Welcome to the Faculty of Law

The University of Geneva, founded by Jean Calvin in 1559, is Switzerland’s second-largest university. It is a member of the League of European Research Universities, which includes academic institutions such as Amsterdam, Cambridge, Heidelberg, Helsinki and Milan, and was ranked as the number one generalist university in continental Europe by Newsweek’s “Top 100 Global Universities” in 2006 .

The University’s law school has an ongoing student and professor exchange programme with Harvard Law School and is also part of the Strategic Alliance of Research Faculties of Law, together with twelve other prestigious European law schools. The law school hosts several research centres, including the Centre for Banking and Financial Law, the Centre for European Legal Studies and the Art Law Centre, and offers a wide variety of academic courses covering all areas of law, with a strong focus on international and comparative law.

Two English-language Masters in Advanced Studies (MAS)—offered in cooperation with the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies—are followed every year by some 100 students from around the world:

the Master in International Dispute Settlement (MIDS) and the Master in Advanced Studies in International Humanitarian Law. In addition, the law school proposes a programme of transnational law which attracts students from some thirty countries to Geneva each year and has been selected by the German Academic Exchange Service as part of its European Excellency Programme ,alongside a programme run by the Oxford law faculty.

Benefiting from its strategic location in one of the world’s main arbitration venues with a long tradition in dispute settlement, the law school has developed a recognized area of expertise in international arbitration and alternative dispute resolution incorporating research projects, conferences and seminars.