Top 10 Law Schools in Spain

IE Law School was established as recently as 1973 by entrepreneurs, but the institution has quickly gained a strong reputation at home and abroad. The school prides itself on innovation and an entrepreneurial spirit, which is reflected in its teaching and location: Madrid is a burgeoning legal tech hub. IE runs one of a handful of Masters degrees in Legal Tech, as well as a swathe of LL.M. courses in everything from compliance to business and tax law.

Complutense University of Madrid, in the Spanish capital city, is one of the oldest and largest universities in the world. It offers a range of courses like tax law and financial institutions law, as well as Spanish law that is taught on the Caribbean island of Puerto Rico. Students are not confined to Madrid: Complutense University offers summer courses in the beautiful San Lorenzo del Escorial monastery town in Spain, and exchange programs around Europe and the US.

ESADE Law School, in Barcelona, is another force in Spanish legal education. It was established in 1992 to train lawyers who could keep pace with globalization, and the programs are indeed international; ESADE offers an LL.M. in global business law, as well as social networks and intellectual property, and more subjects. Its courses have been ranked by the El Mundo and Eduniversal publications.

Universidad Carlos III de Madrid has among the best placement rates in Spain, with nearly 90 percent of graduates landing jobs, and has been ranked highly by Times Higher Education. UC3M, as the school is also known, has a raft of leading LL.M. programs in subjects such as European Union law, intellectual property, human rights, and business law.

The Instituto Superior de Derecho y Economía is one of the top universities globally and is ranked by QS. The publication notes the school’s blending of theory and practice and close collaboration with business and law firms, as well as a large and helpful alumni network. The school has LL.M. courses in a wide array of niche and fascinating topics including investment arbitration, sports management, foreign trade, and international relations.

Another a top law school in Barcelona is Universitat de Barcelona, which runs a niche LL.M. course in international economic law and policy. There are seven modules focused on global trade, competition, investment law and policy. There is also a law clinic where students gain hands-on experience of practicing trade law.

Comillas Pontifical University is a leading business-focused law school in Madrid. The school has been in business for half a century and incorporates elements of management, political science and public administration into all its teaching. Comillas has, for example, an LL.M. degree in international and European business law that trains lawyers to become legal advisors to corporations and law firms around the world.

The University of Navarra was founded as a law school in 1952 and, while it has grown to incorporate other faculties, law is still the institution’s leading light. This is reflected in the wide range of LL.M. course offerings in subjects such as business, human rights and tax law. They are taught in English from Pamplona, the capital city of the Navarre province in northern Spain that is renowned for the running of the bulls festival.

Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona has been ranked as one of Spain’s best universities overall, according to Times Higher Education. There are LL.M. degrees in labor and social security law, as well as criminal law and compliance. These degrees are offered jointly with UPF Barcelona School of Management. One perk of studying at Pompeu is the rare opportunity to learn Catalan; the university is named after the linguist Pompeu Fabra who gave Catalan its global status.

Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, or UAB, is a big public university on the outskirts of Barcelona. The institution puts on a 24-month LL.M. degree in the policies of European integration in partnership with Università Degli Studi di Milano of Italy, France’s Université Montpelier, and Uniwersytet Szczecinski of Poland. Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona is ranked by a bevy of publications including Times Higher Education, QS and Reuters.