Master of Law

Introduction

Kateb University offers degrees in International Law and Criminology for master’s level to students with a bachelor degree in Criminal Law, Criminology and other relevant law degrees. The master’s degree is a coursework of 4 semesters, equivalent to two academic years.

International Law

International law in two categories as ‘private international law’ and ‘public international law’ is a set of rules between states and nations that governs the interaction of nations with other nations, their citizens and business entities. Which means that private international law is about relationship between the people and entities of two or more nations, on the other hand, public international law deals with the laws of the sea, economic laws, environment laws, human rights laws and humanitarian laws.

Nations usually enforce laws governed by treaties; however, the United Nations is an international organization that enforces certain treaties with 192 member states.

Graduates with an international law degree can choose from a wide range of careers such as working as international lawyer, corporate lawyer, university professor and researcher at international private law firms, the government and international corporations.

Other potential employers can be the World Bank Group and International Monetary Fund. Afghanistan embassies and consulates worldwide, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and other International Organization based in Afghanistan are only some of the employers.

Criminology

Criminology will give students a broad sight into how societies are affected by crime and criminal behavior. Moreover, they will learn about some of the challenges of the criminal justice system. As a criminal lawyer, graduates can only discuss and provide solutions to crimes when they understand its roots and consequences. There are two interesting opportunities for students to learn real world criminology concepts outside classroom. First, a team of criminology experts will help them gain skills to analyze and assess information related to different criminal cases. Second, during our field trips they will have the chance to meet professional criminal defense lawyers.

There are a variety of professions graduates with a criminology degree can choose to contribute to criminal justice and crime reduction such as the police, prisons, offender management, youth justice and victimization.

Student Development Opportunities

Legal Clinic and Legal Coursework

Identifying the fatal flaw in the legal education system in Afghanistan where students are poorly trained on practical skills such as legal research, writing, and analysis, and critical thinking. In 2016, Kateb University started to adopt a series of new courses that aimed to provide the much needed practical training for law students. We have brought in some highly qualified instructors to teach practical skills to students. We have come to believe that without providing practical legal training courses such as the legal writing course and the pre-clinic course designed and implemented by the Asia Foundation and/ or the American University of Afghanistan (AUAF), we may not be able to compete in the market in the long term. Therefore, creating a legal clinic and offering a comprehensive legal research and legal writing course have been a top priority for us in the last few years.

The primary purpose of the legal clinic is to help provide quality legal education and practical skills training opportunity for law and Sharia law students. The secondary purpose is providing quality legal aid services for indigent women, and children as well as indigent defendants in criminal cases. Students who are assigned to work at the legal clinics are evaluated by their supervisors and their performances scored based on their evaluation results. As mentioned earlier, the criteria for selecting students is gender-sensitive and we will use all our efforts to ensure gender equality and participation in the clinical education program. Kateb University Department of Law plans to launch a public awareness campaign through radio and/or TV announcement targeting the specific populations in Kabul province. In addition to the public awareness program, we plan to hire an active defense lawyer with a good reputation among lawyers community as the clinic supervisor who might help in attracting more clients to the legal clinic.

Three of our full time faculty members including the dean of law faculty and head of law department, take the overall responsibility of the legal clinic and participate in any required training courses that will help them lead and manage the clinic in the best way possible. Benefiting from our contacts at the Asia Foundation, we have already started to teach the Foundation’s Legal Writing Course to our students as their credit- for legal research courses. This course is designed to be offered in two semesters for a total of four credits. In addition, we are preparing to also teach the Foundation’s Pre-Clinic Course Manual designed to prepare students of law and Sharia law faculties to assist defense lawyers at legal clinics as interns and legal fellows.

Research Opportunities

The KU journal of Human Rights is published by the Research Department once a year. Students at the Department of Law are free to conduct and publish research articles for the journal. This helps them with the required experience of research while applying for their PhDs.

Education System at KU

Students will study a total of 32 credits in total, 28 of which will be taught modules and the remainder 4 credits in the form of 1 final thesis.

Courses are of the value of 2 credits.

A four credit course in the final semester is designed to help students improve their legal writing and research skills. This will help students complete the final thesis and submit it in the best way possible.

Faculty Members

Our faculty members are divided into different categories to improve student development at the department. Permanent faculty members are responsible for a number of important tasks such as delivering lectures, organizing field trips, supervising final thesis projects, supervising student research projects, organizing law clinic courses, preparing students for the ICC Moot Court and updating the curricula.

Updates in the Curriculum

The curriculum committee at the department of law and our faculty members work tirelessly to recognize any updates needed to be brought in the curriculum. Every semester a program review takes place which is submitted to the Educational Council of KU with proposed changes and updates. After approval, faculty members then bring the recommended changes.

Curriculum

The LLM course typically offers around 11 different courses in one year and course credits will be offered on such diverse topics as law of treaties, state responsibility, law of the sea, international economic law, international dispute resolution, Islamic international law, private international law, intellectual property law, human rights law and corporate governance etc.

Master of International Law Degree Plan

Master of Criminal and Criminology Law Degree Plan

Career Paths

Earning a PhD in International Law gives you the foundation necessary for a career in business and government jobs that crosses international boundaries. You will receive a solid foundation in the laws that are universal to most countries. The best option for a student with a masters degree in International Law students can further their study for PhD level. Earning a PhD in International Law will not only help students with a career in corporate and government world nationally but also open a door towards a global career that crosses international boundaries.

A master’s degree in International Law will give students the right skills and ability to research. Some PhD programs require students to have research articles published before they go on to study PhD. Getting a doctoral degree in International Law can help you work at international law firms, government agencies and businesses that hire legal professionals, nationally and globally.