Prof Kai Moller

This course is available on the LLM (extended part-time), LLM (full-time), MSc in Human Rights, 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. For information on controlled access courses, including eligibility, application processes, deadlines, and departmental contact details, please refer to the Controlled Access Courses webpage.

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 1 October 2026

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.

Some knowledge of human or constitutional rights law of any jurisdiction may be helpful, but is not essential. A knowledge of philosophy is not required.

Since the end of the Second World War, judicial review has flourished around the world: in many jurisdictions, courts have been given the power to strike down or declare inapplicable laws passed by the democratic legislature, if they conclude that the law in question violates fundamental rights. What is the point of this practice, and is it justifiable? This course introduces the students to contemporary theories of rights adjudication in a global context. Questions to be discussed include: What are the values on which rights are based – for example, personhood, freedom, equality, or dignity? Are rights principles, as Robert Alexy claims, or are they trumps, as Ronald Dworkin has famously argued? What is the role of the principle of proportionality in rights adjudication? Are there any absolute rights, such as freedom from torture, and can absolute rights be justified? Is the judicial protection of rights undemocratic, or is it consistent with or even required by democracy? Is the point of the judicial protection of rights the creation of a ‘culture of justification’? We will approach these questions by studying both case law and the work of some of the leading theorists of human and constitutional rights, trying to reconcile theory and practice.

20 hours of seminars in the Winter Term.
2 hours of seminars in the Spring Term.

This course has a reading week in Week 6 of Winter Term.

One 2,000 word essay.

The course will draw on both case law from various jurisdictions and scholarly literature, including articles and book chapters by authors including Ronald Dworkin, Robert Alexy, Mattias Kumm, Jeremy Waldron, and Frances Kamm.

Exam (100%), duration: 150 Minutes in the Spring exam period.