History

The School of Law was founded after the cantonal vote of May 21, 2000, in which more than 70% of the votes were in favour of a university project as established by the government and the Great Council.

The Lucerne Law School is therefore the youngest law faculty in Switzerland. We opened our doors on October 1, 2001. The build up of the program was parallel to the personnel build-up of each academic year.

In the first semester, 145 students were registered (of which over 50% were female). By the second year of studies (start Winter semester 2002/2003) our enrolment increased to 211 newly registered students.

The continuous growth continued such that for the first time in 2006, the number of students at the law faculty (including doctoral students) was over 1000 students.

Professors employed since the beginning of the faculty’s foundation include Jürg-Beat Ackermann, Felix Bommer, Walter Fellmann, Andreas Furrer, Daniel Girsberger, Christoph-Beat Graber, Jörg Schmid, Hansjörg Seiler, Thomas Sutter-Somm and founding dean Paul Richli, totaling 575% combined.

Our growth has been very successful: in teaching and in research, we have accomplished considerable achievements. In the SwissUp ranking of law Schools in 2005, the University of Lucerne School of Law has a leading position.

Detailed information about the development of the Law School can be found at the annual reports.