Best universities for law degrees 2024

Find the best universities for law degrees using Times Higher Education’s World University Rankings 2024 data

October 26 2023

Top 10 universities in the world for law 2024

Scroll down for the full list of best universities in the world for law degrees

Law rank 2024	Law rank 2023	University	Country/region
1	6	Harvard University	United States
2	1	Stanford University	United States
3	3	University of Cambridge	United Kingdom
=4	12	Columbia University	United States
=4	2	New York University	United States
6	13	University of California, Berkeley	United States
7	4	University of Oxford	United Kingdom
8	=7	University of Melbourne	Australia
9	10	The University of Chicago	United States
10	5	Yale University	United States

A law degree is the first step on a number of career paths – including a career as a solicitor, a barrister or a judge. Many universities around the world provide law degrees, so it can be difficult to choose the best one for you.

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Times Higher Education has ranked the top universities for law degrees. Harvard University in the US takes first place, followed by Stanford University. A fifth of the universities in the law ranking are located in the US.

The University of Cambridge and the University of Oxford are the only UK universities in the top 10. There are 53 UK universities in the ranking in total.

The University of Toronto, in joint 21st place, is the highest-ranked Canadian university. Sixteen other Canadian universities feature in the ranking.

Times Higher Education’s subject rankings are based on the same 18 performance indicators used in the overall World University Rankings 2024. However, the methodology is carefully recalibrated for each subject, with the weightings changed to suit the individual fields. The full methodology for law can be found here.

Scroll down for a comprehensive guide to what you can do with a law degree, and the top universities in the subject.

What can you do with a law degree?

Top 5 universities for law degrees

=4. New York University

New York University’s School of Law was established in 1835.

There are a number of graduate programmes available, as well as LLM dual degrees with other schools, including the National University of Singapore.

The School of Law offers the JD for undergraduate students. Also offered are dual JD degrees in various fields such as taxation, international law, economics, history, philosophy or politics and French studies.

=4. Columbia University

Columbia Law School was founded in 1858.

The school offers a range of programmes include the JD degree, the LLM programme, and the JSD programme. It also offers dual and joint degrees.

The programmes at the university cover a range of study areas including criminal justice, environment and energy, law and philosophy and constitutional law, among many others.

3. University of Cambridge

The Faculty of Law at the University of Cambridge offers six degree options at undergraduate and postgraduate level.

Master’s courses include an MPhil in criminology, an MPhil in criminological research, a diploma in legal studies and a diploma in international law.

The Squire Law Library at the University of Cambridge is one of the three largest legal collections in the UK, with almost 180,000 volumes. The collection is strongest in British law, but it contains collections on legal systems across the world including the US, Australia, Canada and New Zealand. There are also smaller collections relating to other countries.

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2. Stanford University

Stanford Law School is known for having one of the lowest student-to-staff ratios in the US, at 7.3:1. Students can choose from 280 different courses to specialise in the area that interests them.

Law courses at Stanford begin with an overview in the first year covering criminal law, contracts, tort, and legal research and writing.

The Robert Crown Law Library at Stanford holds about 500,000 books.

Stanford law students run more than 50 student organisations, including the law and wine society, Stanford Law Students for Gender Violence Prevention, Women in Politics, and the Black Law Students Association. There are also 12 legal journals affiliated with the law school.

1. Harvard University

Harvard Law School offers wide range of courses at both undergraduate and postgraduate level.

The school has a range of resources and workshops to help students plan their careers in the legal field and experience various aspects of the profession while still studying. These include a spotlight on judicial clerkships, networking opportunities and career advising for both the private and public sector.

The school also hosts the visiting scholar/visiting researcher programme, which accommodates a small number of legal scholars and researchers from around the world who are engaged in major research projects.

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Top universities for law degrees 2024

Click each institution to view its World University Rankings 2024 profile

Law rank 2024	Law rank 2023	University	Country/region
1	6	Harvard University	United States
2	1	Stanford University	United States
3	3	University of Cambridge	United Kingdom
=4	12	Columbia University	United States
=4	2	New York University	United States
6	13	University of California, Berkeley	United States
7	4	University of Oxford	United Kingdom
8	=7	University of Melbourne	Australia
9	10	The University of Chicago	United States
10	5	Yale University	United States
11	9	National University of Singapore	Singapore
12	11	UCL	United Kingdom
13	15	University of Edinburgh	United Kingdom
14	=7	London School of Economics and Political Science	United Kingdom
15	31	Georgetown University	United States
16	14	KU Leuven	Belgium
17	29	Leiden University	Netherlands
18	=21	Tilburg University	Netherlands
19	23	Maastricht University	Netherlands
20	30	University of Amsterdam	Netherlands
=21	18	Australian National University	Australia
=21	=34	University of Pennsylvania	United States
=21	16	University of Toronto	Canada
24	28	Duke University	United States
25	26	LMU Munich	Germany
26	25	University of Michigan-Ann Arbor	United States
27	19	King’s College London	United Kingdom
28	=21	University of California, Los Angeles	United States
=29	24	University of Hong Kong	Hong Kong
=29	17	McGill University	Canada
31	32	Humboldt University of Berlin	Germany
32	20	UNSW Sydney	Australia
33	33	Tsinghua University	China
34	39	University of Bologna	Italy
35	27	Cornell University	United States
36	=36	University of Virginia (Main campus)	United States
37	=34	University of British Columbia	Canada
38	50	Lund University	Sweden
39	49	George Mason University	United States
40	38	University of Sydney	Australia
41	57	University of Vienna	Austria
42	45	University of Hamburg	Germany
=43	63	University of Glasgow	United Kingdom
=43	=64	University of Oslo	Norway
=45	=47	Chinese University of Hong Kong	Hong Kong
=45	51	City University of Hong Kong	Hong Kong
=45	46	University of Copenhagen	Denmark
=45	40	University of Nottingham	United Kingdom
49	=47	University of Essex	United Kingdom
50	86	Queen Mary University of London	United Kingdom
51	43	University of Geneva	Switzerland
52	56	University of Helsinki	Finland
53	=90	University of California, Irvine	United States
54	93	Vanderbilt University	United States
55	59	Vrije Universiteit Brussel	Belgium
56	74	University of Minnesota	United States
57	151–175	University of Cologne	Germany
58	71	University of Ottawa	Canada
59	55	University of Leeds	United Kingdom
=60	42	Durham University	United Kingdom
=60	54	University of Groningen	Netherlands
62	101–125	Northwestern University	United States
63	52	George Washington University	United States
64	41	Monash University	Australia
=65	79	Goethe University Frankfurt	Germany
=65	70	Panthéon-Sorbonne University – Paris 1	France
=65	78	University of Pretoria	South Africa
=68	68	University of Luxembourg	Luxembourg
=68	77	University of Texas at Austin	United States
70	62	Sapienza University of Rome	Italy
71	=98	Shanghai Jiao Tong University	China
=72	69	Ghent University	Belgium
=72	101–125	Trinity College Dublin	Ireland
=74	82	Erasmus University Rotterdam	Netherlands
=74	72	The University of Queensland	Australia
=74	=64	University of Surrey	United Kingdom
=77	53	Free University of Berlin	Germany
=77	NR	Université Libre de Bruxelles	Belgium
79	=87	Indiana University	United States
80	44	University of Washington	United States
81	=60	Hebrew University of Jerusalem	Israel
82	94	University of Florida	United States
83	101–125	University of Warwick	United Kingdom
=84	NR	University of Münster	Germany
=84	101–125	University of Zurich	Switzerland
86	58	American University	United States
87	=83	Radboud University Nijmegen	Netherlands
88	=60	University of Montreal	Canada
89	=64	University of Bristol	United Kingdom
=90	=83	Boston University	United States
=90	=98	Northeastern University, US	United States
92	126–150	Complutense University of Madrid	Spain
93	=95	University of Manchester	United Kingdom
=94	NR	SOAS University of London	United Kingdom
=94	101–125	Tel Aviv University	Israel
96	126–150	York University	Canada
97	=90	University of Gothenburg	Sweden
98	85	Pompeu Fabra University	Spain
99	=75	University of Birmingham	United Kingdom
100	81	Dalhousie University	Canada
101–125	=87	University of Adelaide	Australia
101–125	100	University of Alberta	Canada
101–125	126–150	University of Antwerp	Belgium
101–125	126–150	Université Catholique de Louvain	Belgium
101–125	73	City, University of London	United Kingdom
101–125	176–200	University of Coimbra	Portugal
101–125	151–175	University of Exeter	United Kingdom
101–125	101–125	University of Göttingen	Germany
101–125	176–200	University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign	United States
101–125	=75	University of Kent	United Kingdom
101–125	151–175	University of Lausanne	Switzerland
101–125	101–125	University of Liverpool	United Kingdom
101–125	201–250	University of Notre Dame	United States
101–125	101–125	Paris Sciences et Lettres – PSL Research University Paris	France
101–125	176–200	Queensland University of Technology	Australia
101–125	97	University of São Paulo	Brazil
101–125	201–250	University of Southern California	United States
101–125	101–125	Stockholm University	Sweden
101–125	151–175	University of Tasmania	Australia
101–125	=95	University of Technology Sydney	Australia
101–125	126–150	Temple University	United States
101–125	126–150	University College Dublin	Ireland
101–125	101–125	Uppsala University	Sweden
101–125	80	University of Wollongong	Australia
101–125	101–125	Zhejiang University	China
126–150	101–125	University of Auckland	New Zealand
126–150	126–150	University of Barcelona	Spain
126-150	126-150	Birkbeck, University of London	United Kingdom
126–150	=90	University of Calgary	Canada
126–150	151–175	University of Cape Town	South Africa
126–150	151–175	Cardiff University	United Kingdom
126–150	126–150	Carlos III University of Madrid	Spain
126–150	101–125	University of Colorado Boulder	United States
126–150	101–125	University of Dundee	United Kingdom
126–150	126–150	Emory University	United States
126–150	151–175	University of Erlangen-Nuremberg	Germany
126–150	201–250	Jagiellonian University	Poland
126–150	NR	Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia	Malaysia
126–150	89	Lancaster University	United Kingdom
126–150	101–125	University of Miami	United States
126–150	101–125	University of Navarra	Spain
126–150	176–200	University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill	United States
126–150	201–250	Université du Québec	Canada
126–150	101–125	Queen’s University	Canada
126–150	151–175	Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies – Pisa	Italy
126–150	176–200	Stellenbosch University	South Africa
126–150	176–200	University of Turin	Italy
126–150	126–150	University of Victoria	Canada
126–150	101–125	Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam	Netherlands
126–150	126–150	University of York	United Kingdom
151–175	101–125	Aarhus University	Denmark
151–175	151–175	University of the Andes, Colombia	Colombia
151–175	126–150	Arizona State University (Tempe)	United States
151–175	151–175	Autonomous University of Madrid	Spain
151–175	201–250	University of California, Davis	United States
151–175	176–200	University of Connecticut	United States
151–175	101–125	Curtin University	Australia
151–175	151–175	Florida State University	United States
151–175	101–125	University of Galway	Ireland
151–175	176–200	Griffith University	Australia
151–175	201–250	Université Laval	Canada
151–175	176–200	University of Leicester	United Kingdom
151–175	126–150	University of Macau	Macao
151–175	126–150	Macquarie University	Australia
151–175	126–150	Michigan State University	United States
151–175	201–250	University of Nebraska-Lincoln	United States
151–175	176–200	Ohio State University (Main campus)	United States
151–175	151–175	Penn State (Main campus)	United States
151–175	126–150	University of Portsmouth	United Kingdom
151–175	176–200	Queen’s University Belfast	United Kingdom
151–175	101–125	University of Sheffield	United Kingdom
151–175	126–150	University of Southampton	United Kingdom
151–175	67	Swansea University	United Kingdom
151–175	126–150	University of Trento	Italy
151–175	176–200	The University of Western Australia	Australia
151–175	201–250	University of Wisconsin-Madison	United States
176–200	151–175	University of Aberdeen	United Kingdom
176–200	NR	University of Bern	Switzerland
176–200	151–175	University at Buffalo	United States
176–200	251+	Charles University	Czech Republic
176–200	151–175	Flinders University	Australia
176–200	151–175	Florida International University	United States
176–200	151–175	University of Kentucky	United States
176–200	151–175	La Trobe University	Australia
176–200	176–200	University of Milan	Italy
176–200	151–175	University of Minho	Portugal
176–200	101–125	Newcastle University	United Kingdom
176–200	NR	University of Newcastle	Australia
176–200	201–250	NOVA University of Lisbon	Portugal
176–200	176–200	University of Otago	New Zealand
176–200	151–175	Université Paris-Saclay	France
176–200	201–250	University of Pittsburgh-Pittsburgh campus	United States
176–200	201–250	Royal Holloway, University of London	United Kingdom
176–200	176–200	University of South Carolina-Columbia	United States
176–200	176–200	University of Strathclyde	United Kingdom
176–200	151–175	University of Sussex	United Kingdom
176–200	201–250	University of Valencia	Spain
176–200	101–125	Victoria University of Wellington	New Zealand
176–200	126–150	Western University	Canada
176–200	201–250	University of the Witwatersrand	South Africa

Editor’s note: As part of our THE statement on Ukraine published on 2 March 2022, Russian universities have been given less prominence in our rankings. Russian universities that met the criteria for this ranking are not displayed in the table above.

This table was updated in December 2023 to retroactively include Birkbeck, University of London based on their provided data submission. More information on the university's inclusion can be found here