Law Schools in Israel

Legal education in Israel is provided by both university faculties and academic colleges. A January 2026 report on the winter 2025 Bar examination identified graduates from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Bar-Ilan University, the University of Haifa, Reichman University, and Tel Aviv University, as well as several academic colleges.[1] Other sources document law faculties or schools at Zefat Academic College and the Academic Center of Law and Science.[2][3]

The institutions differ in status, history, and program offerings. Some are public research universities, while others developed as academic colleges during the expansion of Israeli higher education. Archival and government materials also use former institutional names, including the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya for what became Reichman University in 2021.[4]

Formal legal training in the Land of Israel began under the British Mandate. The mandatory authorities established the Palestine Law School, also known as the Jerusalem Law Classes, in 1921 to train lawyers.[5] The institution was not designed to provide academic law studies, and most qualified lawyers at the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948 were graduates of these classes.[5]

A separate School for the Study of Law and Economics opened in Tel Aviv in 1935, reflecting demand for legal education outside Jerusalem.[5] In 1948, both the law faculty on Mount Scopus and the British Government Law School were closed.[5] The following year, a new law faculty opened in West Jerusalem, initially serving students preparing for master's degrees; doctoral and undergraduate courses were introduced later.[5] Tel Aviv University's formal law courses began in 1959, when the Tel Aviv School of Law and Economics was integrated with the Hebrew University. From 1966 onward, Tel Aviv University's law faculty severed its connection with Jerusalem and operated independently.[5]

Bar-Ilan University opened a Department for the Study of Jewish Law in 1970, focused on the Jewish legal tradition rather than functioning as a separate general law school.[5] The sector expanded in subsequent decades as academic colleges entered the market alongside the established universities. A biographical profile of Uriel Reichman states that he founded Ramot Mishpat Law School in 1990 and describes it as the first private college of its kind in Israel not subsidized by the government.[6] By the 2007–2008 academic year, 80.6% of students studying law in Israel were enrolled in academic colleges rather than universities, reflecting the scale of that expansion.[7]

A January 2026 Bar-examination report identified five Israeli universities whose law graduates sat for the examination: the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Bar-Ilan University, the University of Haifa, Reichman University, and Tel Aviv University.[1]

Hebrew University of Jerusalem. The Hebrew University's Faculty of Law opened in 1949 following the establishment of the State of Israel and is located on the Mount Scopus campus.[8] Law is listed among the university's faculties.[8] The faculty's library is known as the Bernard G. Segal Law Library.[9] In a 2011 international ranking, the faculty was listed among the world's top 100 law faculties.[10] The Hebrew University accounted for approximately 26% of the country's bachelor's-degree law students in institutional-comparison data published in 2013.[11] Ruth Gavison was professor emerita of human rights at the faculty and a recipient of the Israel Prize in Law.[12]

Tel Aviv University. Tel Aviv University's Buchmann Faculty of Law traces its institutional lineage to the School of Law and Economics that was active in Tel Aviv during the British Mandate period.[13] The university offers undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral programs in law.[13] Its library is known as the David J. Light Law Library.[9] The Parasol Foundation International LL.M. Program is a ten-month, English-language course focused primarily on international law; successful candidates may apply for admission to the university's Ph.D. program in law.[14] Like the Hebrew University, Tel Aviv University's Faculty of Law was ranked among the world's top 100 law faculties in 2011.[10] Uriel Reichman served as dean of the faculty from 1985 to 1990.[6]

Bar-Ilan University. Located east of Ramat Gan, Bar-Ilan University has a Faculty of Law and offers LL.B. and LL.M. degrees.[15] The university maintains research centers and institutes concerned with Jewish law and philosophy, reflecting its institutional combination of Jewish tradition and modern scholarship.[15] The faculty's library carries the name Yaacov Herzog Faculty of Law Library.[9] The Israeli Ministry of Aliyah and Integration's academic-programs portal lists Bar-Ilan's LL.B. as a law degree in Israel.[16]

University of Haifa. The University of Haifa, a public research university on Mount Carmel, was founded as Haifa University College in 1963 and received full academic accreditation from Israel's Council for Higher Education in 1972.[17] Its Faculty of Law houses the Haifa Centre for Law and Technology, which developed an MA specializing in Patent Law in cooperation with the World Intellectual Property Organization's Worldwide Academy.[18]

Reichman University. Reichman University in Herzliya has a Radzyner School of Law.[19] The school was formerly part of the institution known as the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya. The Council for Higher Education approved the institution's elevation from college to university status in 2021, when it was renamed Reichman University.[4] The Council also authorized Reichman University to offer a Ph.D. in law.[4]

Beyond the universities identified in the January 2026 report, several academic colleges have law faculties or law-degree programs. Graduates from a number of these institutions sat for the winter 2025 Israeli Bar examination.[1]

College of Management Academic Studies (Rishon LeZion). The College of Management — also documented in some sources as the Academic College of Management — has a law school whose faculty has included Ruth Lapidoth as a professor.[20] The institution also appears on a National Library of Israel subject page among law-related institutions in Israel.[21]

Ono Academic College. Ono Academic College announced a four-year International Law Program leading to an LL.B., based at its main campus in Kiryat Ono and scheduled to open in November 2026.[22]

Academic Center of Law and Business (Ramat Gan). Known in some sources as the College of Law and Business or the Ramat Gan Academic Center of Law and Business, this institution has an LL.B. program.[23] A bilingual Hebrew-English track was described as a three-and-a-half-year program with 140 credits, including 70 taught in English.[23]

Academic Center of Law and Science. This institution has a Faculty of Law and a graduate program within that faculty.[3]

Netanya Academic College. Graduates of Netanya Academic College were among those who sat for the winter 2025 Israeli Bar examination.[1]

Sha'arei Mishpat — College of Legal Studies (Hod HaSharon). Sha'arei Mishpat is identified in both a National Library of Israel subject page and an Israeli government legal-aid directory as an institution connected with legal studies.[24][25]

Carmel Academic Center (Haifa). The Carmel Academic Center was listed among colleges whose law graduates sat for the winter 2025 Israeli Bar examination.[1]

Zefat Academic College. Zefat Academic College has a School of Law. Mohammed Wattad was a member of its founding senior academic staff and served as dean of the law school from 2018 to 2024.[2]

Programs documented at Israeli law schools include the LL.B., LL.M., and doctoral study. Tel Aviv University offers undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral programs including law.[13] Bar-Ilan University offers LL.B. and LL.M. degrees, while Reichman University was authorized to grant a Ph.D. in law.[15][4]

Several faculties maintain clinical legal-education programs. An Israeli government legal-aid directory lists clinical programs at Bar-Ilan University, the College of Management, the University of Haifa, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya — now Reichman University — Tel Aviv University, Ono Academic College, the Ramat Gan Academic Center of Law and Business, and Sha'arei Mishpat Academic College, as well as the Netanya Law School.[25]

International and English-language offerings have been developed at several institutions. Tel Aviv University's Parasol Foundation International LL.M. Program is a ten-month, thesis-free course taught in English and focused on international law.[14] Ono Academic College announced a four-year LL.B. whose first year would be taught in English before courses shifted toward Hebrew in later years.[22] The Ramat Gan College of Law and Business launched a bilingual Hebrew-English first-law-degree program, with half of the 140 required credits taught in English.[23]

Specialized graduate programs include the University of Haifa's one-year MA specializing in Patent Law, developed through the Haifa Centre for Law and Technology with the World Intellectual Property Organization.[18] Bar-Ilan University's law-related research centers address Jewish law and legal philosophy alongside other legal disciplines.[15]

The growth of academic colleges broadened the institutional base of Israeli legal education and shifted a large share of law students outside the universities. Bar-examination results have consequently become a visible point of comparison among institution types. For the winter 2025 examination, graduates of Israeli universities recorded a combined pass rate of 87.48%, compared with 43.2% among graduates of colleges.[1] These results provide a snapshot of graduate performance in one examination period rather than a comprehensive measure of institutional quality.

A January 2026 report on the winter 2025 Israeli Bar examination provided a snapshot of institutional performance. The Hebrew University of Jerusalem recorded a pass rate of nearly 95% among its examinees.[1] Bar-Ilan University, the University of Haifa, Reichman University, and Tel Aviv University each recorded pass rates above 80%.[1] Graduates of the College of Management Academic Studies, Ono Academic College, Netanya Academic College, the Academic Center of Law and Business in Ramat Gan, and the Carmel Academic Center also sat for the examination in the same reporting period.[1]

The sources assembled for this article do not provide a single authoritative, current, and comprehensive directory of every law school or law-degree provider in Israel. A National Library of Israel institutions subject page identifies several Israel-related law faculties or legal-study institutions but expressly states that its list is partial and that information about additional institutions may be found in the library catalogue.[21] An Israeli government legal-aid directory and historical Central Bureau of Statistics publications capture different subsets of institutions at different points in time.[25][7]

The term law school is applied inconsistently across the sector: some institutions are universities with Faculties or Schools of Law, while others are academic colleges with law faculties or degree programs. Institutional names have also changed over time — most notably the transition of the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya to Reichman University in 2021 — so older directories may use names that no longer correspond to current institutions.[4]

The characterization of Ramot Mishpat Law School as the first private Israeli college of its kind that was not government-subsidized comes from a biographical profile of its founder, Uriel Reichman.[6] The sources assembled here do not independently corroborate that historical priority claim, so it should be understood as the cited source's characterization rather than as an exhaustive comparison of every predecessor institution.