoc Tribunals with criminal jurisdiction and the International Criminal Court; standards applicable in international law to the protection of internally displaced persons, the regime of humanitarian assistance based on the principles of humanity; coordination of humanitarian assistance by the United Nations Inter-Agency Committee; the role of the protection clusters; and finally the institutional protection of internally displaced persons by the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Internally Displaced Persons, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, and the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Refugees.
Topics include:
- Regulation of movement and residence within States in International Law
- Territorialism, movement, and displacement
- International Human Rights Law
- Protection of Internally Displaced Persons in International Humanitarian Law
- The Regime of Climate Change induced Displacement
- Individual Criminal Responsibility for Forcible Displacement
- Institutional Protection and Humanitarian Assistance
- Internally Displaced Persons in Post-Conflict Situations
- Internally displaced persons and the role of the UN Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Internally Displaced Persons
- Remedies and ‘durable’ solutions for Internally Displaced Persons.
Teaching
20 hours of seminars in the Winter Term.
This course has a reading week in Week 6 of Winter Term.
Formative assessment
All students are expected to produce one 2,000 word formative essay during the course.
Indicative reading
Wlater Kalin, Internal Displacement and the Law, (Oxford 2023).
Guy.S. Goodwin_Gill and Jane MacAdam, The Refugee in International Law, 4th ed., (Oxford, 20021).
Allehone Abebe, The Emerging Law of Forced Displacement in Africa: Development and Implementation of the Kampala Convention on Internally Displaced Persons (Routledge, 2017).
Catherine Phuong, International Protection of Internally Displaced Persons (Cambridge, 2009). J. McAdam, Climate Change, Forced Migration, and International Law (OUP, 2012)
Assessment
Exam (100%), duration: 150 Minutes in the Spring exam period
Key facts
Department: LSE Law School
Course Study Period: Winter Term
Unit value: Half unit
FHEQ Level: Level 7
CEFR Level: Null
Total students 2024/25: 10
Average class size 2024/25: 10
Controlled access 2024/25: YesCourse selection videos
Some departments have produced short videos to introduce their courses. Please refer to the course selection videos index page for further information.
Personal development skills
- Communication
- Specialist skills