New Zealand's law schools have fallen down the rankings in the latest QS World University Rankings.
Auckland is now ranked 44th in 2019, down from 29th in 2018. Victoria University of Wellington has gone from 38th to the 51st to 100th ranking band.
The University of Waikato and AUT University are both not ranked for 2019. The rankings are for what QS determines to be the top 300 law schools in the world.
The QS World University Rankings have been published every year since 2004.
The rankings are designed to highlight the world's top universities in 42 subjects, based on academic reputation, employer reputation and research impact.
The ranking process relies on four data sets to measure performance - two surveys of academics and employers, and two indicators that evaluate research impact based on academic citations per paper.
Internationally, Harvard University, Oxford University and Cambridge University and Oxford University were the top three, with Oxford pushing past Cambridge into second place behind Harvard.
QS World Rankings for New Zealand Law Schools, 2019
| Ranking | Law School | 2018 | 2017 |
| 44 | University of Auckland | 29 | 36 |
| 51-100 | Victoria University of Wellington | 38 | 46 |
| 101-150 | University of Canterbury | 101-150 | 101-150 |
| 101-150 | University of Otago | 51-100 | 51-100 |
| Not Ranked | University of Waikato | 201-250 | 201-250 |
| Not Ranked | AUT | 251-300 | 251-300 |
QS World Rankings for Law 2019, First 20
| Ranking | Law School | 2018 |
| 1 | Harvard University | 1 |
| 2 | University of Oxford | 3 |
| 3 | University of Cambridge | 2 |
| 4 | Yale University | 4 |
| 5 | Stanford University | 5 |
| 6 | University of Melbourne | 8 |
| 7 | London School of Economics | 9 |
| 8 | University of California, Berkley | 7 |
| 9 | Columbia Unversity (US) | 10 |
| 10 | New York University | 6 |
| 11 | University of Chicago | 11 |
| 12 | University of Sydney | 14 |
| 13 | National University of Singapore | 15 |
| 14 | University of New South Wales | 16 |
| 15= | Australian National University | 12= |
| 15= | University College London | 12= |
| 17 | Georgetown University (US) | 17 |
| 18 | University of Hong Kong | 19 |
| 19 | King's College, London | 20 |
| 20 | University of Tokyo | 22 |