UQ Law School


The UQ Law School is the law school of the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia. Founded in 1936, UQ law school is the sixth oldest law school in Australia and the oldest operating in Queensland.
The entering undergraduate class of 2023 was approximately 67 students. To date, the school has nearly 3000 alumni. Additionally, UQ Law School offers LLM, MICLaw, MICLaw/MCom, MIL, MIR/MIL, MPhil and PhD degrees.
The ULS is home to one of Australia's largest academic law libraries called the Walter Harrison Law Library. The library was built almost 70 years ago in 1949. The school has over 93 professional and academic staff. According to the University of Queensland, 81% of 300 students who had graduated from UQ Law school in 2016 had current employment.
WWW law.uq.edu.auFB uqlaw

History

Although the Law School began properly teaching in 1936, a Faculty of Law was established pro forma with the foundation of the University of Queensland in 1911. This enabled the university to confer ad eundem gradum degrees, an honorary degree recognizing the award given by another university, and Doctors of Laws honoris causa, recognizing the contribution of selected persons toward the establishment of the university.
A limited number of law subjects began to be taught in 1926 when the first Garrick Professor of Law was appointed. However, this was under the ambit of the university's Faculty of Arts, as no law school had been properly established yet. In 1935 Thomas Charles Beirne endowed the university with £20,000, enabling the university's senate to officially approve the law school on 10 May 1935. In May 1936, students commenced studies under the newly formed TC Beirne School of Law.

Reputation and student achievements

Since 1935, twenty-eight UQ Law graduates have won Rhodes scholarships. In 2020, two UQ law students won scholarships to study at the University of Cambridge. Eleven UQ Law students have won Fulbright Scholarships since 1955. Ten UQ Law students have won New Colombo Plan Scholarships or Mobility Grant Programs since 2014.
The UQ School of Law is well regarded as one of the world's foremost law schools for mooting; significant mooting achievements include the following:

Notable international advocacy competition accolades

Notable domestic advocacy competition accolades

  • Australian Champions in the Sir Harry Gibbs Constitutional Law Moot.
  • Australian Champions in the ALSA Red Cross International Humanitarian Law Moot.
  • Australian Champions in the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Students' Moot.
  • Australian Champions in the Castan Centre Human Rights Law Moot.
  • Australian Champions Negotiating Outcomes on Time Competition.
  • Australian Champions in the Administrative Appeals Tribunal National Mooting Competition.
  • Australian Champions in the QUT Torts Moot Competition, making them the most successful school to partake in the moot.
  • Australian Champions in the Shine Lawyers Torts Moot Competition.
  • Winner National Family Law Moot Competition.

NICA Ranking

Source:
The NICA rankings evaluate law schools based on their performance in moot court competitions. The rankings consider two factors: the weight of the competitions, determined by the number of participating law schools, and the advancement of teams within these competitions. The system provides a straightforward comparison of law schools' performance in moot courts.
The UQ Law School boasts a leading mooting program, with its students consistently excelling in international moot court competitions. Between 2013 and 2023, they achieved an average world ranking of 27th and an Australian ranking of 3rd, making UQ Law School the highest-ranked law school for mooting in Australia.
20132014201520162017201820192020202120222023Average
World Ranking25th1st46th22nd13th1st15th10th106th41st17th27th
Australian Ranking5th1st4th5th3rd1st2nd1st7th5th1st3rd

Building

In 2015, the University of Queensland undertook a refurbishment of the west wing of the heritage-listed Forgan Smith building. The project aimed to reimagine the School of Law and the Walter Harrison Law Library, resulting in a program restructure and a smaller cohort size. The refurbishment was completed in 2017 by Brisbane-based architecture firm BVN. The redesigned west wing of the Forgan Smith building has received recognition, including several awards:
  • RAIA National Awards – Educational Architecture Award;
  • RAIA National Awards – Interior Architecture Award;
  • RAIA Qld Chapter – Interior Architecture Award;
  • RAIA Qld Chapter – Educational Architecture Award;
  • Australian Interior Design Awards Best of State Queensland – Commercial winner;
  • RAIA Qld Chapter Brisbane Regional Commendation – Interior Architecture; and
  • RAIA Qld Chapter Brisbane Regional Commendation – Educational Architecture.

Academics

The UQ Law School is Queensland's premier law school; usually achieving the highest rank for law of any Queensland university. The UQ Law School is Australia's best academically-performing law school, as measured by the averaged QS citations per paper and QS H-Index citations ranking, at 27.5; ANU College of Law follows UQ Law at an averaged CPP & H-index ranking of 38.5.
University of Queensland's School of Law often appears to be Australia's foremost law school: according to Quacquarelli Symonds, the school has ranked 1st for CPP in 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2020; and 1st, 3rd, and 2nd regarding H-index in 2018, 2019, and 2020 respectively. Globally, the school currently ranks =25th for QS' CPP metric and =30th for QS' H-Index citations metric.
Notably, UQ's Law School achieved a THE-WUR citation ranking of 3rd globally in 2017 – two positions above Yale Law School, six positions above top-ranked Duke Law School, and just one position below Harvard Law School. UQ's Law School also recently received a THE-WUR research ranking of 36th in the world.

Joint degree program

Since 2011, the UQ Law School established a partnership with Washington University School of Law, enabling current UQ students to pursue their UQ law degree while also obtaining an American LLM degree in a shorter timeframe.

Current and previous ranking positions

'
20132014201520162017201820192020202120222023
QS Ranking by Subject 48 51-100 49 45 48 36 43 39 43 55 53
QS Citations Per Paper Ranking-74 80 76 52 35 24 25 37 101+ 93
QS H-Index Citations Ranking-87 71 53 46 38 47 30 59 51 74
*THE-WUR Subject Rankings ----54 40 58 56
*THE-WUR Citations Ranking----3 10 56 67
*THE-WUR Research Ranking----55 44 36 37
**ARWU Law Subject Ranking----87 87 60 101-150
***US News 22 21 26

*THE-WUR ranks ahead of the current year.
  • *The ''ARWU Law subject ranking does not necessarily reflect the quality of a given law school. The ARWU Law subject ranking primarily measures the amount and performance of papers which relate to Law and that are associated with, or originate out of, a given university.
*** This subject ranking includes research on social policy, political science, education, demographics, law''', and public health and administration.''

UQ Law Centres

Australian Centre for Private Law
  • * The APCL aims to foster the development and understanding of private law through the means of advanced research, and seeks to effectively disseminate that research through education and professional outreach.Centre for Public International and Comparative Law
  • * The CPICL is a large research centre that brings together faculty members and doctoral students to support, coordinate, promote and showcase work related to: Public International Law; Private International Law; Comparative Law; Competition Law; Constitutional Law; Administrative Law; Human Rights Law; Law of Institutions; Legal Philosophy; International Criminal and Humanitarian Law; and The Law of International Organisations.Marine and Shipping Law Unit
  • * The MASLU is a community of legal scholars focused on teaching, researching and consulting services in maritime law and international law of the sea. The MASLU also collaborates with other recognised marine centres on multi-disciplinary projects, and liaises with legal and marine scholars on multiple issues.UQ Pro Bono Centre
  • *The UQ Pro Bono Centre strives to be a national leader in developing, promoting and providing student pro bono legal services, as well as to educate about the importance of access to justice. About 30% of TC Beirne School of Law's students are registered to the pro bono program offered by the centre.

Publications

The following publications are produced by staff or students at UQ Law:

Notable alumni

Jurists
Politicians, public servants and vice regals
Business leaders
Higher education
Other