1990–2021: Université Paris II Panthéon-Assas 1971–1990: Université de droit, d’économie et de sciences sociales de Paris 1950s–1970: Faculté de droit et d’économie de Paris 1802–1950s: Faculté de droit de Paris 1679–1793: Faculté de droit civil et canonique 12th Century–1679: Consultissima decretorum
Panthéon-Assas University Paris (French:Université Paris-Panthéon-Assas,[1]IPA:[ynivɛʁsitepaʁipɑ̃teɔ̃asas]), commonly known asAssas orParis 2 (French:Paris II,French pronunciation:[paʁidø]), is a university inParis. It is considered the direct inheritor of theFaculty of Law of Paris,[2] the second-oldest faculty of Law in the world, founded in the 12th century.[3]
Following the 1970 split of theUniversity of Paris, often referred to as the 'Sorbonne', in the aftermath of theMay 68 events,law professors faced decisions regarding the future of their faculty. 88 out of 108 law professors elected to sustain the legacy of the Faculty of Law of Paris by establishing a new university dedicated to the study oflaw.[4] The university is housed within the same two buildings that previously accommodated the Faculty of Law of Paris.[2][5]
Panthéon-Assas, now an independent university, continues to offer the law courses associated withSorbonne University, having declined to officially integrate as one of its faculties.[6][7]
The majority of the 19 centres of Panthéon-Assas are located in theLatin Quarter university campus, with the main buildings onPlace du Panthéon (Panthéon Centre) andRue d'Assas (Assas Centre), hence its current name. The university is composed of five departments specializing in law,political science,economics,journalism andmedia studies, and public and privatemanagement, and it hosts 24 research centres and five specializeddoctoral schools. Every year, the university enrolls approximately 18,000 students, including more than 3,000 international students.
Façade of the main building, Place du PanthéonClose-up view of the main entrance to the Centre Panthéon
TheUniversity of Paris, commonly referred to as the 'Sorbonne', was founded in the middle of the 12th century and officially ceased to exist on 31 December 1970, following the student protests of 1968. Following the University of Paris split, the majority of law professors, 88 out of 108, opted to maintain the essence of the Faculty of Law of Paris by reestablishing it as a new university.[4] In pursuit of this ambition, they founded along with professors of economics the 'University of law, economics and social sciences of Paris' (Université de droit, d'économie et de sciences sociales de Paris), and kept in it the same buildings with the same research centers.[8][9] Panthéon-Assas is considered today as direct inheritor of the Faculty of Law of Paris.[2][10][11][12][13][14]
The official name of the university was changed to 'Paris II Panthéon-Assas University' in 1990. The name Panthéon-Assas is a reference to the main addresses of the pre-1968 Faculty of Law of Paris, which are now part of the university; namely, the buildings onPlace du Panthéon andRue d'Assas.[15] The university is also referred to as 'Assas' or 'Paris II,' 'Sorbonne-Assas' and 'Sorbonne Law School'.[16][17][18][19]
After the creation of a newSorbonne University, to which Panthéon-Assas provides law courses in joint degrees, Sorbonne University wanted to integrate Panthéon-Assas as a faculty of law but Panthéon-Assas preferred to remain an independent university within the Sorbonne system.[20]
In 2022, its official name became Paris-Panthéon-Assas University.[21]
Panthéon-Assas is governed by an administration council, a scientific council, and a council for studies and university life. Members of these boards serve two-year terms. The president of Panthéon-Assas is elected by members of the administration council, for a four-year tenure;[22] he or she presides over this council. The president is assisted by two vice-presidents and several professors elected within their respective academic departments. Members of the administration council choose the faculty representatives who make up the scientific council.[23]
In 1753,Louis XV decided that a new building would be constructed for the Faculty of Law of Paris.Jacques-Germain Soufflot, alumnus of the Faculty who had become the architect of the King designed and supervised the construction. It took place from 1771 to 1773 and the new building opened in 1774.[25]
Nowadays, the administration offices and postgraduate studies (masters' and doctoral studies) are located in it.[26] It is situated at 12 Place du Panthéon. It is registered among thenational heritage sites of France.[27]
The largest campus of Panthéon-Assas is located on Rue d'Assas and receives second-year to four-year law students. It was designed byCharles Lemaresquier, Alain le Normand, and François Carpentier[28] to accommodate the growing number of students at the University of Paris.[29] It was built between 1959 and 1963 on the former grounds ofSociété Marinoni.[28][30] At the time of its inauguration, its main lecture theatre was the largest in France, with 1,700 seats.[31]
Renovation and expansion in the 21st century
Centre Assas building, which was going under renovation between 2007 and 2017, has been completely redesigned and now hosts a modern learning center, created by the architect Alain Sarfati.[32][33]
The campus on theRue de Vaugirard provides for first-year students. It is located in the chapel wing of the formerJesuit College of the Immaculate Conception, whereCharles de Gaulle was a pupil;[37] the chapel itself, dating from the 18th century, was transformed into a lecture hall in the 1980s.[38] The structure is a national heritage site.[39]
The Center of Roman Law and Legal History of Panthéon-Assas, hosting its research centers in legal history, is situated inside theCollège Sainte-Barbe, former school founded in 1460. The school was founded by Pierre Antoine Victor de Lanneau, teacher ofreligious studies, as a college of the University of Paris.Ignace de Loyola,Gustave Eiffel,Alfred Dreyfus among others were students there.
The campus in the town ofMelun hosts local first-year students. It is located in the old town of Melun, on Saint-Étienne Island, among Roman and Gothic remains. The Institute of Law and Economics of Pantheon-Assas University is located there. An extension is currently under construction.[40]
The university inherited the research centers from the Faculty of Law of Paris.[24] Originally, the Faculty was not organized around research centers and professors were pursuing their research as part of Faculty in general. Hence, only newly emerging fields of research would have newly created institutes, whereas traditional subjects such as Roman law and legal history, private law in general and public law in general, would not necessarily have ones.
Currently, among the research centers at Panthéon-Assas, there are:
the Institute of Legal History, which is one of the largest research centers in Roman law and legal history in Europe. It hosts theSociété d'histoire du droit (Legal History Society, for French legal historians), created in 1913 by professors of legal history at the Faculty of Law of Paris.[43][44] Created in 2001 as such, the Institute of Legal History regroups theCentre de Documentation des Droits Antiques, created in 1962,[45] theCentre d’Histoire des Institutions and theCentre d’Études d’Histoire Juridique, created in 1953.[46] It is now also attached to theCNRS and to theFrench National Archives.[47]
theFrench Press Institute, founded in 1937 at the Faculty of Law of Paris byBoris Mirkine-Guetzevitch and Georges Bourdon (Secretary General of Unions of journalists).[49] It is the first research center in journalism and media studies in France.
the Research Center in Business Law, created in 1945 by Joseph Hamel.
Each research center usually has one or several Research or Professional Masters of Laws programs (LL.M.) attached to it.
The campuses at Rue d'Assas, Rue de Vaugirard, and Melun host the university libraries, which are open to all the students. The university's research centres, institutes and reading rooms host twenty-two more specialized libraries. The total seating area of the university's libraries spans over 3,500 m2, and the university's collections gather over three hundred thousand volumes together.
The new library at Centre Assas has been designed by the architect Alain Sarfati and has furniture designed byPhilippe Starck.[50]
The university's publishing house,Éditions Panthéon-Assas, was established in 1998.[52]
Panthéon-Assas hosts several faculty-led publications in French:Jus Politicum (Political Law Journal) since 2008, theRevue de droit d'Assas (Assas Law Review) since 2010 andDroits fondamentaux (Human Rights Journal) since 2012. They are all available online.[53]
It also hosts a faculty-led publication in English, the Sorbonne-Assas Law Review, since 2012.[54]
University–wide (law, economics, management, media...), the university has an acceptance rate of 20%.[55] 22.79% of students accepted by the university having received highest honors ("mention très bien") in high school during the 2019 session (second university in France, behindParis 1 with 22.84%).[56]
In Law, within the department of Law, in 2021, the rate of "with honors" and "with highest honors" mentions among the admitted students was 95% (first among undergraduate programs in France).[57]
The four historical Masters in Law or LL.M. of theFaculty of Law of Paris were the Masters in: 1° Roman Law and History of Law, 2° Private Law, 3° Public Law[58] and, starting 1964, 4°Criminal Law.[b] They are now rebranded as "Master 2" or "Parcours" (meaning a second-year "path", within a 2-year masters), under the following names:
LL.M. in History of Law, with the Institute of Legal History. Albert Rigaudière, member of theAcadémie des Inscriptions et des Belles Lettres, was its director.[59][47]
LL.M. in General Private Law, with the Civil Law Research Center. According toLe Nouvel Observateur, the LL.M. "considered as a star-degree of the faculty, long been the pet of headhunters, it trains the virtuosi of the law".[60] Pierre Raynaud was its director at the Faculty of Law of Paris before 1970 and at Panthéon-Assas afterwards.[61]
LL.M. in Specialized Public Law. It was once directed by Yves Gaudemet, member of theAcadémie des sciences morales et politiques.[62]
LL.M. in Criminal Law, with the Institute of Criminology and Criminal Law of Paris.
Originally exclusively linked to research studies and doctoral studies, the 5th-year LL.M. is now part of the joint Master's program and has become the norm in France for lawyers (includingbarristers). They have become quite selective and in competition with one another, among all the programs in France.[63] Many LL.M. programs have been created at Panthéon-Assas since the Decree of 16 April 1974 authorizing the creation of more specialized LL.M.s than the 4 original ones, most notably the LL.M. in International Law and LL.M. in Comparative Law.[64] Most of Panthéon-Assas' LL.M.s enjoy a similar strong reputation in France and Europe.
Yale Law School and Panthéon-Assas signed in June 2011 an Agreement for Collaborative Activities to create an environment for long-term joint research, exchange. and programming activities.[66] They organize, together with theESSEC Business School, a summer school in law and economics, theYale-Paris II-Essec Summer School.[67][68]
It created in 2011 theSorbonne-Assas International Law School which have campuses in Paris, Singapore, Mauritius and Dubai.[41][42]
Assas has cooperation agreements with 315 partner universities, including 113Erasmus+ partners.[69]
In 2013, the university set up an e-learning platform, calledAgor@ssas.[70] It created that year a distance-learning undergraduate degree in law, the first and unique one in France. It is taught by professors from Panthéon-Assas and leads to exactly the same degree offerings the same rights.[71] In addition, "e-students" have access to "e-tutors" to help them with pedagogical and administrative questions.[72]
In July 2012, Panthéon-Assas became the first university in France to open preparatory school for the bar school entrance examination,[73] which were until this point the monopoly of private preparatory schools.[74] These courses were offered for a cheap price, and for free for students from low-income families (10% of the students of the preparatory school). This led private preparatory schools to plead unfair competition and the French courts ordered Panthéon-Assas to close the school.[75] Today, the Bar preparation school is known as the IEJ-Institut d'Études Judiciaires "Pierre Reynaud".[76]
Assas' Melun campus has been selected in 2021 by the French Government to host three preparatory schools "Prépa Talents".[77]
On top of its core curriculum, Panthéon-Assas created in 2008 a special school for its best students,[78] in order to give them special courses and a special degree: theCollège de droit ("College of Law"). To be admitted, "Summa Cum Laude" inBaccalauréat and success at an entrance test are needed.[79] Each class is composed of around 100 students, now selected among the whole France each year.[80] TheCollège de droit was the first college of law created by a French University in 2008.
In 2011, it created the two-yearÉcole de droit ("School of Law"), the continuity of the three-year College of Law. An additional year abroad is mandatory to obtain theÉcole de droit diploma degree.[81]
Panthéon-Assas University being considered as the top faculty of law[2][82][83] in France, media focused particularly on it and called even more this curriculum a "way of excellence".[84][85]
TheInstitut français de presse (in English:French Press Institute), is the unit of Training and Research in Media, Communication and Journalism since 1970. Founded in 1937 in theFaculty of Law of Paris, theInstitut des Sciences de la Presse (Press Sciences Institute) became theInstitut français de presse in 1951. The department is the oldest and one of the finest French schools in the field of communication and journalism studies, in particular withSorbonne University'sCELSA inNeuilly.
TheCentre de formation des journalistes (in English: CFJ Graduate School of Journalism) is theJournalism Graduate school (Grande école) of the university, located in the heart of the 12th arrondissement. The graduate school is a member of theConférence des Grandes écoles and recognized by the profession of journalists. The CFJ has trained a large number of great journalists (Bernard Pivot,David Pujadas,Florence Aubenas,Pierre Lescure ...), and attracts each year nearly a thousand candidates for around fifty places.
TheÉcole française d'électronique et d'informatique (EFREI, in English: French School of Electronics and Computer Science) is theengineering school of Training and Research inComputer Science andManagement, located inVillejuif,Greater Paris.
Institut Supérieur d’Interprétation et de Traduction
TheInstitut supérieur d’interprétation et de traduction (ISIT, in English: Higher Institute of Interpretation and Translation) is the Graduate school of Training and Research inInterculturalManagement andCommunication, located in the Centre Assas campus, in the 6th arrondissement.
Assas has reputation of "excellence" in Law[2][86][87][83] and has been called byLe Monde des grandes écoles a "symbol of Made in France excellence".[88]
TheFrench Research and Higher Education Evaluation Agency stated in 2013: "Paris II University presents itself as a university of excellence. This claim is not abusive. The university occupies – in Paris, in France, in theEuropean Union and, more broadly, in the international scientific community – a prominent place. The university's reputation and notoriety has not been usurped. They are based on teaching and research activities as well as publications whose quality is recognized and celebrated in academia. And this beyond frontiers."[89]
Panthéon-Assas University is often described as the "top law school in France".[90][91][92][17][93][94] It is ranked first of France in law in the FrenchEduniversal rankings,[95]Le Figaro ranking[96] and Thotis ranking.[97] It is the only French university and one of the two French higher education institution to make it into the GreenMetrics ranking.[98]
Le Figaro Étudiant has published, for the first time in 2023, a ranking of the top 30 universities in France in law. The ranking takes into account several criteria, including the high school graduation results of admitted students, the number of applicants for undergraduate programs, post-graduation salary, the number of PhD degrees awarded and the number of alumni who become professors. Paris-Panthéon-Assas University has secured the first position in the ranking and stands out from other universities.[99]
Most of the students admitted at theFrench National School for the Judiciary come from Panthéon-Assas,[100] more than 40% in 2011 (candidates who graduated from Panthéon-Assas and then passed the entrance exam elsewhere are not included in that number).[101]
Assas graduates have the highest salary of all French law schools.[102][103]
Economics and business
Assas undergraduate program in economics ranked fifth in 2020 by Eduniversal.
Assas was in 2011 the second best-ranked university in France (behindParis-Dauphine University) for its master's degrees in business fields.[104] In 2016, it was first of France ininternational business, also first in decisional computing and second in finance and banking.
According to theThotis ranking of political science bachelor's degrees in 2025, the Assas bachelor's degree in political science is considered the second best in France, along with that of Université Paris 1 Panthéon Sorbonne.[106]
This section is about notable faculty from Panthéon-Assas University (since 1971). The dates are the dates of professorship at the Faculty of Law of Paris and at University of Paris-Panthéon Assas.
Gérard Cornu (1967[109]-...), who wrote the new French Code of Civil Procedure in the late 1970s[110] and is also well known in France for his Dictionary of Legal Vocabulary, translated in English.[111][112]
Serge Guinchard, head of the first Judicial Studies Institutes of France (in Panthéon-Assas) in the 1990s and head of several governmental commissions for criminal procedure and criminal law reforms in the 2000s in France,Senegal and for theCouncil of Europe.[113]
Pierre Catala, who reformedinheritance law and law of donations with Jean Carbonnier in the 2000s,[114] and who initiated the reform of Frenchcontract law,tort Law andlaw of evidence, and was the head of the official committee for its reform[115]
François Terré (1969–1999), president in 2008 of the legal section of theAcadémie des sciences morales et politiques, head of the private committee for the reform of French Law of Obligations.[116]
TheInstitut de France is a learned society which was created as such in 1795 and maintained close links withNapoléon Bonaparte. It regroups 5 Académies, by subject (Science, Arts and the 3 other listed below).
Suzanne Bastid, faculty of Panthéon-Assas and first woman professor of law of France, has been the first female member of the Institut de France.[118]
To this day, Panthéon-Assas has been governed by ten presidents. The founding president, Berthold Goldman, a jurist, was succeeded byJacques Robert, former member of theConstitutional Council of France, who was followed by Jean Boulouis, a private lawjurist. Next came another private lawjurist, Georges Durry, followed byPhilippe Ardant, former president of the Constitutional Court of the Principality of Andorra and former president of theArab World Institute. Panthéon-Assas was then presided by Bernard Teyssié, a specialist in social law, who was succeeded by Jacqueline Dutheil de la Rochère, a public international law scholar. She was followed byLouis Vogel, a private lawjurist.[121] He implemented numerous innovations, the aim of which has been to adapt the education given at the university to the needs of the 21st century.[122][123] He was elected head of the Presidents of Universities of France Society in 2010.[124] Guillaume Leyte, a legal historian, was elected president of the university on 20 June 2012,[125] and reelected in 2016. On 30 November 2020, Stéphane Braconnier, a public law professor, was elected as the new president of the university,[126] succeeding Guillaume Leyte.
Henri Mazeaud (1939–1971), twin brother of Léon Mazeaud, resistant to Nazi Germany and deported toBuchenwald, honorary professor at Panthéon-Assas.[127][128]
Henri Batiffol, professor of private international law and professor at the Institute of International Law.
Yves Lequette, professor of private law and private international law and professor at the Institute of International Law.
Joe Verhoeven, former the general secretary of the Institute of International Law and honorary President of the Institute of Higher International Studies.
Olivier Beaud, professor of public law.
Gérard Cornu, author of theDictionnaire de linguistique juridique.
This section is about notable alumni from Panthéon-Assas University (since 1971). To see a list of notable alumni of theFaculty of Law of Paris (before 1970), see that article.
Christiane Taubira,[136] former French Minister of Justice, former member of the French National Assembly and former member of the European Parliament.
^TheSavary bill of 1984 aimed at centering universities on "education and research units" (French:unités de formation et de recherche) which match academic departments— offering both undergraduate and graduate programs—to research centres. Panthéon-Assas comprises six of these units: one for first cycle and basic legal qualification in law and political science, one for second and third cycles in law and political science, one for economics and management, one for private and public management, the French Press Institute, and the Institute of Judicial Studies.
^The origin of this degree lies in the "doctorate courses" that existed in legal studies in France until they were replaced in 1925 by theDiplôme d'études supérieures en France [fr] ("DES"). The Decree of the 2 May 1925 created in each faculty of Law 4 DES: DES in Legal History Roman Law, DES in Private Law, DES in public Law and DES in Politics and Economics. It required students to obtain two of them undergraduate studies to be able to begin a doctorate (PhD). In 1964, the undergraduate studies took 4 years (4-yearlicence, and eventually 3-yearlicence and a one-yearmaîtrise) and only one DES was necessary to begin a doctorate. 2 additional DES are created in each faculty: DES in Criminal Law and Politics and Economics are separated in two DES.The Decree of the 16 April 1974 replaced the DES with theDiplôme d'études approfondies [fr] ("DEA") for research and afterwards theDiplôme d'études supérieures spécialisées ("DESS") for professional orientation. Additional LL.M. (DESS or DEA) are created. In 2005, with theBologna Process, these two degrees are replaced with a second year ofMaster ("Master 2") degree with a selection of students among the general pool of students in France after the first year ofMaster ("Master 1", following the 3-yearlicence). "Master 2" programs are sometimes divided between the Master 2 Research (inheritors of the DEA programs) and the Master 2 Professional (inheritors of the DESS). In 2021, Paris II followed new government rules to select students after the 3-yearlicence to do a two-year masters' degree with specific "parcours" ("paths") in second year (corresponding to the LL.M.). The masters' degree is mandatory to pursue a PhD degree.
^L'Événement du jeudi;L'Express;Orchestre de Paris; de Brancovan (January & April 1973);Le Nouvel Observateur, p. 40; Bellamy, p. 264; Genette; Bras, p. 49.
^Benoît Floc'h, "La réponse d’Assas : l’audace. Paris-II crée un collège de droit pour attirer les meilleurs étudiants",Le Monde, Supplément éducation, 27 July 2009, p. 22.
Adams, Geoffrey (2006).Political Ecumenism: Catholics, Jews and Protestants in de Gaulle's Free France, 1940–1945. McGill-Queen's University Press.
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Bellamy, Olivier (2011).Martha Argerich: die Löwin am Klavier (in German). Edition Elke Heidenreich.ISBN978-3570580233.
Berstein, Serge (1993).The Republic of de Gaulle, 1958–1969. Cambridge University Press.ISBN978-0521252393.
Bordier, Sophie (2 October 2006). "Mention bien à la fac de Melun".Le Parisien (in French).
Bras, Jean-Yves (2006).Carlo Maria Giulini (in French). Bleu nuit.ISBN978-2913575813.
Chesnel, Sandrine (3 January 2008). "Choisir la meilleure fac de droit".L'Express (in French).
Conac, Gérard (2005). "La fondation de l'université Paris I : François Luchaire, pilote d'une transition institutionnelle". In Bougrab, Jeannette; Maus, Didier (eds.).François Luchaire, un républicain au service de la République (in French). Publications de la Sorbonne.ISBN978-2859445157.
D'Agostino, Salvatore (1988).Università e territorio: squilibri e strategie di superamento (in Italian and French). Guida Editori.
De Brancovan, Mihaï (January 1973). "Les concerts à Paris".Revue des deux mondes (in French).
De Brancovan, Mihaï (April 1973). "Les concerts à Paris".Revue des deux mondes (in French).
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L'Express (in French). 1971–1972.{{cite journal}}:Missing or empty|title= (help)
Marshall, James D., ed. (2004).Poststructuralism, Philosophy, Pedagogy. Kluwer Academic Publishers.ISBN978-1402026027.
Mathieu, Lilian (2008). "Les manifestations en mai–juin 68". In Damamme, Dominique; Gobille, Boris; Matonti, Frédérique; Pudal, Bernard (eds.).Mai-juin 68 (in French). Éditions de l'Atelier.ISBN978-2708239760.
Mayrargues, Samuel (2012).Jean Dujardin: du café-théâtre aux oscars, l'itinéraire d'un "gars normal" (in French). Éditions Balland.
Nadeau, Jean-Benoît; Barlow, Julie (2005).Pas si fous, ces Français ! (in French). Seuil.
Orchestre de Paris (in French). Hachette/Van de Velde. 1987.ISBN978-2858680214.
Oswald, Godfrey (2008).Library world records (2nd ed.). McFarland & Company.
Pudal, Bernard (2008). "Les événements de mai et juin 1968 : bref récit chronologique". In Damamme, Dominique; Gobille, Boris; Matonti, Frédérique; Pudal, Bernard (eds.).Mai-juin 68 (in French). Éditions de l'Atelier.ISBN978-2708239760.
Readings, Bill (1996).The University in Ruins. Harvard University Press.ISBN978-0674929531.
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