General information about ELSA Aarhus

Who is ELSA?

ELSA Aarhus – part of an international network

ELSA (The European Law Students' Association) is an international, independent, non-political, non-profit-making organisation run by and for students.

ELSA is an international organisation that offers a broad spectrum of academic activities. The purpose with the organisation is to add the law education an international perspective and to promote the knowledge to and the understanding to other countries’ system of justice. That is done through a variety of events with both an academic, social an international character. ELSA gives the law students and younger graduates the possibility to meet and make network across borders and classes of year. In this way ELSA provides the jurists of tomorrow special qualifications as it is to make networks around the world.

Law students from Austria, Hungary, Poland and West Germany founded ELSA in 1981. ELSA is today the world's largest independent law students association and it is represented in more than 200 law faculties in 36 countries across Europe with membership in excess of 30 000 students and young lawyers.

ELSA Aarhus is a part of ELSA: the world’s largest organisation of law students and younger graduates. ELSA operates at three different levels: the international, the national and the local.

ELSA co-operates with other student organisations in other countries around the world. In North America it is ILSA, in Japan ALSA, in Australia ALSA, in South Africa ALSA and the Ivory Coast AEJCI.

ELSA has offices across Europe at 90% of the law faculties. ELSA operates at many levels. ELSA International is the umbrella organisation for all ELSA local groups. In Denmark we have ELSA Denmark. The outward activities and the contact to the members is managed by the faculty-based local groups – in Denmark we have two; ELSA Copenhagen and ELSA Aarhus and soon also ELSA Odense, whereas in e.g. Germany there are 42 local groups!

The work in the local groups is coordinated by each country’s national board – i.e. e.g. ELSA Denmark, ELSA France or ELSA Poland. The national boards are organised finally under the international board, i.e. ELSA International.

What is ELSA?

Seminars and Study Visits 

ELSA Aarhus does not have their own seminar but our sister association, ELSA Copenhagen host an international summer seminar every summer with interesting themes with an international perspective. The theme has been everything from human rights, mediation, and the environment to intellectual property rights.

An ELSA-seminar has three aspects: an academic, a social and a cultural. During typically 5-6 days one is following primarily lectures about the seminar’s general topic, secondly one gets together with participants who also are law students and come from other European countries and parties with them, and thirdly one experiences a European city.

Click here to read more about ELSA Copenhagen´s upcoming seminar.

Besides that, there is the possibility to take part in some of the around 40 seminars, which are being held during the year by other local groups in Europe. Click here to find seminars in Europe.

ELSA Aarhus has had many great Study Visits in the past, to cities as Brussels, Napoli and Prague. An ELSA Study Visit is always an exchange between two ELSA groups. I.e. first ELSA Aarhus visits Napoli, and afterwords ELSA Napoli visits Århus. ELSA Studi Visits is a core activity in the ELSA network, and it is a really great opportunity to visit other countries and cultures, and to get to know new people and learn from them.

Academic Activities

During the semester ELSA Aarhus arranges a series of academic events for its members. It could be lectures about current juridical topics with an international perspective, or events with a more practical character. Besides that we try to add these events a social aspect, so the members can get to know each other a little better. The foregoing years we have visited ministries, law offices, public government agencies a.o. and ambassadors and lawyer-linguist from the Court of Justice of the European Communities, just to mention some few examples.

International students studying Law at Aarhus University, are automattically members of ELSA Aarhus and can attend all of our events.

The Mentor Programme

In the Law Institute at Aarhus University we have a mentor programme which ELSA Aarhus is in charge of.

We match international exchange students (mentee) with a Danish Student (mentor) – whom help and guide the mentee during the stay.

Click here to read more about the mentor programme. (In Danish)

STEP – traineeships in the entire Europe

ELSA arranges traineeships to the other European countries through her Student Trainee Exchange Programme - STEP. The duration of the stay is everything from two weeks to 18 months, depending on the place in question. The places where one can be working is e.g. law firms, public authorities, NGO’s, consultancies a.o. ELSA helps with the practice preparations like visa, hosting, social contacts a.o.

Click here to read more about STEP.

Moot Court Competitions

The aim of a moot court is to improve the practical legal knowledge and rhetorical skills of students. It trains students in the more practical aspects of law by applying theory to concrete situations and in appropriate court behaviour. Moot court competitions are organized across the whole network at the different faculties.

ELSA International organizes the international moot court competition EMC2 about WTO Law. The aim of the WTO Law Moot Court Competition is both to contribute to the ongoing discussion about globalization in the context of WTO agreements and to provide law students with a tool to bridge theory and practice. Read more about the upcoming Moot Court Competition about WTO Law here.

Synergy

ELSA publishes a biannual members’ magazine Synergy. The magazine contains articles written by our members, international partners and academics. Through Synergy local and national grooups of ELSA have the possibility to promote their future events and the members can share their experiences on past events and legal research. The magazine is distributed to all local/national groups. Ask for it at our office or download it from here.

Who can become a member – and how to?

Every law student and young jurist can become member of ELSA – it does not depend on your country or heritage, whether you study in a foreign country or have been abroad. Every law student or young jurist is welcome to join us. To join ELSA Aarhus you need to study law at the Law Institute at Aarhus University.

As an Erasmus student studying law at Aarhus University you are automatically a member of ELSA Aarhus. 

How do I get in contact with ELSA Aarhus?

You can always send us an e-mail to Denne emailadresse er beskyttet mod programmer som samler emailadresser. Du skal aktivere javascript for at kunne se adressen.

You can also find us at Facebook. We use Facebook as an official channel through which we send invitations for some of our events. The group is called "ELSA Aarhus"

Find our office in building 1343, second floot, just above the computer rooms. Out office is open every day from 12.15 - 13.00h


Where to find ELSA?

ELSA has local groups in:

·          Albania

·          Austria

·          Belgium

·          Bulgaria

·          Croatia

·          Czech Republic

·          Denmark

·          Estonia

·          Finland

·          France

·          Germany

·          Georgia

·          Greece

·          Hungary

·          Iceland

·          Ireland

·          Italy

·          Kazakhstan

·          Latvia

·          Lithuania

·          Malta

·          Montenegro

·          The Netherlands

·          Norway

·          Poland

·          Portugal

·          Republic of Macedonia

·          Romania

·          Russian Federation

·          Serbia

·          Slovak Republic

·          Slovenia

·          Spain

·          Sweden

·          Switzerland

·          Turkey

·          Ukraine