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Law schools and colleges in France

Topic: Organization

 From HandWiki - Reading time: 5 min

A Law school (École de droit) or College of Law (Collège de droit) in France a selective school inside each French university for its best students which deliver a specific diploma of the university.

History

The French higher education system is dual. On the one hand, public universities are legally required to admit the vast majority of applicants to their undergraduate programs. On the other hand admission to elite grandes écoles, which are often private or semi-public, is highly competitive. Grandes écoles tend to attract the brightest French applicants.

The most notable grande école offering legal training is Sciences Po. Sciences Po has traditionally been, and remains, the primary institution of higher learning for French political and administrative elite. Although the programs offered by Sciences Po Law School are designed for students who did not study law at undergraduate level, graduates of Sciences Po Law School who followed one of the two or three-year programs are entitled to take the French Bar exam as well as other highly competitive legal examinations.

Universities attempted to address this issue by designing special curriculum within their standard program, allowing them to perform a selection among their existing pool of students, after they had been admitted.

Panthéon-Assas University created then in 2008 a special school for selecting its best students. Several universities rapidly followed this model[1][2] It permitted to French universities to select students despite the legal global prohibition.[3][4]

Media soon called these schools "ways of excellence"[5] inside each university for "brilliant students"[6] or "grandes écoles inside universities"[7]

Panthéon-Sorbonne University created a "law school" but it is an administrative name for its faculty of law and not a selective degree or selective courses for its best students.[8]

Existing Law schools and colleges in France

Sciences Po Law School

Sciences Po Law School was formally created in 2009, after a 2007 Decree permitted graduates of two Sciences Po Master degrees to take the French Bar Exam. While Sciences Po Law School is relatively young, law has always constituted a large part of Sciences Po's core undergraduate curriculum, and graduate programs in law have been offered at Sciences Po for several decades. Students are drawn either from Sciences Po's highly selective undergraduate program or are selected from a pool of applicants from other institutions. Sciences Po's student body is 40% international, making it one of the most international law schools in France.[9]

Sciences Po Law School offers a two-year Master in Economic Law, which can be followed in either French or English, a two-year Master in Legal and Judicial Career taught entirely in French, a three-year joint Master in Law and Finance (with Sciences Po's School of Management and Innovation) as well as a one year LLM in Transnational Arbitration and Dispute Settlement. Sciences Po Law School also offers a PhD program.

The main program offered by Sciences Po Law School is the Master in Economic Law. After following a core curriculum during their first year, students are able to choose among five different specializations.

Students of the Master in Economic Law are encouraged to take a gap year between the two years of the program, during which they get the chance to complete legal internships in France or abroad or/and to study at one of Sciences Po Law School's partner institutions. Such institutions include among others Harvard Law School, Stanford Law School, Columbia Law School and New York University School of Law. Sciences Po Law School is the only law school in France that has an exchange program with Harvard Law School [10], Stanford Law School [11] and New York University School of Law. [12]

Sciences Po Law School graduates report a very high success rate at the French Bar exam: around 67% in 2017[13] (the national average was around 27% the same year[14]). Sciences Po Law School students also perform extremely well at the highly competitive Ecole Nationale de la Magistrature entrance exam, designed for students wishing to join the judiciary (53% success rate in 2017, with 9 Sciences Po Law School students in the top 10, [15] while the national average passing rate usually fluctuates between 11% and 15%).[16]

Collège de droit from Panthéon-Assas University and École de droit de Paris

Panthéon-Assas University created in 2008 a special school for selecting its best students among the 2300 ones it legally has to accept in first year[17] in order to give them special courses and a special degree: the College of Law. In 2011, the Paris 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, or "Magna Cum Laude" with an entrance test.[18]

Paris Law School (École de droit de Paris), also called Assas Law School (École de droit d'Assas), is a school from Panthéon-Assas University delivering a graduate degree, after the College of Law (Collège de droit) delivering an undergraduate degree. The Collège de droit was the first Law School created by French Universities in 2008.

The Collège de droit is a three-year degree, the École de droit a two-year degree. The exchange experience cannot be completed in the same time but has to be done in addition to these courses.

Collège de droit de Montpellier

Created by University of Montpellier in 2009, two-year degree.

Grande école du droit from University of Paris-Sud

Created by University of Paris-Sud in 2009, four-year degree, plus a year abroad.

Collège supérieur de droit de Toulouse

Created by Toulouse 1 University Capitole in 2010, three-year degree.

Collège de droit from University of La Réunion

Created by University of La Réunion in 2010, two-year degree.

Collège de droit de Lyon

Created by Jean Moulin University Lyon 3 in 2010, two-year degree, delivers the "D.U. Professionnels du droit" diploma.

Académie de droit d’Aix-Marseille

Created by Aix-Marseille University in 2011, it is a four-year degree, exchange experience included.

Parcours d’excellence en droit of Paris Descartes University

Created by Paris Descartes University in 2012, two-year degree.

Parcours d’excellence en droit of Rennes I University

Created by University of Rennes 1 in 2016, three-year degree.

References

  1. ↑ Le Figaro - Un «parcours d’excellence» à Rennes-I relance le débat sur la sélection à l’université
  2. ↑ Le Monde - Polémique sur les « parcours d’excellence » en droit
  3. ↑ Double-licence : un cursus d’excellence ?
  4. ↑ Olivier Rollot - Entrer à l’université : ce qu’il faut savoir
  5. ↑ France Info - Filières d'excellence à la fac
  6. ↑ Le Figaro - Universités : les cursus pour étudiants brillants
  7. ↑ L’obs - Les charmes cachés de l'université
  8. ↑ Le Petit Juriste - Focus sur les filières d’excellence en droit : Collèges de droit, Magistères et DJCE
  9. ↑ [1]
  10. ↑ [2]
  11. ↑ [3]
  12. ↑ [4]
  13. ↑ [5]
  14. ↑ [6]
  15. ↑ [7]
  16. ↑ [8]
  17. ↑ 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.
  18. ↑ Studyrama - Bac : à quoi servent les mentions ?Le Figaro - APB 2016 : quelques conseils de dernière minute

External links




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