Paris 2 Panthéon-Assas University
Paris-Panthéon-Assas University (; ]), commonly known as Assas (]) or Paris 2 ( ]), is a university in Paris, often described as the top law school of France. It is considered as the direct inheritor of the Faculty of Law of Paris, the second-oldest faculty of Law in the world, founded in the 12th century. Following the division of the University of Paris (known as the "Sorbonne") in 1970, after the events of May 68, law professors had to decide about the future of their faculty. Most of the law professors (88 out of 108) chose to  perpetuate the Faculty of Law of Paris by creating and joining a university of law offering the same programs within the same two buildings that hosted the Faculty of Law. The remaining professors joined multidisciplinary universities, including the new Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne University. Panthéon-Assas currently provides the law courses of the Sorbonne University as an independent university, having refused to officially merge into it as a faculty. The majority of the nineteen campuses of Panthéon-Assas are located in the Latin Quarter, with the main campuses on Place du Panthéon and Rue d'Assas, hence its current name. The  university is composed of five departments specialising in law, political science, economics, journalism and media studies and public and private management, and it hosts twenty-four research centres and five specialised doctoral schools. Every year, the university enrolls approximately 18,000 students, including more than 3,000 international students. History. The University of Paris (commonly referred to as the "Sorbonne") was founded in the middle of the 12th century and officially ceased to exist on the 31st of December 1970, following the student protests of 1968. Law professors had to decide about the future of their faculty after the split of the  University of Paris. Most of the law professors (88 out of 108) wished only to preserve as much as possible the Faculty of Law of Paris by restructuring it into a new university. 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. Panthéon-Assas is considered today as direct inheritor of the Faculty of Law of Paris. The official name of the university was changed  to "Paris II Panthéon-Assas" 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 on Place du Panthéon and Rue d'Assas. The university is also referred to as "Assas" or "Paris II", "Sorbonne-Assas" and "Sorbonne Law School". After the creation of a new Sorbonne University, to which Panthéon-Assas provides law courses in joint degrees, Sorbonne University wanted to integrate Panthéon-Assas as a law school but Panthéon-Assas preferred to remain an independent university within the  Sorbonne system. In 2022, its official name became Paris-Panthéon-Assas University. Administration. 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; 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. The university inherited  the academic departments from the Faculty of Law of Paris. It currently houses five of them: one for private law and criminal sciences, one for public law and political science, one for Roman law and legal history, one for economics and management, and one for journalism and communication. Campuses. The university has 18 campuses in Paris, 1 in the city of Melun and other abroad. Centre Panthéon (Soufflot). In 1753, Louis XV decided that a new building would be constructed for the faculty of law. 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. Nowadays, the administration offices and postgraduate studies (masters' and doctoral studies) are located in it. It is situated on the 12 Place du Panthéon. It is registered among the national heritage sites of France. Centre Assas. History under the Faculty of Law of Paris The largest campus of Panthéon-Assas is located on "Rue d'Assas" and receives second-year to four-year law students. It was designed by Charles Lemaresquier, Alain le Normand and François Carpentier to accommodate the growing number  of students at the University of Paris. It was built between 1959 and 1963 on the former grounds of "Société Marinoni." At the time of its inauguration, its main lecture theatre was the largest in France, with 1,700 seats. 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. Cultural events The Assas building has been hosting concerts of classical music for decades. Herbert von Karajan, Leonard Bernstein, Georg Solti, Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, Dietrich Fischer -Dieskau, Martha Argerich, Gundula Janowitz, Christa Ludwig, Alfred Brendel, Arthur Rubinstein, Seiji Ozawa, Carlo Maria Giulini, or Samson François, among others, have performed in it. The 28th edition of the International Piano Competition for Outstanding Amateurs was held in it in 2017. The scene at the Cairo airport from "" was filmed in its entrance hall. Centre Vaugirard and other centers. The campus on "rue de Vaugirard" gathers first-year students. It is located in the chapel wing of the defunct Jesuit College of the Immaculate Conception, where Charles de Gaulle was a pupil; the chapel itself, dating from the 18th  century, was transformed into a lecture hall in the 1980s. The structure is a national heritage site as well. The campus on "Rue Charcot" receives third-year and master students in economics. South-east of Paris, the campus in Melun, which opened in 1987, gathers over a thousand first-cycle students who do not reside in Paris. Sainte Barbe Library. The Center of Roman Law and Legal History of Panthéon-Assas, hosting its research centers in Legal History, is situated inside the Collège Sainte-Barbe, former school founded in 1460. The school was founded by Pierre Antoine Victor de Lanneau , teacher of religious studies, as a college of the University of Paris. Ignace de Loyola, Gustave Eiffel, Alfred Dreyfus among others were students there. Centre Melun. The campus in the city of Melun 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. Abroad. Panthéon-Assas also has campuses in Singapore, Mauritius, and Dubai. Research. Research centres. The university inherited the research centers from the Faculty of Law  of Paris. Originally, the faculty of law was not organized around research centers and professors were pursuing their research as part of faculty of law 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: Each research center usually has one or several Research Masters of Laws programs (LL.M.) attached to it. Libraries. The campuses atR"ue 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 m, 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 by Philippe Starck. Faculty and students of the university also have free access to Cujas Library, which is the largest law library in Europe and to general research and study libraries  in Paris, like the Sainte-Geneviève Library or the French National Library. Journals and publications. The university's publishing house, "Éditions Panthéon-Assas", was established in 1998. Panthéon-Assas hosts several faculty-led publications in French: "Jus Politicum" ("Political Law Journal") since 2008, the "Revue de droit d'Assas" ("Assas Legal Journal") since 2010 and "Droits fondamentaux" ("Human Rights Journal") since 2012. They are all available online. It also hosts a faculty-led publication in English, the "Sorbonne-Assas Law Review", since 2012. Programs and schools. Undergraduate admissions. University–wide (law, economics, management, media...), the university has an acceptance rate of  20%. 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, behind Paris 1 with 22,84%). In 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). Graduate programs (Masters or LL.M.s). The four historical Masters in Law or LL.M. of the Faculty of Law of Paris were the Masters in: 1° Roman Law and History of Law, 2° Private Law, 3° Public Law and, starting 1964 , Criminal Law. They are now rebranded as "Master 2" or "Parcours" (meaning a second-year "path", within a 2-year masters), under the following names: 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 (including barristers). They have become quite selective and in competition with one another, among all the programs in France. 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. Most of Panthéon-Assas' LL.M.s enjoy a similar strong reputation in France and Europe. Section::::"Collège de droit" and "École de droit". On top of its core curriculum, Panthéon-Assas developed a number of internal "university diplomas" delivered to its top students. In particular, the "Collège de droit" (3-year undergraduate diploma) and the "École de droit" (2-year graduate diploma), largely talked about in the press, which consider these programs as constituting a "prestigious" "way of excellence" for "top-level lawyers". International programs. Panthéon-Assas  offers international integrated undergraduate programs ("Bachelor-Double maîtrise") with universities such as Oxford University, University College London, King's College London, University College Dublin. It offers international integrated postgraduate programs (LL.M.-Master 2) with some universities such as, on top of the latter ones, Boston University, Humboldt University of Berlin, Ludwig Maximilians University, Sapienza University of Rome, University of Padua. 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. They organize, together with the ESSEC Business School, a summer school in law  and economics, the "Yale-Paris II-Essec Summer School". It created in 2011 the "Sorbonne-Assas International Law School" which have campuses in Paris, Singapore, Mauritius and Dubai. Assas has cooperation agreements with 315 partner universities, including 113 Erasmus+ partners. Joint academic programs. Panthéon-Assas offers several joint undergraduate and graduate programs with the Sorbonne University. It has also joint programs with other French universities and institutions such as INSEAD, Paris-Dauphine University, SciencesPo Paris, ESSEC Business School, HEC Paris, or École Nationale Supérieure des Mines de Paris. Online programs. In 2013, the university set up an e-learning platform , called "Agor@ssas". 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. In addition, "e-students" have access to "e-tutors" to help them with pedagogical and administrative questions. Preparatory schools. In July 2012, Panthéon-Assas became the first university in France to open preparatory school for the bar school entrance examination, which were until this point the monopoly of private preparatory schools. 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. Today, the Bar preparation school is known as the IEJ-Institut d'Études Judiciaires "Pierre Reynaud". Assas' Melun campus has been selected in 2021 by the French Government to host three preparatory schools "Prépa Talents". Reputation and rankings. Reputation. Assas has reputation of "excellence" in Law and has been called by "Le Monde des grandes écoles" a "symbol of Made in France excellence". The "French 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 the European 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." Rankings. Law Panthéon-Assas University is often described as the "top law school in France". It is ranked first of France  in law in the French Eduniversal rankings. In QS World University Rankings, based on English speaking publications, the university is ranked in law 62nd worldwide, 2nd in France after Panthéon-Sorbonne. Most of the students admitted at the French National School for the Judiciary come from Panthéon-Assas, more than 40% in 2011 (candidates who graduated from Panthéon-Assas and then passed the entrance exam elsewhere are not included in that number). Assas graduates have the highest salary of all French law schools. 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 (behind Paris-Dauphine University) for its master's degrees in business fields. In 2016, it was first of France in international business, also first in decisional computing and second in finance and banking. Notable faculty. This section is about notable faculty from Panthéon-Assas University (since 1971). To see a list of notable faculty of the Faculty of Law of Paris (before 1970), see its dedicated article. The dates are the dates of professorship at the Faculty of Law of Paris and at University of Paris-Panthéon Assas. Law reformers. Among the  professors of Panthéon-Assas who reformed French or foreign laws, there are: Members of the "Institut de France". The "Institut de France" is a learned society which was created as such in 1795 and maintained close links with Napoléon Bonaparte. It regroups 5 Académies, by subject (Science, Arts and the 3 other listed below). Among its members or former members, there are: Judiciary. Among faculties that had prominent positions in the Judiciary, there are: Presidents of university. To this day, Panthéon-Assas has been governed by ten presidents. The founding president, Berthold Goldman, a jurist, was succeeded by Jacques Robert , former member of the Constitutional Council of France, who was followed by Jean Boulouis, a private law jurist. Next came another private law jurist, Georges Durry, followed by Philippe Ardant, former president of the Constitutional Court of the Principality of Andorra and former president of the Arab 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 by Louis Vogel, a private law jurist. 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. He was elected head of the Presidents of Universities of France Society in 2010. Guillaume Leyte, a legal historian, was elected president of the university on June 20, 2012, and reelected in 2016. On November 30, 2020, Stéphane Braconnier, a public law professor, has been elected as the new president of the university, succeeding Guillaume Leyte. Politics. Among faculties that had prominent political positions, there are: Notable alumni. This section is about notable alumni from Panthéon-Assas University (since 1971). To see a list of notable alumni of the  Faculty of Law of Paris (before 1970), see that article. Politics. France. Among alumni of Paris II who had significant role in politics in France, there are: Judiciary and Law. Among alumni of Paris II who had significant role in the judiciary and in Law, there are: Media. Among alumni of Paris-Panthéon-Assas who had significant role in the media, there are: Journalists Heads of media