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- College of Law
- graduate
LLM- Arbitration And Dispute Resolution
- Evening classes (6 PM – 9 PM), three times per week
- September, January or April
- 33 CH total (5 Core Courses, 4 Specialized Courses, 1 Thesis)
- 12 months (4 terms)
Overview
The ADR specialization prepares graduates to act as arbitrators, mediators, counsel, and dispute resolution specialists in domestic and international disputes. Students gain an advanced understanding of arbitration law, mediation techniques, negotiation strategies, and international dispute settlement mechanisms.
Benefits & Distinctive Features
- Comprehensive focus on national and International Arbitration Law, and investment arbitration.
- Hands-on practice: moot courts, award drafting, arbitration agreement workshops.
- Exposure to global practice: DIAC, ADGM, and other major arbitration hubs.
Admission Requirement
| Regular Admission | Conditional Admission |
| Accredited bachelor’s degree in Law with minimum GPA of 3.0 | Accredited bachelor’s degree in any field with a GPA of 2.00 – 2.99 |
Career Opportunities
Graduates are well-positioned to work as:
- Arbitration lawyers and legal counsel
- Accredited arbitrators and mediators
- Dispute resolution specialists in arbitration centers, corporations and government
Core Courses
Students have to complete the five core courses (15 credit hours) which are common to both tracks/concentration followed by five courses from the chosen track. Students can also do dual Specialization.
| Course Code | Course Number | Core LLM courses | CH | Prerequisite |
| LLM | 600 | Legal Research & Writing Skills | 3 | – |
| LLM | 610 | Legal Systems | 3 | – |
| LLM | 635 | Corporate Law | 3 | – |
| LLM | 645 | International Business Transactions * | 3 | – |
| LLM | 650 | Litigation – Principles & Practice* | 3 | – |
LLM- ADR
| Course Code | Course Number | Specialized LLM courses | CH | Prerequisite |
| LLM-ADR | 700 | UAE Arbitration Law * | 3 | – |
| LLM-ADR | 710 | International Arbitration Law* | 3 | – |
| LLM-ADR | 725 | International Investment Law & Arbitration | 3 | – |
| LLM-ADR | 730 | Alternative Dispute Resolution* | 3 | – |
| LLM-ADR | 740 | Thesis | 6 | 24 CH |
Courses Description
LLM 600 – Legal Research and Writing Skills
The Legal Research and Writing Skills is a core element of the LLM program. The emphasis of this module is firstly on the development of research techniques and the development of key analytical and rhetorical techniques necessary for independent work at the postgraduate level. Secondly, this module also focuses on students writing skills from a legal practice perspective. It is sufficiently general that students form a variety of backgrounds with a diverse range of postgraduate aims will benefit. At the same time, it is sufficiently specific so that a number of the key issues involved in advanced research skills and methods are addressed. This course uses key terms and facts in legal research such as legislation, treaties, the UAE Civil Code, and identifies issues for legal research using analytical tools such as case law and briefings. This course will also address principles of citation, referencing, literature review, research methodologies (empirical, economic, comparative, analytical, descriptive and other approaches relevant to high quality legal research). The coverage includes updating and validating the research, writing the research report, and presentation of research findings.LLM 610 – Legal Systems
This course provides a comparative introduction to major global legal systems with emphasis on common law (used in DIFC and ADGM), civil law (Dubai Courts), and aspects of international law, mainly from a contractual perspective. The course introduces divergent legal systems and traditions focusing on the differences between common and civil law.LLM 630 – Corporate Law
The course examines business structures and provides an overview of basic corporations law including the formation of companies especially under UAE and DIFC laws and consequences of incorporation; company internal rules; management and contracting; governance including membership, meetings and directors duties, shareholders remedies, accounts and financial reporting and audit, corporate litigation and regulation, liquidation and bankruptcy; external administration of companies; and UAE regional and international corporate governance standards, ethics and corporate social responsibility.LLM 645 – International Business Transactions
This course is intended to prepare students to represent clients in a variety of business transactions that contain international elements. The emphasis is on the formation and enforcement of agreements between private commercial parties and on the anticipation and recognition of issues that are peculiar to, or are especially prevalent in, international business. The course follows a sequence of increasingly complex transactions, from the isolated purchase and sale of goods, through sales through distributors and licensing, to foreign direct investment. Topics include:- The formation of the basic commercial transaction
- Financing the international sale of goods
- Agency and distributorships
- Licensing of intellectual property
- Establishing and operating a foreign investment
- Dispute settlement
LLM 650 – Litigation: Principles & Practices
The course deals with principles and practices of litigation. Attention will be paid to the best practices and skills needed in resolving commercial disputes through litigation. Emphasis will be given to the laws of UAE particularly the Civil Procedure Code, as a model for Civil Law jurisdictions. The course will cover generality of aspects relating to commencement of action (before UAE courts) to execution proceedings including enforcement of foreign judgements. In addition, the course will also cover the practice and procedure of Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC), and Abu-Dhabi Global Market (ADGM) Courts as model for common law jurisdictions operating within UAE.LLM-ADR 701 – UAE Arbitration Law
This course explains the principles and practice of domestic and international commercial arbitration. It provides the legal and regulatory framework for the UAE Federal Arbitration Law (Federal Law No. 6 of 2018). It discusses the arbitral process starting from the arbitration agreement, the role of arbitration rules, the importance of applicable law choice, the relationship between local courts and arbitration tribunals and institutions, and the enforcement and challenge proceedings of arbitral awards.LLM-ADR 711 – International Arbitration Law
This advanced course focuses in more detail on some key elements of arbitration. Topics that will be discussed are confidentiality of arbitral proceedings, challenge and disqualification of arbitrators, choosing an Arbitral Institution, provisional measures in arbitration, multiparty and multi-contract issues in arbitration, annulment, challenge, enforcement and revision of arbitral awards and the New York Convention. Practical experience is an important part of this course and therefore it also includes detailed attention for the drafting of an effective arbitration agreement, for the drafting of an award as well as moot court sessions.LLM-ADR 725 – International Investment Law & Arbitration
The course deals with principles of international investment law and arbitration. While delivering the course attention will be paid to a comprehensive account of various bilateral and multilateral investment treaties and the disputes arising out of the treaties. The course will provide students with a current and advanced understanding of general principles regulating foreign direct investment and arbitration. Students will be exposed to advance understanding of investment treaty arbitration (ITA), role of institutions particularly the International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID), and public policy dimension of investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS).LLM-ADR 730 – Alternative Dispute Resolution
This course discusses the origin, and practice of various alternative dispute resolutions, emphasizing the techniques underlying these increasingly significant and evolving areas. Its premise is that to be effective, legal experts must possess both strong analytical skills to identify solutions to problems and a broad array of skills to empower acceptance of those solutions. This course covers these skills. The course includes detailed attention for the drafting of effective alternative dispute resolution clauses as well as moot court sessions.LLM-ADR 740 – Thesis
The purpose of this course is to write a thesis on a research topic, using adequate and acceptable sources of legal information. The course allows participants to draw on knowledge and comprehension of legal issues gained in the previous LLM courses. The thesis must provide a competent synthesis and critical analysis of the relevant materials and must be satisfactory as regards structure, style and presentation.How to Apply?
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