Pantheon-Assas University (commonly referred to as “Assas” or “Paris II”) is considered to be France’s pre-eminent law school.The university is composed of four departments specialising in law, public and private management, economics and political science, and hosts twenty-four research centres and five specialised doctoral schools.
Every year, Pantheon-Assas enrolls approximately 8,000 undergraduate students, 9,000 postgraduate students and 3,000 foreign students on visit. Pantheon-Assas is a founding member of Sorbonne University, an alliance with two other French universities, Paris-Sorbonne and Pierre-and-Marie-Curie, specialising respectively in humanities and medicine.
Since its founding, Pantheon-Assas has produced three prime ministers and the holders of thirty-four other ministerships around the world. Thirty-eight members of various parliaments have also been alumni of the university. Faculty members of Pantheon-Assas have included eminent jurists and politicians.
Pantheon-Assas was established to succeed the law and economics faculties of the world’s second-oldest academic institution, the University of Paris, shortly before the latter officially ceased to exist on December 31, 1970, as a consequence of the French cultural revolution of 1968, often referred to as “the French May”.
The university has eighteen campuses in Paris and one in Melun. The administration offices and postgraduate studies are located in the structure designed by Jacques-Germain Soufflot and built in the late 18th century for the faculty of law of the University of Paris, on the plaza that rings the Pantheon; the building is shared with Pantheon-Sorbonne. It is registered among the national heritage sites of France.