• Université Paris II Panthéon - Assas, 1970
  

Pantheon-Assas Paris II University (Université Paris II - Panthéon - Assas), also known as Assas, is a public research university in Paris, France. It is considered to be France's preeminent law school. The 1968 cultural revolution, commonly known as the French May, resulted in the division of the world's second oldest academic institution, the University of Paris, into thirteen autonomous universities. Pantheon - Assas University is the inheritor of the former law and economics faculties of the University of Paris.

Pantheon - Assas University ranked first in law by the 2010 La Tribune French University Report, the 2009 Le Nouvel Observateur French University Rankings and the 2009 Le Figaro Legalease. It is a founding member of Sorbonne Universités, an alliance with two other prestigious French universities specializing respectively in the humanities and medicine, Paris - Sorbonne University and Pierre and Marie Curie University.

Pantheon - Assas has eighteen campuses in Paris, the majority of them located in the historic Latin Quarter with its main campus situated in the Place du Panthéon. It has twenty four research centers and five doctoral schools. Pantheon - Assas is composed of four departments specializing in law, public and private management, economics and political science. The University enrolls 8,000 undergraduate and 9,000 postgraduate students with 2,500 foreign exchange students on visit every year.

Since its founding in 1970, Pantheon - Assas has produced 2 French Prime Ministers, 3 presidents of French political parties, 8 French heads of various ministries including Defense, Justice, Interior and Economy and Finance, 2 foreign heads of state and 4 foreign senators and ministers. Its faculty has included Georges Vedel, of the Académie française, former member of the Constitutional Council of France, François Terré, member of the Académie des Sciences morales et politiques, Prosper Weil, member of the Académie des Sciences morales et politiques, Albert Rigaudière, member of the Académie des Sciences morales et politiques and Joe Verhoeven, secretary general of the Institut de droit international.

Panthéon - Assas is often referred to as Assas after the rue d'Assas where its biggest campus is located. It is the heir to the now defunct law and economics faculty of the historic University of Paris, founded in 1257 by Robert de Sorbon.

The historic University of Paris (French: Université de Paris) first appeared in the second half of the 12th century, but was reorganized in 1970 as 13 autonomous universities after the student protests of the French May. Following months of conflict between students and authorities at the University of Paris at Nanterre, the administration closed the Nanterre campus on May 2, 1968. On May 3, students of the Sorbonne protested the closure and the threatened expulsion of student activists at Nanterre. 20,000 students, teachers and supporters marched towards the Sorbonne, sealed off to the public by the police who attacked the protesters. While the crowd dispersed, some students began to create barricades out of whatever was at hand, while others threw paving stones, forcing the police to retreat temporarily. The police consequently responded with tear gas and charged the crowd again. Hundreds of student were arrested.

Negotiations broke down and students returned to their campuses after a false report that the government had agreed to reopen them, only to discover the police still occupying the schools. The students now had a near revolutionary fervor. Another protest was organized on the Rive Gauche by students on May 10. When the riot police again blocked them from crossing the river, the crowd threw up barricades, which the police then attacked at 2:15 in the morning after negotiations once again foundered. The confrontation, which produced hundreds of arrests and injuries, lasted until dawn of the following day.

Well over a million people marched through Paris on Monday, May 13; the police stayed largely out of sight. Prime Minister Georges Pompidou personally announced the release of the prisoners and the reopening of the Sorbonne. However, the surge of strikes did not recede. Instead, the protesters got even more active.

When the Sorbonne reopened, students occupied it and declared it an autonomous "people's university." Approximately 401 popular action committees were set up in Paris, including the Occupation Committee of the Sorbonne, and elsewhere in the weeks that followed to take up grievances against the government and French society.

After the tumultuous events of May 1968, Charles de Gaulle proposed various drastic reforms of the French university system. In 1971, the five ancient faculties of the former University of Paris were split and then re-formed into thirteen interdisciplinary universities by the Faure Law, Pantheon - Assas University inheriting the Sorbonne's Faculty of Law and Economics.

The faculty of the University of Paris was divided into two factions. The first group was in favor of establishing five Parisian universities each inheriting one of the five ancient faculties of the Sorbonne. They sought to preserve the Sorbonne's heritage despite the social changes of the French May. The second faction desired to create a generalist university divided into independent, small departments. The first faction ultimately founded the universities of Paris II Pantheon - Assas (based on the former Sorbonne Faculty of Law and Economics) and of Paris IV Paris - Sorbonne (based on the former Sorbonne Faculty of Humanities). The second faction founded Paris 1 Pantheon - Sorbonne. The split at the Sorbonne Faculty of Law was nearly even: all the law professors save one went to Paris II, while all the professors of economics save one chose Paris I.

Since its establishment following the university reforms, Pantheon - Assas has been governed by presidents: the founding president, jurist Berthold Goldman, was succeeded by civil servant and former member of the Constitutional Council of France Jacques Robert, who was followed by private law jurist Jean Boulouis. Next came another private law jurist Georges Durry and subsequently Philippe Ardant, a civil servant and former president of the Constitutional Court of the Principality of Andorra and former president of the Institut du monde arabe. Pantheon - Assas was then headed by Bernard Teyssié, a specialist in social law, who was succeeded by Jacqueline Dutheil de la Rochère, a public law jurist. Since 2006, Louis Vogel, a renown private law jurist, was president of Pantheon - Assas. These various presidents have implemented numerous innovations whose aim has been to adapt the education given at the Sorbonne to the demands of the 21st century.

At the head of Pantheon - Assas is the President, elected by members of the Council of Administration for a four year tenure.

The President of Pantheon - Assas presides over the Council of Administration which meets multiple times during a school year who heads Pantheon - Assas' administration and academics and votes upon its annual financial budget. The President is  ssisted by two Vice Presidents and several professors elected by their respective academic departments.

Three Central Councils made up of elected members from the student body, professors and the administration reflect on important questions concerning the University's current and future projects and academics. Each member serves a two year tenure and is elected by the student body.

The Scientific Council, composed of professors elected by the Council of Administration, reflects upon various possible changes to current research techniques and standards of the University. It ensures a strong link between the University's teaching and research.

Pantheon - Assas University ranks 1st in France in law according to La Tribune university rankings of 2010. It is a founding member of Sorbonne Universités, an alliance with two other prestigious French universities specializing respectively in the humanities and medicine, Paris - Sorbonne University and Pierre and Marie Curie University.

The Pantheon - Assas undergraduate law program is selective, with an acceptance rate of 14%. The first year pass rate at Assas consistently hovers in the 30% region; the pass rate for subsequent years is also low. All French universities are legally obliged to allow students to change universities and majors after the first semester of their first year; however, the universities are allowed to accept as few or many students as they like with Assas accepting only 3% of transfer requests. Admission to the second year of the Assas Masters program is selective and sought after, some programs admitting only 1.7% of applicants.

The Savary Law of 1984 restructured academic departments in French universities. Each department was made into a U.F.R., "Unité de formation et de recherche" or Research and Formation Unit that offers both undergraduate and graduate programs. Each U.F.R. at Pantheon - Assas is governed by a director elected from the department and heads over a council of elected professors who control its curriculum.

Pantheon - Assas has 17 U.F.R. departments:

• Licence in Law

• Master and Doctorate in Law

• Economics

• Public and private management

• Legal journalism

• Judicial studies

Pantheon - Assas offers several undergraduate and graduate joint programs with other prestigious French universities and institutions. Admissions into these programs are extremely competitive.

• Paris - Sorbonne University

1. Licence in Law and History
2. Licence in Law and Art History

• ESSEC Business School

1. Masters of European Business Law

• Paris Dauphine University:

1. Masters of Economics

• École nationale supérieure des mines de Paris

1. Masters of Science and Technology

• HEC Paris

1. Masters of European Business

The administration offices and postgraduate studies are located in a building which is in the plaza that rings the Parisian landmark of the Panthéon. It is only a few blocks away from the original Sorbonne, the Collège de France and École Polytechnique's former campus. Panthéon - Assas shares this spot with Paris I (Panthéon - Sorbonne) and they both administer the Cujas Library, the largest law and economics library in France.

The school's largest campus for second year and third year law students, Assas, is located in the rue d'Assas.

The Vaugirard campus, in the rue de Vaugirard, is dedicated to first year studies in law.

The Melun campus south east of Paris is dedicated to the first cycle of law studies for students who are not residents of the city of Paris.