The Postgraduate Diploma in International Law is a one-year full-time (or two-year part-time) research course and is awarded on the basis of a dissertation not exceeding 30,000 words, inclusive of footnotes but exclusive of appendices and bibliography. Students are assigned a supervisor by the Faculty's Degree Committee. The main aims of the course are: to give students with relevant experience at first-degree and/or Master's level the opportunity to carry out focussed research on an approved research topic in the field of international law under close supervision; to give students the opportunity to acquire or develop skills and expertise relevant to their research interests; and to enable students to engage in work which is innovative and at the leading edge of legal scholarship.