<p>Oxford and Cambridge don’t HAVE law schools. In Britain, the function of law schools is handled by the Inns of Court in London, although I believe one can read law (or jurisprudence, or legal history, etc.) as an academic matter at Oxbridge. But that does not qualify you for bar admission.</p>
<p>As between Harvard and Chicago law schools, it’s really a matter of taste, and to some extent reputation. Harvard is the largest and best-known law school in the US. To a meaningful extent, it’s the only truly national law school we have: there are Harvard lawyers practically everywhere, no matter how isolated or out of the way. The Harvard brand is fabulous. Traditionally, the experience of being a law student at Harvard has been less than wonderful, especially during one’s first year. All the classes are large lectures (with random Socratic questioning in many cases); things are very tense and competitive.</p>
<p>Chicago’s law school is much smaller and friendlier. (There are two competing models for American law schools – Harvard and Yale. Chicago and Stanford are the elite schools that are most like Yale. Michigan, Columbia, Georgetown, Virginia are more like Harvard.) It is highly ranked, but much less known, and with a much less extensive alumni network. For many years, it was probably the most important institution for conservative, law-and-economics re-examination of legal scholarship, but its greatest leaders in that regard have other jobs, and the rest of the world has caught up with it. So it is more like other law schools now than it was, say, 20 years ago, if slightly less liberal than Harvard overall. Still, like the rest of the university it has a solid reputation for rigorous analysis, vigorous (but always polite) debate, and thinking outside conventional political categories.</p>
<p>Harvard Law School is more activist and less academic than Chicago. Many professors at Harvard maintain virtual law firms of junior faculty and student assistants, and conduct active (and interesting) legal practices. There are lots of opportunities for students, especially good ones, to get involved in that. It happens far less at Chicago, where most of the faculty’s output is traditional scholarship.</p>