Welcome to UNSW Law & Justice, located in Sydney Australia! Close to beaches and the heart of the city, we offer a vibrant and dynamic environment for students to live, work, and study. For over 50 years our faculty has been setting the pace for legal education and research and are dedicated to making a difference in the world by tackling today’s biggest challenges. Our commitment to serving the needs of the local and global community runs very deep and has been the mission of UNSW Law & Justice since its establishment. This idea is proclaimed in a banner that hangs at the entrance of the faculty. It carries the call of Emeritus Professor Hal Wootten AO, our founding dean: ‘A Law School should have and communicate to its students a keen concern for those on whom the law bears harshly.’
UNSW Law & Justice is a leading institution for legal and criminology education and research, committed to promoting social justice and human rights. We are ranked 13th in the world, and first in Sydney for law and legal studies in the 2023 QS Rankings by Subject and place within the top 25 globally for employer reputation. In the 2023 Times Higher Education Rankings by Subject our faculty is ranked 20th in the world.
UNSW Law & Justice is known for its interactive small class sizes, and innovative approach to teaching. Our programs are designed to integrate the latest technology and encourage experiential learning through clinical legal education and internship programs.
Our purpose-built Law & Justice building provides state-of-the-art facilities for our students, including a law library and moot court to help students sharpen their research and courtroom skills.
Across five academic programs, we ensure our students graduate with a powerful combination of knowledge and skills. They have the very best academic grounding in law or criminology, informed by diverse theoretical perspectives and critique, and a deep understanding of how these disciplines operate in practice and their impact on society more broadly.
We offer education for all career stages: more than 21 undergraduate Bachelor of Laws double degree combinations and, since 2021, the Bachelor of Criminology & Criminal Justice; Juris Doctor for graduates; the Master of Laws for law and non-law graduates; and our Practical Legal Training program provides a new entry point to the legal profession. We also offer higher research degree supervision. Our dedicated professional education unit UNSW EDGE offers practical, contemporary and focused life-long education to the legal profession.
Our students experience law in practice through the UNSW Kingsford Legal Centre and other clinical legal education and internship opportunities, while criminology students have a strong capstone work-integrated experience. We provide all our students with a specialist, dedicated careers service to help them explore options throughout their degree so they are ready to take the next step that is right for them on graduation.
Our faculty is home to talented academic staff across three schools – Private & Commercial Law, Global & Public Law, and Criminology, Law & Society. Through our distinctive Schools as well as leading research, advocacy and education centres, staff and students collaborate on solutions to today’s biggest societal challenges. Our success is supported by deep interdisciplinary partnerships with colleagues across UNSW, and engagement with governments, the legal services profession, NGOs and (especially through Law Schools Global League!) other leading law faculties around the globe.
Our research focuses on a range of issues, including support of Australia’s First Peoples, law & technology, community outreach, international refugee law, human rights, international business and trade and sustainable development and climate law.
Having recently celebrated our 50th anniversary, UNSW Law & Justice is no longer a ‘young’ faculty, but we remain committed to providing a dynamic education and research environment. We take pride in the quality of our graduates and their achievements as our alumni – the surest sign of our success as a faculty. Our Law & Justice alumni community is made up of over 20,000 inspiring graduates across the world, including judges, barristers, solicitors in leading law firms, social policy researchers, strategists, politicians, entertainers, academics, and some of the most dedicated public and community servants and advocates in Australia and worldwide.
We are proud to be the first Australian member of the Law Schools Global League and value our association with so many of the world’s best law schools. We look forward to welcoming you, your colleagues, and students to UNSWSydney whenever you are able to visit us.
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