The Kumamoto University Faculty of Law is a direct descendant of the Fifth High School, at which famous historical figures such as Jigoro Kano, Lafcadio Hearn (Yakumo Koizumi), and Soseki Natsume taught, and where physicist Torahiko Terada, politician Hayato Ikeda, and Nobel Prize-winner Eisaku Sato studied. The direct predecessor of the current program, the Faculty of Law and Letters, was established in 1949 as part of the new university system and, after a reorganization, the Faculty of Law was established in 1979.
The Faculty of Law graduate program began with the establishment of the Course of Law and Letters (under the Faculty of Law and Letters) in 1958, followed by a Master's Program for the Graduate School of Law in 1972. The department was then reorganized in 2008 into the Graduate School of Social and Cultural Sciences, composed of a Master's Program and Doctoral Program, which is the current system in place at the Faculty of Law. In addition to these, a graduate course in Legal Professional Training was established in 2004.
The Faculty of Law is located east of the Bufugen Grounds (mentioned in a Fifth High School dorm song) and north of the 19th-century brick building that was the original main building of the Fifth High School in the center of the North Kurokami campus. Surrounded by an old forest and brick architecture from the Fifth High School era, the atmosphere is lent an air both academic and refined.