Best Law Schools

University of Toronto Faculty of Law

Toronto, Ontario, Canada

JD / professional law degree

The Faculty of Law at Toronto runs a named clinic and program line-up, including the David Asper Centre for Constitutional Rights, Downtown Legal Services and an International Human Rights Program. It also offers a Global Professional Master of Laws aimed at experienced lawyers and other professionals, so the school is relevant both to first-degree and to advanced study.

McGill University Faculty of Law

Montreal, Québec, Canada

LLB / first law degree

McGill's integrated BCL/JD teaches common law and civil law together, using transsystemic courses taught comparatively and in a bilingual English and French setting. The program also requires a first-year course on Indigenous legal traditions, and the faculty lists research units such as the Institute of Air and Space Law and the Centre for Human Rights and Legal Pluralism.

Tsinghua University School of Law

Beijing, Beijing, China

LLM / Master of Laws

Tsinghua offers an English-language LL.M. in Chinese Law designed only for foreign law students and legal professionals, plus specialised LL.M. tracks in international arbitration and dispute settlement and in intellectual property and innovation policy. This is a route for people who want to study the Chinese legal system from inside China rather than through a comparative survey abroad.

Facultad de Derecho, Universidad de los Andes

Bogotá, Bogotá D.C., Colombia

LLM / Master of Laws · LLB / first law degree · PhD / SJD / JSD

Uniandes Law offers an undergraduate law program alongside a published 20 postgraduate programmes, plus continuing education and an international summer school. It operates a Consultorio Jurídico with legal clinics and the Centro de Investigaciones Sociojurídicas (CIJUS), and its site reports student wins in national and international academic competitions.

Heidelberg University Faculty of Law

Heidelberg, Germany

LLM / Master of Laws · LLB / first law degree

Heidelberg's ten-semester state-examination degree in law is taught in German and builds in legal history, philosophy and sociology of law, comparative law, work placements and moot courts, with a specialism chosen in international, European or procedural law. Graduates of non-German universities can take a two-semester LL.M. (Legum Magister) at the same faculty.

The University of Hong Kong, Faculty of Law

Hong Kong, Hong Kong

PhD / SJD / JSD · JD / professional law degree · LLM / Master of Laws · Other law master’s · +2 more

HKU Law lists specialist centres including the Philip K.H. Wong Centre for Chinese Law, the Asian Institute of International Financial Law and the Law and Technology Centre. It also publishes pathway programmes with King's College London, UNSW and Berkeley Law, and a joint legal education programme with UBC, which suits students who want a common-law base with Asian and cross-border exposure.

National Law School of India University

Bengaluru, Karnataka, India

Postgrad diploma · LLB / first law degree · LLM / Master of Laws · PhD / SJD / JSD

NLSIU describes itself as the first National Law University, set up in 1986, and as an early introducer of the five-year integrated law degree. It offers the five-year BA LLB (Hons.), a three-year postgraduate LLB (Hons.) open to graduates of any discipline, and research degrees, and it lists a student exchange programme and a public lecture series.

Tel Aviv University - The Buchmann Faculty of Law

Tel Aviv, Israel

LLB / first law degree · LLM / Master of Laws

Tel Aviv's Buchmann Faculty hosts a long list of named research centres, among them the Minerva Center for Human Rights, the Fischer Center for Corporate Governance, the Taubenschlag Institute of Criminal Law and the Cegla Center for Interdisciplinary Research of the Law. It also lists clinics and thematic workshops such as law and economics and empirical legal studies, which points to an interdisciplinary, research-heavy culture.

The University of Tokyo, Graduate Schools for Law and Politics / Faculty of Law

Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan

JD / professional law degree · PhD / SJD / JSD · Other law master’s

Tokyo's School of Law is a graduate Juris Doctor with a three-year track for those without prior legal education and a two-year track for those with it. The Graduate Schools for Law and Politics also run a separate master's program in legal and political studies that admits foreign students, with options in positive law, comparative, historical and theoretical studies of law, and politics.

University of Cape Town

Cape Town, Western Cape, South Africa

LLM / Master of Laws · PhD / SJD / JSD · LLB / first law degree · Postgrad diploma · +1 more

UCT's Faculty of Law teaches the LLB and, through its School for Advanced Legal Studies, offers LLM and MPhil degrees by coursework or dissertation, postgraduate diplomas and doctoral research. The faculty also publishes a semester study-abroad route and maintains the Oliver Tambo Moot Court, relevant for students looking at African and South African law with international exchange options.

University of Oxford - Faculty of Law

Oxford, England, United Kingdom

PhD / SJD / JSD · Diploma · Postgrad diploma · Short course · +2 more

Oxford's Faculty of Law combines a three-year BA in Jurisprudence with a postgraduate taught range that includes the Bachelor of Civil Law, the Magister Juris and specialist MScs in areas such as criminology, finance and international human rights law. Research is organised through named units, among them the Bonavero Institute of Human Rights and the Institute of European and Comparative Law, which gives students in comparative and rights-based law a concentrated body of scholars to work with.

Yale Law School

New Haven, Connecticut, United States

PhD / SJD / JSD · JD / professional law degree · LLM / Master of Laws · Legal studies master’s

Yale is deliberately small and puts live-client clinical work at the centre of the JD, with students taking clinics from their first year. It is a fit for people drawn to public-interest, policy and scholarly careers who want close contact with faculty rather than a large cohort.