Heidelberg University Faculty of Law

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The University of Heidelberg Faculty of Law, located in Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg, is a unit of the University of Heidelberg, and is one of the original four constituent faculties of the university. Founded in 1386, the faculty currently has an enrollment of approximately 2.500 students, most of whom are studying for the First Legal Examination, but the faculty also has a considerable amount of post-graduates studying for a LL.M. or a doctoral degree in jurisprudence (Dr. iur.) As of 2008, the law school's faculty consists of 38 full-time professors, excluding assistant professors and adjunct faculty.

For centuries Heidelberg has been regarded as one of the very top law schools in the country. Indeed, the faculty has gained more top spots than any other German law school in law school rankings of major German periodicals WirtschaftsWoche, Focus and Die Zeit since those rankings have been established. Admission to the school is highly selective. Less than one in ten applicants to Heidelberg gains acceptance, which is the lowest admission rate of any German law school. The class entering in fall 2007 had to pass a numerus clausus of 1.1 in the German Abitur.

The faculty runs the Research School for Successful Dispute Resolution in International Law in cooperation with the Heidelberg Max Planck Institute for International Law, and offers also a LL.M. in international law at the Heidelberg Center in Santiago de Chile.