In order to qualify for inclusion in the QS World University Rankings® - Law 2016, universities must offer a course or the option to specialize in these disciplines, and meet the discipline specific threshold for papers published.
| 2016 | 2015 | Institution | Country | Academic | Employer | Citations | H | Score |
| 1 | 1 | Harvard University | United States | 100.0 | 100.0 | 99.4 | 100.0 | 100.0 |
| 2 | 3 | University of Oxford | United Kingdom | 98.1 | 99.7 | 89.8 | 88.5 | 96.7 |
| 3 | 2 | University of Cambridge | United Kingdom | 97.0 | 99.2 | 92.0 | 87.7 | 96.0 |
| 4 | 4 | Yale University | United States | 95.6 | 87.8 | 100.0 | 98.5 | 93.9 |
| 5= | 5 | New York University (NYU) | United States | 97.9 | 74.6 | 97.4 | 98.0 | 90.9 |
| 5= | 6 | Stanford University | United States | 89.0 | 90.7 | 97.7 | 95.2 | 90.9 |
| 7 | 7 | London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) | United Kingdom | 90.6 | 91.2 | 90.4 | 86.1 | 90.1 |
| 8 | 8 | The University of Melbourne | Australia | 90.3 | 92.9 | 85.7 | 75.8 | 88.7 |
| 9 | 9 | University of California, Berkeley (UCB) | United States | 89.0 | 81.3 | 94.6 | 94.6 | 87.8 |
| 10 | 10 | Columbia University | United States | 87.9 | 81.5 | 91.9 | 88.5 | 86.3 |
| 11 | 13 | The University of Sydney | Australia | 85.4 | 92.2 | 78.5 | 73.2 | 85.3 |
| 12 | 12 | University of Chicago | United States | 84.3 | 77.7 | 97.0 | 92.1 | 84.1 |
| 13 | 15 | The University of New South Wales (UNSW) | Australia | 82.6 | 89.5 | 83.7 | 77.1 | 83.9 |
| 14 | 11 | UCL (University College London) | United Kingdom | 84.3 | 79.7 | 87.6 | 86.1 | 83.4 |
| 15 | 16 | Australian National University (ANU) | Australia | 84.0 | 86.0 | 82.8 | 74.5 | 83.1 |
| 16 | 14 | National University of Singapore (NUS) | Singapore | 84.0 | 88.1 | 77.8 | 70.2 | 82.9 |
| 17 | 17 | King's College London (KCL) | United Kingdom | 82.9 | 78.4 | 83.7 | 75.8 | 80.5 |
| 18 | 19 | University of Hong Kong (HKU) | Hong Kong | 78.5 | 87.2 | 77.0 | 66.8 | 79.3 |
| 19 | 21 | University of Toronto | Canada | 79.4 | 75.5 | 85.4 | 81.5 | 78.8 |
| 20 | 25 | Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne | France | 84.1 | 83.0 | 67.1 | 55.6 | 78.6 |
| 21 | 18 | Peking University | China | 77.9 | 87.3 | 79.1 | 62.9 | 78.5 |
| 22 | 20 | The University of Tokyo | Japan | 82.1 | 87.5 | 60.1 | 52.6 | 78.2 |
| 23 | 22 | Monash University | Australia | 71.7 | 88.5 | 80.4 | 75.8 | 77.8 |
| 24 | 23 | Leiden University | Netherlands | 81.6 | 68.9 | 87.0 | 78.2 | 77.6 |
| 25 | 32 | University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) | United States | 72.3 | 81.3 | 91.3 | 82.5 | 77.5 |
| 26 | 26 | McGill University | Canada | 77.7 | 78.4 | 84.6 | 71.7 | 77.4 |
| 27 | 24 | Georgetown University | United States | 78.7 | 63.8 | 96.9 | 92.1 | 77.2 |
| 28 | 27 | University of Edinburgh | United Kingdom | 81.3 | 72.0 | 81.0 | 71.7 | 77.1 |
| 29 | 29 | University of Pennsylvania | United States | 66.8 | 80.3 | 95.8 | 92.1 | 76.1 |
| 30 | 28 | University of Michigan | United States | 73.5 | 69.8 | 93.1 | 88.5 | 75.6 |
| 31 | 33= | University of British Columbia | Canada | 72.4 | 76.6 | 90.4 | 77.1 | 75.3 |
| 32 | 33= | The University of Auckland | New Zealand | 68.3 | 86.8 | 83.5 | 64.9 | 74.1 |
| 33 | 30 | Katholieke Universiteit Leuven | Belgium | 71.9 | 73.3 | 86.3 | 75.8 | 73.6 |
| 34 | 31 | Cornell University | United States | 68.7 | 72.8 | 94.0 | 84.3 | 73.5 |
| 35 | 45= | Queen Mary, University of London (QMUL) | United Kingdom | 77.8 | 66.7 | 78.6 | 70.2 | 73.4 |
| 36 | 39= | Tsinghua University | China | 71.8 | 84.3 | 72.7 | 55.6 | 73.2 |
| 37 | 41 | Seoul National University (SNU) | South Korea | 72.8 | 80.1 | 77.2 | 58.3 | 73.0 |
| 38 | 37 | Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile | Chile | 69.8 | 84.7 | 64.6 | 60.7 | 72.6 |
| 39 | 36 | Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg | Germany | 82.2 | 72.3 | 68.0 | 40.7 | 72.3 |
| 40 | 38 | Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) | Mexico | 75.1 | 74.0 | 66.5 | 58.3 | 71.8 |
| 41= | 51-100 | Durham University | United Kingdom | 69.2 | 76.9 | 79.2 | 66.8 | 71.7 |
| 41= | 48 | Kyoto University | Japan | 74.5 | 79.7 | 63.0 | 49.2 | 71.7 |
| 41= | 35 | The University of Nottingham | United Kingdom | 67.7 | 74.0 | 85.8 | 75.8 | 71.7 |
| 41= | 101-150 | University of Technology, Sydney (UTS) | Australia | 66.6 | 82.2 | 79.9 | 64.9 | 71.7 |
| 45= | 43= | National Taiwan University (NTU) | Taiwan | 71.5 | 75.3 | 75.5 | 62.9 | 71.6 |
| 45= | 49 | The University of Queensland (UQ) | Australia | 61.5 | 86.0 | 82.2 | 73.2 | 71.6 |
| 47 | 39= | Duke University | United States | 65.8 | 68.4 | 94.0 | 89.2 | 71.5 |
| 48 | 43= | Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München | Germany | 78.2 | 67.9 | 72.6 | 55.6 | 71.4 |
| 49 | 51-100 | University of Bristol | United Kingdom | 66.7 | 78.3 | 82.3 | 66.8 | 71.0 |
| 50 | 42 | The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) | Hong Kong | 67.3 | 80.6 | 74.4 | 60.7 | 70.7 |
