The electronic journal Transylvanian Legal Life is published in Cluj-Napoca, the center of law training in Transylvania.

The first (Jesuit) university in Cluj-Napoca was founded in 1581 by the Transylvanian prince István Báthory. For a long time, it was considered that legal training was also provided at the university, but according to the documents, it was not possible to actually start legal training in the short-lived institution, which was disbanded without a legal successor.

The university-level training in law started in 1733, in the Reformed College, and in 1774, at the university (academy of law) founded by Maria Theresa. The academy of law was very soon demoted from an institution of higher learning to a law lyceum, only from 1863 did it continue to operate again with the rank of a law academy, with teaching in the Hungarian language. From 1866, the duration of training increased to four years.

The Ferencz József University was founded in 1872 with the Faculty of Law and Political Science. Several of the greatest Hungarian jurists taught at the University of Cluj-Napoca. After World War I, as Transylvania became part of Romania, the university continued to operate for a short time in Budapest and then in Szeged.

In 1919, a Romanian-language university was established in Cluj-Napoca, taking the name of King Ferdinand I, within the framework of which legal training was also provided in Romanian. In 1940, as a result of the second Vienna decision, Northern Transylvania returned to Hungary and the Ferencz József University also returned from Szeged to Cluj-Napoca, and the Romanian-language university and its faculty of law moved to Sibiu, Southern Transylvania.

After the Second World War, Northern Transylvania became part of Romania again. From Sibiu, the Romanian university returned to Cluj-Napoca. However, in 1945, in order to prove the intention of reaching a historical agreement with the Hungarians of Transylvania, Romania established a new Hungarian-language university under the name Bolyai University of Sciences. The Faculty of Law and Economics became part of this, within the framework of which legal training in Hungarian was available.

In 1959, however, this compulsion to prove good intent no longer subsisted, and the leaders of the Communist dictatorship decided to merge the Romanian- and Hungarian-language universities of Cluj-Napoca. With this, the Hungarian laguage legal training was completely abolished, despite the fact that the graduates of Bolyai University performed outstandingly in the most serious legal professions. However, the reasons for the abolition were not of a professional nature, but signaled the advancement of a gradually strengthening nationalist direction to the Communist dictatorship.

After the change of regime in 1989, despite legitimate expectations, the Bolyai University of Sciences would not be re-established. Thus, the situation of legal training was not resolved either. Therefore, in 2010, the bilingual, Romanian-Hungarian bachelor's degree program was launched at the Sapientia Hungarian University of Transylvania.

Cluj-Napoca has been the most significant center of legal education in Transylvania since 1733, therefore the Sapientia Hungarian University of Transylvania Institute of Law, as a direct spiritual descendant of the Ferencz József University Faculty of Law and Political Science, and of the legal training program of the Bolyai University of Sciences. which in the spirit of tolerance and cooperation between various nationalities strives to achieve the highest standard when discharging its duties in the field of training legal professionals.