Assas Law School

Assas Law School (École de droit d'Assas) is the law school of the Paris-Panthéon-Assas University (Paris-II), a French public university, often described as the top law school of France. It is one of the successors to the Faculty of Law of Paris with the Sorbonne Law School, and is located in the 5th arrondissement of Paris, on the Place du Panthéon. Assas delivers a graduate degree, after the College of Law (Collège de droit) delivering an undergraduate degree.

Most of its courses are taught on the same building as its historic rival and France's best, the Sorbonne Law School, in the Centre Panthéon, former main site of the Faculty of Law of Paris.

It is the 3rd best law school in France behind the Sorbonne Law School and the Sciences Po Law School and the 6th in Europe and 56th in Europe according to the QS Top universities ranking. It is also ranked as the 1st non-English speaking law faculty worldwide by the same ranking. Assas being considered as the top faculty of law  in France, media focused particularly on it and called even more this law college and school "way of excellence".

History
In 1970, the Edgar Faure Act divided the law faculty of the University of Paris into the new universities of Paris-I, Paris-II, Paris-IX, Paris-X, Paris-XII and Paris-XIII.

While the majority of economists in the law faculty (35 out of 41) chose Paris-I Panthéon-Sorbonne, the majority of lawyers (88 out of 108), including privatists, legal historians and a significant number of publicists, had decided to create a specialised university: Paris II Panthéon-Assas. They subsequently created the Assas Law School within the new university, which also taught economics and journalism.

There is therefore a historical rivalry between the Sorbonne Law School (part of the Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne University) and the Assas Law School (part of the Paris-Panthéon-Assas University). This is made further relevant today due to disparity in political opinion between the two universities. Assas is regarded as the bastion of the far-right within Parisian academic institutions, with far-right extremist organisations such as the Groupe Union Défense and other protests being based there. Additionally, Assas counts members of the Le Pen family which has led the far-right National Rally party in its alumni (Jean-Marie le Pen, Marine Le Pen, Marion Maréchal). Conversely, the Sorbonne Law School (and Paris I) retains a more left-wing reputation, with students commenting in favour of left-wing candidates in the press. The Sorbonne Law School is currently the 17th best law school in the world, and 6th in Europe, unlike the Assas Law School, which is not in the world's top 100. In 2008, Panthéon-Assas University created a special school for selecting its best students, the Collège de droit (3-year undergraduate diploma). Several universities rapidly followed this mode.l It have been criticised by some left-wing students' union, including UNEF, because universities should not make merit-based distinctions according to them.

In 2011, the Assas Law School was created when the first class of the College of Law had its degree. To be admitted, you have to obtain "Summa Cum Laude" in Baccalauréat and pass an entrance test. Each class is composed of around 100 students, now selected among the whole France each year.

École de droit
The Assas Law School offers three main courses, known as "séminaires", the first covering the main concepts of private law, the second the fundamental principles of public law, and the last private economic law. An additional year abroad is mandatory to obtain the Assas Law School degree.

Collège de droit
The Assas Law School is the natural next step for students graduating from the three-year Assas Law College (Collège de droit d'Assas). It is considered to be one of the university's courses of excellence.