Annual Report of the International Board of ELSA 2021/2022

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ANNUAL REPORT

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Copyright © 2022 by the European Law Students’ Association. All rights reserved.

Annual Report of the International Board of ELSA 2021/2022 Design by Tony Marinescu

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Member Engagement

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Partner Engagement

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Contribution from the Council of Europe

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Contribution from Adil Abduramanov - Help for Ukraine

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International Internal Meetings: from virtual to in-person meetings

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ELSA Training: Continuity through quality

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Financial sustainability of the Association

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Adapting Financial Management to Physical Events

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The new steps of Synergy

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Restructuring our Key Areas

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Social Responsibility: From purpose to reality

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Testimonial from Therese Prisse and Jean Mattijsen on ROLE

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Annual Human Rights Campaign

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Helga Pedersen Moot Court Competition

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20th Anniversary Edition of the John H. Jackson Moot Court Competition

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Professional Development - the new vision

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ELSA Traineeships - The new face of the longest-running Flagship Project of ELSA

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The 2nd Edition of ELSA International’s Career Launch

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ELSA Delegations and World Forum for Democracy

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The return of WELS and SELS to our Network

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The new International Focus Programme Topic

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Epilogue

Published by the European Law Students’ Association Contributors: Francisco Arga E Lima, Luciana Ayres de Campos, Ainoa Ordóñez, Tony Marinescu, Samira Safarova, Mathieu Verhelst, Susanna Mendicino, Valentin Badert, Danny Ralph Vogel, Adil Abduramanov, Yordan Kyurkchiyski, Therese Prisse, Jean Mattijsen, Myrsini Karagianni, Slavica Čubrić, Zuzana Kovaľová, Chiara Caredda, Uboho Inyang, Maria Gawecka, Stephanie Payer, Paula Bačić, Dario Schönbächler, Gabriel Li, Lena Dimmling.

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INTERNATIONAL BOARD OF ELSA 2021/2022

FRANCISCO ARGA E LIMA

LUCIANA AYRES DE CAMPOS

President

Secretary General

TONY MARINESCU

AINOA ORDÓÑEZ

Vice President in charge of Marketing

Treasurer

SAMIRA SAFAROVA

MATHIEU VERHELST

Vice President in charge of Academic Activities

Vice President in charge of Moot Court Competitions

SUSANNA MENDICINO

VALENTIN BADERT

Vice President in charge of Seminars and Conferences

Vice President in charge of Professional Development

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MEMBER ENGAGEMENT

FRANCISCO ARGA E LIMA President

ELSA is fundamentally a network of students and young lawyers from all over Europe that identify themselves under our Vision of a just world in which there is respect for human dignity and cultural diversity. We are a community of people from different backgrounds, nationalities, cultures and beliefs. As such, the reason for ELSA to exist is to provide opportunities to its members to develop themselves and to shape their future in the way that they deem best. Without our members, ELSA ceases to exist. For that reason, this year we took their interests to heart and took our best efforts to provide them with the tools they need to develop personally and professionally.

Additionally, making ELSA an inclusive association was also an essential point of our term, and one of our contributions was given through the free access to Speechify’s services, which allow users to listen to the written text on their computers, in case they have any have visual or reading impairments.

Furthermore, we also aimed to support the trainees of ELSA Traineeships and students that enrol on international exchange programmes. For that reason, we started cooperating with Spotahome and HousingAnywhere with the purpose of giving our members discounted prices when planning their medium to long-term stays in another country.

Member Benefits

Lastly, but not less important, as an international organisation, languages are an essential element of our lives, especially English. For that reason, through our cooperation with SkypeLanguageSchool.net, we can bring affordable online solutions to our members to develop their language skills in English or any other languages they may be interested in.

One of the priorities we took this year was to provide concrete and useful benefits to our members, both to those that work directly with ELSA through our National and Local Groups, as well as those that are first getting acquainted with our Association.

With these goals in mind, we got new technical supporters for our travel and accommodation needs - Diversity Travel and Accor Hotels. With these two new partners, the entire Network can easily access good quality travel management and accommodation services for their physical events. On the other hand, we also introduced cooperation with Grammarly to our Groups, providing them with a way to improve our English correspondence and make our internal documents more professional.

When it comes to access to legal courses and scholarships, it was our pleasure to continue the cooperation with CBL International and Europrivacy, bringing their courses and benefits closer to our members, especially in the after-COVID era, where we are again able to promote summer school programmes such as the ones provided by CBL. Similarly, we started cooperating with the Academy of the Global Association of Data Protection Professionals, which provided substantial discounts on their data protection courses.

Regarding the benefits provided to our audience in general, we divided our priorities into two segments: special access to services and special access to legal courses. Regarding the first of these priorities, we aimed to develop relationships with service providers that are important for our community. Thus, we focused on fitness and health services, with a partnership with Freeletics, accessible to all members of ELSA. Furthermore, we also focused on more ecological and budget-friendly travel solutions, thus cooperating with Flixbus and Flixtrain.

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Member Platform Another important objective of our term related to our community was to create a membership platform through which our members could engage with each other and get updates regarding ELSA’s activities all over Europe. Throughout the term, we have researched different tools to accomplish this goal. At the end of this process, we are proud to have started cooperation 4

with Dojoko in order to launch ELSA’s Membership Platform at the start of the next academic year, making it accessible to all of our members.

Diversity & Inclusion One of the main goals we set this term has been to research ways in which ELSA can be more diverse and inclusive to its members. Through our Internal Meetings, we worked on raising awareness on the topic of diversity and inclusion within our Network. We introduced the topic early in the term and allowed for an open discussion and brainstorming on what could be improved in this area. Following the suggestions of the Network, we worked on developing our Code of Conduct by broadening its impact and reach in our Network to allow for a safe environment during our international events. With the organisation of the LXXXI International Meeting Cosenza in a physical format, we were able to see your efforts come to a reality, by presenting and implementing the new and improved version of the Code of Conduct.

Alumni Last but not least, our community is also composed of the members that actively contributed to our Association in the past and made it where it is today: our Alumni. Thus, we organised in common initiatives such as the 40th Anniversary of ELSA. Through these initiatives, we got our Alumni closer to our members and rekindled the connection between our Association after two years of distance and online activities.

In addition to the involvement in our projects, we also emphasised engaging with our Alumni in what concerns the daily management of ELSA. We got the support of some of our Alumni in getting us closer to important institutions, such as the EU Commission, with whom we have met. Furthermore, we were also able to expand the sources of fundraising of ELSA, thus reinforcing our financial sustainability. Lastly, during the last days of our term we were able to welcome one of our Alumni as new Patron of ELSA: Siniša Rodin!

It is an honour to count on his support and we hope his connection to the Association stays for many years to come. Lastly, none of this could have been done without the support of some important Alumni and for that we would like to thank Agnieszka Stobiecka-Kuik, Johanna Kaupinnen and Eero Rauhtalati for all they did to support us. It was a phenomenal year, and it could not have been this way without all of your efforts.

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PARTNER ENGAGEMENT A new approach to External Relations and new partnerships As a second priority - but not less important - this year we also revised the purpose of External Relations in order to broaden it, making it more beneficial to satisfy the needs of our Association.

FRANCISCO ARGA E LIMA President

Our community was extremely important for us this year. Our members, Officers, and Alumni all contribute to ELSA but there is also another group of people without whom ELSA would not exist, and that is our partners. Thus, their engagement with the Network as well as their satisfaction was a main objective of ours, side-by-side with the satisfaction of our members.

The idea we set out at the start of the term was clear: to ensure the continuity and expansion of our cooperations while engaging with new organisations in mutually beneficial ways, creating long-lasting relationships.

For that reason, this year we redirected our efforts not only at getting new general corporate or educational partners but also at getting ELSA closer to organisations that could provide us with technical support and benefits to our members, as explained beforehand. Furthermore, we also focused heavily on institutional cooperations and on developing the partnerships of our specific projects in order to make these initiatives self-sufficient. We also expanded the concept of fundraising, not to include sponsorships from private organisations, but other means such as grants and donations.

Continuity and expansion of Partnerships

Regarding project partnerships, this year was one of success. Indeed, we organised the second edition of Career Launch, with a career fair hosted on a 3D online platform, Coderblock. Here, we counted on the support of 14 organisations from all over the world, namely Georgetown University, LexisNexis, the Council of Europe, Van Bael & Bellis and many others.

The same level of success was achieved with our ELSA Webinar Academies, where we got 18 partner organisations.

Our current partners are a priority for us since they support us in pursuing our aims, helping us grow as law students and young professionals. For that reason, maintaining our current partnerships was one of the goals we set for ourselves. With that aim in mind, we concluded our term renovating all our general partnerships, ensuring another year of steady and productive partnerships for ELSA. Not only did we maintain all our partners, but we also expanded them, involving them more in the daily work of ELSA and moving them closer to our members, through promotional campaigns and project engagement. Indeed, this year our partners were actively engaged in our projects, by participating in different opportunities we provided them, besides those they were already acquainted with.

Also on our flagship projects, we saw an expansion, especially after the COVID pandemic. Regarding our Human Rights Moot Court Competition - the Helga Pedersen Moot Court Competition - we were able to renew the support of the City of Strasbourg, an important partner of the Final Oral Round, together with the Council of Europe, the European Court of Human Rights and the permanent representations of Spain, Italy, Hungary and the Netherlands. When it comes to the John H. Jackson Moot Court Competition, the same level of success was achieved, where we got the support of the University of Geneva for the Final Oral Round, and a new Silver Sponsor and Regional Round Organiser: the Singapore Management University.

Another important project is ELSA Traineeships, as this year we registered a record-high number of Traineeships providers given by ELSA International.

Indeed, in total 11 of new opportunities were provided by the International Board of ELSA, making this an extremely successful year for the project.

We also focused on cooperation with new institutions

Through these initiatives, we were able to hear our partners’ feedback on essential topics such as Diversity & Inclusion, new professional paths for recent graduates, privacy in the digital age and many more.

Also, with the return to physical events, it was important to us to involve our partners in the organisation and indeed, it was our pleasure to welcome them to our first physical International Council Meeting after the COVID pandemic. On our side, it was a pleasure to work with all of our partners, and we sincerely hope these cooperations will continue to be fruitful for the years to come.

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and public bodies, one of which is the Fundamental Rights Agency of the European Union, which assisted us with the Helga Pedersen Moot Court Competition.

We were also able to get closer to the EU Commission, where we met with the DG of the Legal Services and explored ways in which we both organisations can work together for next year. Furthermore, we accomplished something that has not been done for years: ELSA got recommended for provisional admission as an observer NGO to the UNFCCC which for the first time ever will give the opportunity to ELSA Delegates to attend the United Nations Climate Change Conference as well as help ELSA getting closer to achieve its goal of positively impacting society day by day.

Lastly, one of our most significant achievements was the inclusion of a new main partner of ELSA: Deutsche Juristenakademie (DJA). We got introduced this term and through a year of many successful projects together, DJA became a main partner of ELSA, joining the Council of Europe and LexisNexis as the primary financial supporters of our Association and fully engaging with our Network. We thank DJA for all the support they have given us, and we hope it is maintained through the years to come.

These efforts could not have been done without the joint effort of the entire International Board of ELSA and the ELSA International Team. Indeed, partner satisfaction is a joint effort by all the members of the executive body of ELSA, and for that reason, I would like to thank my Boardies for all of their help and support this term. Furthermore, a special thanks need to go to the External Relations team, especially to its Director, Federica Paolucci, who was my right hand and second brain this year. No words can describe how thankful I am for all your assistance.

Testimonial from Danny Ralph Vogal, CEO of Deutsche Juristakademie “Seneca the Elder once said ‘I am grateful, not because it is beneficial, but because it brings joy.’, and we, the German Jurist Academy happily agree. Our joy lies in the trust you have placed in us, and in our ability to be part of your success as future outstanding lawyers.

Today, after a full year of joint successes, we are proud to be the main partner of the largest law student association in the world. We are particularly grateful for the great trust you placed in us, right from the start.

Thank you for this opportunity and your loyalty. We are looking forward to create the future together.”

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CONTRIBUTION FROM THE COUNCIL OF EUROPE

For the past twenty years, the Council of Europe and the European Law Students’ Association have been cooperating closely in order to spread the values that bring us together: Human Rights, Democracy and the Rule of Law. The cooperation that started with different projects such as Legal Research Groups, and Campaigns reached its peak with the signing of the Human Rights Partnership between the Council of Europe and ELSA in 2008. Since 2012, ELSA, in cooperation with the Council of Europe, has been organising the world’s largest English-speaking human rights-oriented moot court competition, the European Human Rights Moot Court Competition, which has been recently renamed after the first female Judge of the European Court of Human Rights. Over 10 years, this Competition has become the greatest tool and flagship project of both organisations in addressing the pressing concerns in the field of human rights and rule of law.

This competition could not have been this successful without the support of the Permanent Representations of Italy, Spain, Hungary and the Netherlands, as well as the City of Strasbourg to whom we are grateful for their cooperation throughout the years. But also ELSA, as the main organiser of this competition, took a fundamental role in its development. To that end, Samira Safarova the Vice-President in charge of Academic Activities of the International Board of ELSA took every step that needed to be taken, with utmost diligence in order to ensure a swift change from the virtual environment to the physical one, as well as a smooth running of the competition throughout this edition.

The connection between ELSA and the Council of Europe was also strengthened through the campaigns developed throughout the year, regarding privacy in the digital age. As in previous editions, we extended our contribution to raising awareness on this topic by providing the Council of Europe Visibility Materials to the initiatives organised by more than 40 ELSA Groups. We are very proud to support ELSA with their initiatives aimed at raising awareness and educating civil society on important issues, such as the threats that arise from technology. We have done so this year and we hope to continue to do so in the future.

During the two years of the Covid-19 pandemic, the whole world had to adjust their lives to the requirements of a virtual reality which also severely affected the activities of the Council of Europe and ELSA. This year, our priority has been to support ELSA to gradually return to its physical events and we did it with great success. For these past two years, the Helga Pedersen Moot Court Competition replaced the real pleading rooms in the Council of Europe, Palais de l’Europe and in the European Court of Human Rights with the virtual pleading rooms in Regional Rounds and the Final Oral Round. But this year we returned to our traditional premises and the Council of Europe welcomed students from all over Europe to its Headquarters.

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This year was a year of success for ELSA and the Council of Europe is proud to be a steadfast supporter of the Association, thus bringing human rights, rule of law and democracy closer to all law students and young lawyers in Europe.

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CONTRIBUTION FROM ADIL ABDURAMANOV - HELP FOR UKRAINE ELSA has been extremely helpful in our efforts to help Ukraine struck by the Russian invasion.

The immediate reaction to the invasion was to establish that ELSA Russia does not share the values of ELSA, and instead tries to push their own values and narratives, influenced by state propaganda. This became grounds for expulsion of ELSA Russia from the Network.

The International Council Meeting of ELSA also decided to create the Working Group on Help for Ukraine, which aims to focus and concentrate the efforts of National Groups in their aspiration to help Ukrainian law students.

Moreover, ELSA website contains a set of links to charities and foundations that work with Ukrainian refugees and humanitarian aid to those Ukrainians that suffered the consequences of the Russian attack. They have also doubled down on their help, and together with their partners supported the Homes for Ukraine scheme by the United Kingdom.

The International Board of ELSA worked hard to make sure the Ukrainian team could cross the closed Ukrainian border and participate in the Final Round of John H. Jackson Moot Court Competition in Geneva, Switzerland.

The genuine wish to help and initiative to help Ukraine was not limited only to ELSA as an international organisation. National Groups of ELSA in their respective countries were also spectacular in their response and will to help the Ukrainian students that fled to their countries, as well as in making sure those students were able to study law regardless of their location.

Therefore, this paragraph is reserved, in no particular order, for ELSA Poland, ELSA Lithuania, ELSA Slovakia, ELSA Croatia, ELSA Czech Republic, ELSA Estonia, ELSA Germany, ELSA Switzerland, ELSA UK and many others – to whom we wish to extend our gratitude for being wonderful National Groups and great hosts to Ukrainian students temporarily residing together with them.

United we stand, together we prevail.

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INTERNATIONAL INTERNAL MEETINGS: FROM VIRTUAL TO IN-PERSON MEETINGS

LUCIANA AYRES DE CAMPOS Secretary General

Our term gave rise to several challenges concerning returning to in-person meetings. As it started off as a virtual year, we organised the I International Training Meeting, the LXXX International Council Meeting and the II International Strategy Meeting in a fully virtual environment. The LXXXI International Council Meeting in Cosenza, as the first in-person meeting of our term and organised by the International Board, allowed us to finally meet and spend time with those we had seen behind a screen for the past two years.

approached topics such as the new International Focus Programme, the Annual Human Rights Campaign, Social Responsibility, Rebranding, Board Reform, and International Internal Meetings. We left this meeting having gathered the input of Officers from all over the Network and shaping ELSA for years to come.

April marked an idea that finally became a reality: the return to physical meetings. The LXXXI International Council Meeting of ELSA took place in Cosenza, Italy, after four months of hard work. This ICM was a particular one, as it was unprecedently organised by the International Board with the help of the ELSA International Team as well as the wonderful Organising Committee: Giovanna Gaglianese, Rosita Stuppello, Annemarie Grigore, Francesco Pace, Vincenzo Lo Bue, Desiree Tracea, Giacomo Antonini, Lucrezia De Paulis, and Avv. Simone Maria Totaro. The LXXXI ICM definitely left a mark on the path of ELSA, as it was able to return the ELSA Spirit that was dearly missed during the COVID-19 pandemic, bringing the Network back together to discuss essential topics and elect those who will be leading the Association for the next term.

The year began with the first International Training Meeting in the history of ELSA. As an International Internal Meeting created by multiple generations of Officers, involving the training and educating of our younger members, the I ITM gave our Network the tools to start off its term in the best way possible. We had the opportunity to involve and promote ELSA Training from the very beginning of our term through the training sessions provided by our ITP members.

Following that, the LXXX International Council Meeting was a historical one, as it was the first fiveday ICM. It allowed us to put some of our initial ideas into practice and gave us more opportunities to get to know our Officers in a virtual format. Here we faced obstacles regarding motivation and participation following a two-year break from our beloved physical meetings. However, the Network showed us their dedication by joining us and actively participating, allowing this meeting to have been an overall success.

Last but certainly not least, it is undoubtedly essential to mention how the efforts of our term have provided concrete results. The return to in-person meetings allowed for a greater motivation of our Officers, which is shown by the fact that we have successfully appointed three groups to host the International Internal Meetings for the next term: a big thank you to ELSA Croatia, ELSA Prague and ELSA Malta for taking on this responsibility. Thus, after two years of online meetings, the in-person events are here to stay, with the hosts for the next term ready to organise successful International Internal Meetings.

At the beginning of 2021, we had the II International Strategy Meeting. Here, the International Board and the Network were able to discuss important topics by beginning to discuss the proposals to be adopted in the second International Council Meeting. Thus, we ANNUAL REPORT

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ELSA TRAINING: CONTINUITY THROUGH QUALITY

YORDAN KYURKCHIYSKI Director for ELSA Training

ELSA Training is a project that does not require significant and revolutionary reform, but rather efficient and robust management in order to realise its potential. It is no coincidence that the original project’s motto was precisely “continuity through quality”. Accordingly, the focus during the past term lied primarily on improving our existing systems and increasing our capacity to match groups with their desired Trainers.

first time, topics such as Personal Branding became available to the Network. All ITP members were also required in the database review to sign a Voluntary Agreement with ELSA in an attempt to better regulate their status.

More than a Train the Trainers Week With the experience of online facilitation of the previous year and the feedback from Trainers, the format of the Train the Trainers (“TtT”) was also modified. Instead of occurring in person in a single week, the TtT 2022 spanned over the course of three consecutive weekends in May and June, taking place online in the first two and in-person in Brussels during the last one. This change sought to allow participants with a less flexible working schedule to attend without missing their professional responsibilities. The rewards of the TtT were seen by the addition of 10 new trainers to the ITP before the term was completed.

New Trainers, More Training With 7 new incoming Trainers joining the International Trainers’ Pool (ITP) in September 2021, we were able to extend broader promotion and successfully respond to a higher number of training requests. As of July 2022, 59 requests were received, and 50 of them resulted in successful trainings - nearly doubling the number of 2020/2021. These trainings were attended by a variety of National and Local Groups from the Network, the International Board and the ELSA International Team.

The new format also alleviates the burden of the TtT’s Organising Committee, since the magnitude of the in-person event is reduced. Additionally, the last TtT weekend is envisaged in the future to coincide with the ITP Refreshment Weekend, giving incoming and existing Trainers the possibility to network, exchange experience and build a closer ITP community.

The past term also saw a major revision of our internal ITP database. Senior Trainers were requested to update their information, while new ones submitted it for the first time. This included an opportunity to change and diversify the training topics offered in order to meet the interests of a wider number of people. For the

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FINANCIAL SUSTAINABILITY OF THE ASSOCIATION

AINOA ORDÓÑEZ Treasurer

One of the main goals of the International Board for this term was to consolidate the uncertain financial situation of our Association. With very recent partners, grants that were not secured and a lack of diversity regarding our sources of income, this year we worked tirelessly to consolidate and expand them.

Meetings. In addition to this, we applied for grants from the European Youth Foundation, for an Annual Human Rights Campaign Forum, UNECA for the assistance of African Teams to the Final Oral Round of the John H. Jackson Moot Court Competition; the City of Strasbourg to support the organisation of the Final Oral Round of the Helga Pedersen Moot Court Competition; the Legal Empowerment Fund to support the Rule of Law Education Campaign, and we remained with the support from the Council of Europe both for the General Activities of ELSA that promote the values of the Council of Europe and the organisation of the Helga Pedersen Moot Court Competition.

In order to achieve this goal during our term but also ensure the continuity of our association, all these points were taken into consideration while drafting the Financial Strategy for the terms 2022-2025, aiming at reducing our expenses and focusing on longterm investments as well as diversifying our sources of income.

Last but definitely not least, the International Board has initiated this year a new donors Network - Le Cercle of ELSA - aiming to reach former alumni of ELSA who wish to contribute to the financial sustainability of our Association. Together with Eero Ilmari Rautalahti and Johanna Kauppinen, we contacted Alumni from ELSA to be part of this Network. We are incredibly grateful to Eero Ilmari Rautalahti, Johanna Kauppinen, Fredrik Messel, Agathe Brand Kuipers, Andrew Brooke, Lisa Mead, Bartosz Balewski, Paul Hochbaum, Francesco Bondi, Michael Goeskjær, Anu Matilla and Filipe Machado for their contributions.

During this year, we aimed to preserve all the partners we had before, expand our partnerships with Deutsche Jurist Akademie, and gain an incredible number of partnerships that offer our members benefits, such as Grammarly, Speechify, and Diversity Travel, among others.

In addition, we focused this year on applying for grants that ensure project support and support from the General Administration of the Association. With this in mind, we applied for an Operational Grant from the Erasmus+ programme of the European Commission that would ensure the support for all the International Board and the International Internal

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ADAPTING FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT TO PHYSICAL EVENTS

AINOA ORDÓÑEZ Treasurer

Despite all the online struggles our Association endured during the past two years, we are incredibly grateful to bring back the physical format of most of our projects and events. Regardless of all the joy this brings to us as the Board, the change also carries extra responsibilities for the Treasurer. It requires planning and researching for different scenarios and constantly reviewing and adapting each of them.

to our Network that these events can be organised.

Furthermore, we have managed to secure the hosts for our next cycle of International Internal Meetings.

After this event, the International Board was more motivated than ever to bring all our projects back physically. A month later, we successfully organised the Final Oral Round of the 10th Edition of the Helga Pedersen Moot Court Competition, bringing to the city of Strasbourg more than 100 people from 18 different teams to plead in the Council of Europe and the European Court of Human Rights.

Therefore, for the general administration and every one of our projects we prepared at least two different budgets: one for a fully online year, and one for a fully physical one. In addition, we made several variations depending on the project and its stages; for example, with our two Moot Court Competitions, we prepared ourselves to have both online and physical Regional Rounds. This demanded a constant revision of all of the budgets during the year, adapting them to the way our position was changing in each area.

Furthermore, in the last week of June, we once again organised the Final Oral Round of the 20th Edition of the John H. Jackson Moot Court Competition, this time in Geneva. During this event, we welcomed more than 150 people from all over the world, allowing them to plead in the heart of the World Trade Organization and in the University of Geneva. This event was particularly rewarding for us since we did not only organise it but also managed to cover the participation fees for six of the competing teams.

One of the prime examples of our adaptation to physical events was the organisation of the 81st International Council Meeting held in Cosenza. Due to the lack of hosts in the past two years, the International Board decided to bear the responsibility of organising this event in person for the first time in two years. It was an incredible responsibility; it required us to organise the event with utmost consideration paying attention to all the details, but most importantly, it set an example

After all these events, we are extremely happy to be not only the International Board that brought back our in-person events but also the International Board that inspired our entire network to keep organising them, thus ensuring continuity for the future.

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THE NEW STEPS OF SYNERGY

TONY MARINESCU

Vice President in charge of Marketing

There is an old saying that describes the basic meaning of “synergy”, “The whole is greater than the sum of its parts”. With this in mind, ELSA has been tirelessly working for the past 40 years towards its vision of a just world. In 1987, the first concept of “ELSA Synergy” has sparked, in the shape of a printed newsletter.

Two years later, it was upgraded to the international magazine we have all been accustomed to. This year I had the chance and pleasure to be the Editor-in-Chief of this 70th edition, which highlights whether we are ready for the digital era or not.

The past two years have urgently advanced the need and importance of the digital environment. Hence, we are basically in need of the Internet for some of the most mundane tasks. On top of all of these, new technologies emerge, which the general public can barely comprehend at the first glance. From blockchain to artificial intelligence, these topics just scratch the surface of this upcoming technology bubble which will majorly impact our lives. To learn more about these topics, members of our community prepared articles, which are a must-read.

During my term in the International Board of ELSA, I realised the importance of a strong community and its history. With this in mind, our Network dedicated time to rethink the future of Synergy. I am proud to announce that this publication is moving truly digital, taking the form of a website. Through this platform, we are able to still receive and promote your articles, but also we go back to the initial motive of Synergy, which was to promote of Network’s initiative. I invite all of you to the launch of the platform and to contribute so we can take the publication to the next level.

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RESTRUCTURING OUR KEY AREA

SAMIRA SAFAROVA

Vice President in charge of Academic Activities

One of the Strategic Goals that the International Council decided to go forward with during the ICM Baku was to ensure the sustainability of our Association by means of an effective division of workload among the Members of the International Board. With that goal in mind, this year, our primary purpose was to reconsider the amount of work that each project manager has been taking on a daily basis and the objectives of every project, ensuring that all of the key areas are aligned with the purpose of the Association. This led us to develop the structure of our key areas in a way that would allow us to maintain the attention for legal education and social responsibility.

attention to the advancement of professional development projects such as Career Launch. In this way, we have been training our members to pursue the career paths they envision.

Lastly, we started developing a new target within the Academic Activities Area, Social Responsibility, the second pillar of our philosophy statement. This target included the plan that legal publications such as the ELSA Law Review and Legal Research Groups would accompany the Rule of Law Education Campaign and the Annual Human Rights Campaign. With these additions, we were able to make the International Board work more effectively with a coherent division of projects and purpose under each area. This also allowed for the development of each respective area and the growth of the impact of ELSA’s activities.

If we look into the current distribution within the International Board of ELSA: i) in the Professional Development area, we have developed Career Launch in order to introduce our members to potential educational and job providers; ii) on the Competitions side, we focused on aligning the structure of both Moot Court Competitions and supporting the Network in the development of this new area and their own projects; iii) regarding Seminars and Conferences, we focused on separating academic content from what falls under advocacy, thus orienting the International Focus Programme to legal education, and the Annual Human Rights Campaign to advocacy; iv) lastly, regarding Academic Activities we focussed on the growth of the impact of ELSA on civil society by finally launching the first edition of ROLE and creating new initiatives such as the Mental Health project to ensure that ELSA has a primordial role in shaping the world of the future.

Starting with the first of these priorities, we ensured that our key areas developed a good basis for legal education by allowing S&C to acquire knowledge, especially now that our events are returning to the physical format. We have also been using the opportunity to involve the Vice President in charge of Moot Court Competitions in the organisation of all Competitions at the international level; mainly the John H. Jackson and Helga Pedersen Moot Court Competitions, but also in the development stage of other Academic Competitions such as ENC, WIC, CIC, Legal Debates, right before the new Board structure with the implementation of the Vice President in charge of Competition position enters into force. Preparing the transition period between these positions helped us draw the line between active and passive learning, which our Network has relied on while establishing its projects.

As a third branch of the Legal Education Goal, we completed the transition of the former STEP Area into Professional Development by paying particular

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SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY: FROM PURPOSE TO REALITY

Azerbaijan, Romania, Portugal, the Netherlands, Malta, Finland, Serbia, and the United Kingdom. In January, with the massive support from ELSA Alumni, we successfully completed the curriculum materials and presented them to the pilot countries in order to start with the localisation process; meanwhile, we have also been working on providing an organisational package to the Coordinators. After a long period of development of the Campaign on the international and national levels, I am honoured to share that ELSA the Netherlands, ELSA Finland, and ELSA Serbia have started the implementation of the project in various schools. As the National Coordinator of ELSA the Netherlands, my successor Jean has already gained a high level of knowledge and experience regarding the project, and I have no doubt that he will continue with the rewarding fulfilment of the ROLE Campaign.

SAMIRA SAFAROVA

Vice President in charge of Academic Activities

With the adaptation of Strategic Goals 2023, the International Council has decided to step into a new era of social responsibility which has been developed by the previous International Boards; this term, we had the opportunity to actively contribute to the work done before. We prioritised reflecting equally on each part of our Purpose, which also strongly stimulates promoting social responsibility of law students and young lawyers not only on the international but also on national and local levels.

Our campaign on social responsibility started with the Mental Health Project, which constituted a collaboration of 11 student organisations, from all over the world, including ELSA, representing nearly 22 million higher education students. The project aimed to raise awareness on mental health and the importance of its well-being among higher education students, as well as to advocate against social stigma associated with mental health issues. The Mental Health Project took place on the 10th, 13th, 16th, and 20th of October with a mixed format of workshops and panel discussions. This Project served as an effective tool to provide a productive environment to exchange ideas and plans with students from different professional backgrounds and build a unique approach for the future planning of social responsibility at ELSA. In addition to the Mental Health Project, during my term I was in charge of the Rule of Law Education Campaign (ROLE), for which we have been doing preparations for two years. Our main journey with the ROLE Campaign started in Vienna during the 40th anniversary celebrations of ELSA, where together with Therese Prisse, Director for ROLE at ELSA Alumni, I had the chance to present the objectives and the future planning to the participants. Following the event, we have been working on finalising the curriculum materials and keeping strong communication with the National Coordinators in eight pilot countries:

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TESTIMONIAL FROM THERESE PRISSE AND JEAN MATTIJSEN ON ROLE

THERESE PRISSE President of ELSA Alumni

see the first moment where pupils were captivated by the materials and activities and enjoyed the curriculum presented by students and young lawyers with little teaching and facilitating experience.

The pupils and teachers were very enthusiastic. With anonymous surveying according to applicable data privacy rules and interviews, we learned that: 1.

High school students were very excited about students and young lawyers teaching and felt they could internalise and personalise materials easily because of the short (age) distance; 2.

The experience would be improved if materials were to be spread over three days (concentrated project) or individual lessons; two days were perceived as very dense; 3.

The more interactive the facilitators were (more focused on the activities as opposed to teaching), the higher the feedback scores - this requires facilitation confidence and more preparation by teachers; 4.

The four lessons guiding classes to create their own rule of law project created the mist energy; this is where it all came together; 5.

More attention could be given to preparing pictures and other social media materials.

JEAN MATTIJSEN

VP AA of ELSA the Netherlands 2021/2022

The Rule Of Law Education (ROLE) Campaign was conceived in 2019 by ELSA Alumni and ELSA to enable ELSA members to teach high school students throughout Europe about the rule of law and citizenship with highly interactive materials: Concrete examples and activities regarding systemic justice are aimed to instil knowledge and confidence in young individuals to internalise and advocate the rule of law.

Two years later, the project is in total development.

The International Board of ELSA presented the project to the Network and had regular calls with the National Coordinators on implementing the Campaign. Eight National ELSA Groups were self-nominated for piloting the project. At the Rule of Law Conference, celebrating ELSA’s 40th anniversary in Vienna, updates on the project were presented.

ELSA Alumni established the ROLE curriculum materials, which consists of ten lessons. The first six lessons start with topics such as fair play and access to justice and gradually build up to how pupils can actively challenge social injustices they perceive around them - being the change.

This curriculum was first piloted in the Netherlands during a two-day course at the Haagse Montessori School in The Hague. 14 teacher - facilitators were recruited: ten ELSA members from six universities and four lawyers from Eversheds Sutherland Amsterdam.

After facilitation training, these trainers facilitated all ten lessons for 150 pupils in five classes. In the end, each class had developed their own Rule of law project and pithed these for a jury to get school support for implementation.

Besides being a forum for the Rule of Law, ROLE serves as a meeting place for pupils with law students and practitioners. Facilitated by ROLE Trainers, the pupils and their teachers meet law students, lawyers and school management and enter a discussion on how they perceive injustices that surround them differently. In the end, the Dutch students thought of different projects, such as providing gender justice by free tampons in school restrooms or climate justice by replacing meat options in the cafeteria with healthy options. It is inspiring to talk about ideals, and it is captivating when one tries to apply and implement them in their immediate environment.

As the curriculum was provided in English, it allowed ELSA and ELSA Alumni to test the efficiency and the flexibility of the programme. It was most inspiring to 17

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Stressing the impact that the Campaign had on the topic of Privacy in the Digital Age, it is my utmost pleasure to mention that the ELSA Groups contributed with 110 events in various formats during the year.

I would like to use this opportunity to express my sincere gratitude to the Council of Europe for their support given to the 40 most impactful events in the Network by providing the projects with the visibility materials. This tradition has been in cultivation from the very beginning with the establishment of ELSA Day, and we are delighted to see annual growth in the Network.

ANNUAL HUMAN RIGHTS CAMPAIGN

SAMIRA SAFAROVA

Vice President in charge of Academic Activities

There is another tradition established with the help of the Council of Europe which inspires ELSA Groups to build the greatest events with the aim of contributing to the continuous discussion on different human rights-related issues every year: the Annual Human Rights Competition. Although we fully support and appreciate every single event organised under the uniting vision of the Campaign, “All different, all together,” there is only one winner in all competitions, and for the 10th edition, ELSA Greece claimed the trophy as the Winner of the Annual Human Rights Campaign Competition. As their coach, I was very proud to see that their hard work received the recognition they deserve, and I genuinely hope that their devotion will serve as a guiding light to inspire future generations.

Every year, ELSA organises a Europe-wide Human Rights Campaign to demonstrate our commitment to human rights and their protection. Considering the importance of the Annual Human Rights Campaign for our Association to stay aligned with its objectives and Vision and the level of engagement, one of my priorities this term was to support the Network in organising events on the topic of Privacy in the Digital Age. We started to prepare the Campaign by sharing the official Outline with the Network at the beginning of our term in August where we distributed information about the topic for the term, the event ideas, and the timeline that should be followed on all levels in order to bring impactful changes to the whole society. From the launch of the Outline, our approach to the Annual Human Rights Campaign was orientated in two directions: i) expansion and structure; ii) academic quality.

Finally, our focus on the academic quality of the Campaign was completed by incorporating into it the input from the society by promoting and analysing surveys examining diverse age groups’ opinions.

As the National Coordinators of the Annual Human Rights Campaign in the previous year, we were aware of the struggles that National and Local Groups faced during the implementation stage. One of the crucial difficulties was the confusion developed through years between the Annual Human Rights Campaign and the International Focus Programme, which led us to aim our work at finding the most effective solution to stress the difference between these projects. The initial step taken was to separate the branding for these two events, which also helped to communicate the unique nature of each to external stakeholders and our members via a social media campaign on the same topic. Following this success, we changed our focus to expand the reach of the Campaign with the support of National Groups and their National Coordinators; alongside Francisco and Valentin, we created a new strategy for the Annual Human Rights Campaign which included the unified structure and the division of tasks on all levels, and upon the presentation of this strategy, we organised several open calls with the National Coordinators.

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Contribution from Myrsini Karagianni, the Vice President in charge of Academic Activities of ELSA Greece and the National Coordinator of ELSA Greece for the Annual Human Rights Campaign for the term of 2021/2022 As ELSA Greece, we had the great pleasure and honour of being awarded the second time the Winner of the Annual Human Rights Campaign by ELSA International and the Council of Europe. ELSA Day and the whole Campaign for defending human rights are now inextricably linked to the National and Local ELSA Groups in Greece. Our members and partners embrace the events within the Campaign with even more dedication and enthusiasm, which are now organised throughout the academic year. How we operate in relation to the Campaign and these events, has proved to be exceptionally functional for the national and local associations. All key areas are engaged with events within the Annual Human Rights Campaign framework, making it even more 18

exciting and enjoyable to organise. The themes and the format of each action are discussed when the new Boards of Directors take office, initially between the national and each local association. Then group calls are made so we can all agree on the timing, individual themes and organisation. This year, for the first time, we decided to use the teleconferencing tool on ELSA Day to organise a joint online event between the 3 Local Groups and the national association, promoting cooperation, collegiality and solidarity between the associations of Greece. This event consisted of two “sub-activities “, a Lawyers at Work webinar on the Hellenic Data Protection Authority and a Webinar on Privacy in the Digital Age, which were jointly organised by the 4 Boards and had a significant impact on all members and non-members of the Local Groups. At the same time, before and after ELSA Day, several activities were organised by ELSA Athens, ELSA Thessaloniki and ELSA Komotini, including Legal Debate, ELSA4Schools, Roundtable Discussion, Workshops, informative videos and others.

Each Local Group has managed to create the actions for the Annual Human Rights Campaign as a “custom” throughout history, which is very important for all of us. In my view, as the Coordinator for the Annual Human Rights Campaign of ELSA Greece, the most crucial element for a successful Campaign planning is to communicate with the Local Groups as early as possible, deviate from unoriginal events and topics, and cultivate proper communication among the people involved. And, of course, zest and plenty of imagination!

I would like to take this opportunity to thank ELSA International and the Council of Europe for their constant support during the implementation of the Campaign and, especially, for rewarding our efforts. I hope ELSA Greece will inspire the rest of the Network to join this impactful Campaign in future editions.

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ANNUAL REPORT

HELGA PEDERSEN MOOT COURT COMPETITION

SAMIRA SAFAROVA

Vice President in charge of Academic Activities

The Helga Pedersen Moot Court Competition, formerly known as the European Human Rights Moot Court Competition, grows in relevance and importance with every year, and being in charge of organising the 10th HPMCC was of utmost importance to me from the second I entered the office in August. Preparations and the organisation of the 10th Edition were achieved in several stages with the ever-lasting support of our HPMCC Team: Aušra Abraitytė, Giulia Maria Servida, Linnéa Regnell and Ketevan Makharashvili. It is my pleasure to present the sections:

and a Q&A. As a result of a strong commitment before and after the launch, we encouraged 59 teams from 26 different countries to test their motivation and skill in the field of human rights by registering for the 10th edition.

Written and Regional Rounds Upon successfully closing the registration, we worked jointly with the HPMCC team on building and organising the Written and Regional Rounds. Like in the previous years, three ELSA Groups were appointed to organise the Regional Rounds: ELSA Kyiv (with ELSA Ukraine), ELSA Athens (with ELSA Greece) and ELSA Wrocław.

Despite the fact that we intended to organise the Regional Rounds in a physical format, due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic and related restrictions the three Regional Rounds were held online, with the support of the Coderblock platform. While we were putting our efforts all together to overcome the challenge of the ongoing pandemic and virtualisation of the Regional Rounds, another unexpected obstacle was waiting for us which affected not just the organisation of the Moot Court Competition but all the truths that we, as law students and young lawyers, believe in - human rights, the foundation and the primary objective of the Helga Pedersen Moot Court Competition. With the beginning of the invasion of Ukraine in February, ELSA International had to postpone the Kyiv Regional Round from 4-6 March 2022 to 18-20 March 2022.

From that moment onwards, the organisational responsibilities switched to ELSA International. I am truly grateful for all the contributions made by the Organising Committees of the Regional Rounds, especially: Elpiniki from ELSA Greece, Maciej from ELSA Wrocław, Adil and Oleksandr from ELSA Ukraine, for their hard work and dedication. With their help, we had the opportunity to gather teams on one virtual platform and to ensure the academic quality of the event despite all the challenges faced.

Rebranding, Launch, and Mooting 101 Webinar During the 79th International Council Meeting, the Council decided to rebrand the European Human Rights Moot Court Competition to carry the name of the first female Judge of the European Court of Human Rights - Helga Pedersen. In August, together with our Marketeer Tony, we put efforts into creating a logo which represents the values and objectives of the Competition towards externals. After developing the new logo, our focus was shifted to preparations of all necessary materials for the launch of the 10th edition which took place on the 20th of September 2021 and lasted until the 10th of November 2021.

The Case was written by Zuzana Kovalova and Slavica Čubrić who addressed present-day legal matters related to natural disasters and environmental protection. Considering the rebranding, one of my main priorities for the 10th edition was to ensure that the competition with a new name could be delivered to a wide range of law students and young lawyers.

With that purpose in mind, Mathieu and I organised a Mooting 101 Webinar during the registration period where Ms Dr Amaya Ubeda de Torres, who works at the Council of Europe as a Senior Legal Officer, shared her knowledge and experience on how to improve mooting skills; the presentation was followed by an introduction of both moot court competitions of ELSA ANNUAL REPORT

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10th Anniversary and Final Oral Round

Permanent Representations to the Council of Europe, and the 10th Edition marked the fruitful collaboration with the Permanent Representation of Spain, Permanent Representation of Hungary, Permanent Representation of the Netherlands and Permanent Representation of Italy. We are deeply grateful to all the Permanent Representations involved for their hard work in providing our participants with enjoyable reception environments during the Final Oral Round.

I would like to extend my gratitude and express our utmost appreciation to the City of Strasbourg and Deputy Mayor Ms Cristelle Wierder for their excellent hospitality and for allowing our participants to create unforgettable memories in Strasbourg!

For the last stage - the Final Oral Round of the Competition - we welcomed, after two years of online edition, the best 19 teams to Strasbourg, France, to the Headquarters of the Council of Europe and the European Court of Human Rights. The standard Rules of the Competition allow the Organising Committee to invite only the best 18 teams based on their Written Submissions and Regional Round scores; however, for the 10th Edition, the Rules were amended to allow 19 teams to participate in the Final Oral Round to include one more team from Ukraine. The measure was taken in the light of the ongoing war in Ukraine to provide equal opportunities, with the rest of the participants, to our Ukrainian groups to continue taking part in the Competition even during these challenging times.

Not last but least, a big thank you should be sent to the members of the Academic Board and our dearest case authors with whom I truly enjoyed working throughout the year. It was an irreplaceable opportunity for me to have renowned experts by my side when I started my journey of organising the 10th Edition, and I could not wish for better supporters in this mission.

Neither the successes of the previous editions nor the return to the physical format could have been accomplished without the constant support and guidance of the Council of Europe and the European Court of Human Rights. With their help, every edition of this Competition brings human rights and the rule of law and democracy closer to law students and young lawyers across Europe. I would like to thank Ms Sophie Lobey who has been our main contact person in the Council of Europe for years and dedicated her precious time to supporting the Competition on all levels when we needed her wisdom and experience.

Testimonial from Slavica Čubrić and Zuzana Kovaľová, the Case Authors of the Helga Pedersen Moot Court Competition The Helga Pedersen Moot Court Competition has reached its 10th anniversary this year. We would sincerely like to express our appreciation to Samira and her team at ELSA, who did justice to such a milestone.

We are honoured to be a part of this competition that was created for and by hundreds of students who have participated in this moot court throughout the years. Many of them continue to pursue their career in human rights all around the world, and some of them, have even been supporting younger generations of moot court participants as teachers or coaches.

We have experienced many changes, challenges, and evolutions throughout the years. The introduction of regional rounds and online mooting has been some of the most recent ones. What remains a constant is the students’ knowledge and dedication to human rights and mastery of the facts of the fictional case.

In addition to the Council of Europe and the European Court of Human Rights, every year we, as ELSA, have the honour and pleasure of collaborating with the 21

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In many ways, this year’s edition was a special one.

From the organizational side, it was definitely one of the most successful and effective ones. ELSA was always prepared to deal with many logistical, professional, but also personal challenges. Samira had to deal with many non-standard situations, and she managed them with professionalism and grace.

We would especially like to highlight the last-minute organization of the regional rounds in Kyiv, which had to move to a virtual space due to the war in Ukraine. She also managed to effectively deal with a number of questions concerning the participation of the Ukrainian teams, and we would like to emphasise Samira’s and ELSA’s integrity and professionalism with which the Ukrainian teams were accommodated.

Furthermore, after two years of travel and social restrictions, we were able to return to the hearing rooms in Strasbourg this year. Many of us have lost practice with organizing in-person events during these years, and ELSA did not have an easy task. We would like to express our appreciation for the way the final rounds were organized. Again, Samira, together with the members of the International Organising Committee, was able to work professionally in stressful situations and handled them effectively, including accommodating an unfortunate situation where some members of one team tested positively for Covid-19.

Throughout these ten years, numerous human rights experts and we have heard students plead on a number of contemporary legal issues, such as climate change, epidemic, use of artificial intelligence, gender-based harassment, compulsory vaccination for children, and ill-treatment of terrorist suspects, and so on. These are all legal questions that challenge us as lawyers and individuals and that have recently been or will soon be considered by the European Court of Human Rights, thus giving students a unique opportunity to be at the forefront of human rights protection.

We are so proud and moved to witness how the competition has developed into a widely recognised moot court competition in Europe and humbled that we play a part in it by drafting the case that students compete on. We would like to thank Samira and ELSA for keeping their interest, motivation, and dedication, which is a great inspiration to us and surely for the students as well. We wish Samira and all members of ELSA who were a part of this year’s moot court the best of luck in their further studies and careers. They are already on a great path, and we do not have any hesitations about their future success!

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20TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION OF THE JOHN H. JACKSON MOOT COURT COMPETITION

MATHIEU VERHELST

Vice President in charge of Moot Court Competitions

2022 marked the 20th anniversary of the John H. Jackson Moot Court Competition. For 20 years, the European Law Students Association has been organising the largest Moot Court Competition on International Trade Law together with the technical support of the World Trade Organisation. Every year, we welcome hundreds of students from all over the world to the Jackson Moot Family, a steadily growing community since 2002.

This year’s edition had the support of Van Bael & Bellis as its main sponsor and Georgetown Law as its main academic supporter but also counted on the support of Steptoe, Akin Gump, Baker McKenzie, Sidley Austin, the European Public Law Organization (EPLO), the World Trade Institute, and Jus Mundi, that provided prices and support to the teams.

This year marked the anniversary of the ELSA Moot Court Competition and the return to a physical format.

Since 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic has required us to host all Rounds in an online format. It has therefore been our pleasure to host the Final Oral Round of our beloved competition in Geneva again.

As mentioned, the six regional rounds of the competition took place online this year. The AllAmerican round from the 24th to the 28th of February, the first European round from the 3rd to the 7th of March, the second European round from the 10th to the 14th of March, the African round from the 23rd to the 27th of March, the East Asia and Oceania round from the 31st of March to the 4th of April and the West and South Asia round from the 28th of April to the 2nd of May with the support of our sister association, the Asian Law Students’ Association, ALSA.

Regional Rounds of the Competition

The John H. Jackson Moot Court Competition was created with the mindset of an ambitious ELSA Project that transgresses the borders of the European Continent. Each year the International Board of ELSA works hard to make this competition grow towards that ideal. Now with its 6 Regional Rounds all over the world, more than 30 countries, 80 law faculties and hundreds of participants, coaches, panellists and supporters, the competition is well on its way to achieving this goal.

Final Oral Round From the 28th of June to the 2nd of July, 24 teams gathered in Geneva for the first time in over two years to compete in the Final Oral Round of the John H. Jackson Moot Court Competition. We had the pleasure of hosting all participants and invitees in the University of Geneva and the World Trade Organisation. The Round was opened in the prestigious Room W within the WTO by Ambassador Dr Athaliah Molokomme.

We also had Director General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala greeting the teams during that week. We would like to use this opportunity to congratulate the University of Zurich for winning the 20th edition of the John H. Jackson Moot Court Competition and thank everyone who has aided in its organisation this year.

The 20th edition in numbers For this 20th edition, we had the chance to have 300 participants from 31 countries and 81 universities registered for the competition, an excellent rate despite the COVID situation.

These teams were mainly accompanied by coaches, as 113 coaches took part in the competition this year. Around 200 other experts of the field and of the competition from all over the world took part as panelists or as representatives of the sponsors and partners of the competition.

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PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT THE NEW VISION

SUSANNA MENDICINO Vice President in charge of Professional Development

This year marked an important turning point for one of the key areas of ELSA, with the rebranding of the traineeships programme from STEP to ELSA Traineeships, additionally, the name of this key area was changed to Professional Development.

What really deserves to be highlighted in this regard, is that it was not only a formal change of a “label” but something far more important. The Professional Development area is now not only in charge of the longest-running ELSA Flagship Project, but it is also fully dedicated to the overall process of making our members more aware of the professional background they need to cultivate in order to gain significant access the legal market and develop their careers.

The response of the Network exceeded the expectations that we set at the beginning of the term, more than half of the National Groups started their transition from STEP to Professional Development, both on the national level and on the local level, organising engaging new projects and activities. In all the International Internal Meetings and during the Open Calls that were organised during the term, the International Board gave several training sessions and discussions in order to give all the Officers the tools and the information they needed to embrace this important change.

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ELSA TRAINEESHIPS - THE NEW FACE OF THE LONGEST-RUNNING FLAGSHIP PROJECT OF ELSA

SUSANNA MENDICINO Vice President in charge of Professional Development

This year we renewed the image of the ELSA Traineeships Programme, promoting it for the first time, not as STEP - the Student Trainee Exchange Programme, but as ELSA Traineeships.

Rights of the Parliamentary Assembly. We continued the cooperation with the NGO Jerusalem Insitute of Justice, which is dedicated to cultivating and defending the rule of law, human rights, and democracy for all people in the Middle East.

The new name and brand had a positive impact on the promotion and the clarification of the project towards the new externals that were approached, as it avoided all the difficulties previously encountered with the acronym STEP. On the other hand, careful attention was given to the community already involved in the project, using all the tools at our disposal to connect or reconnect them with the traineeships programme.

We increased our involvement with the prestigious Legal General Partner, the ERA - The Academy of European Law, offering to our members the possibility of applying to the different departments of the Academy. We pursued our collaboration with the European Centre for Certification and Privacy and Mandat International/IoT Lab, ensuring that our members had opportunities in fields of law that are very attractive to the current legal market.

As expected, the first year of implementation could not complete this transition process. In combination with other factors (such as the general lack of human resources among the Network and the Covid impact on social activities and travels), we have seen a slight decrease in the number of traineeships and applications in some areas of the network. In opposition to this tendency, some National Groups increased the number of applications and traineeships provided drastically, showing that in pursuing the objective of making our processes more straightforward and efficient, there is always strong potential and great room for improvement.

One of the academic supporters of the John H. Jackson Moot Court Competition, the European Public Law Organization, joined ELSA Traineeships as a Traineeship Provider through its higher education institution, the European Law and Governance School” (ELGS). We started a very fruitful cooperation with the French Ministry of Justice, which provided traineeship opportunities both in France and in the Netherlands.

We are delighted to have once again as our traineeship providers Caselex, a Global Market Definitions Module and Spark Legal Network, a legal research consultancy that primarily works on cross-border legal research projects for European Institutions. As a must in ELSA Traineeships, opportunities were provided in law firms as well, in particular, Kocks & Partners in Belgium specialised in assisting foreign clients with crossborder business law; The Zeidler Group a technologydriven law firm revolutionising the asset management industry in Germany and Butzel Long Attorneys and Counselors in the United States. Last but not least, we are very glad to confirm our two most important partnerships connected to ELSA Traineeships, Fragomen Global LLP, the world’s leading single-focus

On the international level, the Job Hunting activity was particularly focused on the consolidation and implementation of new relationships with our Traineeship Providers, without forgetting the expansion through new potential Providers. Overall, considering the two cycles of the term, we ensured traineeships in essential institutions like the Council of Europe both in Brussels in the Liaison Office of the Council and in Strasbourg through the Committee on Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development and Committee on Legal Affairs and the Human 25

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provider of immigration. Additionally, guidance and support from Bierens Debt Recovery Lawyers, the largest debt recovery law firm in the Netherlands, was essential.

Testimonial from Chiara Caredda I work as Legal Trainee at the Council of Europe Liaison Office with the EU in Brussels through the ELSA Traineeship programme. In my daily work, I mainly dealt with Migration law and policy and the Rule of law in the EU. I am enthusiastic about the stimulating work environment that I found at the Council where I had the opportunity to gain a first-hand approach to the CoE-EU relations and their co-operation in the protection of Human Rights.

Testimonial from Uboho Inyang “The HR team used the first three days to orient and fully ‘admit’ me into the workings and practices of the firm. The orientation covered the firm’s structure, timekeeping, writing styles, filing, etc., with a strong emphasis on a paperless office.

Beyond office aesthetics, the firm possesses a culture of excellence in all it does. It is highly ranked in various practice areas, thanks to its star-studded attorneys, including former Justices of the Michigan Supreme Court, notable authors/academics, corporate lawyers, dispute resolution experts, etc.

It’s been three months now, as I write this piece, working at Butzel. Within this time frame, I have worked on different client matters ranging from corporate restructuring, compliance issues, labor issues, dispute resolution, contract reviews, etc. The most exciting part for me is interacting with clients and international law firms around the globe I am also privileged to have regular audiences with two incredible former Justices of the Michigan Supreme Court, now counsel in the firm: Justice Maura Corrigan (who also served as the court’s chief justice during her term) and Justice Kurtis Wilder.

In all, I am learning, serving, improving, and, more so, experiencing the greatness of Butzel Long. A big thank you to ELSA and its officers for making this unforgettable experience possible through ELSA Traineeships.”

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THE 2ND EDITION OF ELSA INTERNATIONAL’S CAREER LAUNCH

SUSANNA MENDICINO Vice President in charge of Professional Development

The 2nd Edition of Career Launch was structured in two pillars: the Career Fair and Digital Workshops.

The Career Fair took place on the Coderblock 3D Platform over two days, the 8th and 9th of March 2022; the first day was dedicated to the Legal Partners, and the second one was focused on the General Education Partners of ELSA. During those two days, participants had the chance to meet representatives of the different institutions, educational entities, companies and law firms and to ask them questions about careers in their organisations or academic opportunities.

The Digital Workshops were organised in sessions aimed to provide our members with the necessary tools and skills to stand out in the job market. In particular, we covered the following topics: “How to apply for a job and enhance your CV and Motivation letter”, “How to stand out and be successful in job interviews”, “Social Media Presence”, “Careers in international institutions and diplomacy”, “International Educational Opportunities”, “How to become an International Lawyer”, “Careers in Immigration Law”, “Different legal professions available to Law students – Debts Recovery Lawyer”, “The future of the Legal Market”, “Careers in the European Union and where to start”, “Diversity and Inclusion” and “Job Opportunities in the United States”.

The organisations involved in Career Launch are the Council of Europe, LexisNexis, Van Bael & Bellis, Bierens Incasso Advocaten, Fragomen, JS Information Governance, Deutsche Juristenakademie, Barbri, Católica Global School of Law of Universidade Católica Portuguesa, Central European University, College of Europe, University of Law, IE Law School and Georgetown University Law Center.

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ELSA DELEGATIONS AND WORLD FORUM FOR DEMOCRACY

VALENTIN BADERT

Vice President in charge of Seminars and Conferences

MARIA GAWECKA

STEPHANIE PAYER

ELSA Poland

ELSA Austria

ELSA Delegations indeed has a place in the category of the very prestigious projects that ELSA is offering to its members. Even if this project has been running successfully for a long period of time, we always aim to improve ourselves and what we provide. This is why one of the priorities this year had been, for example, to build up on the observership status that we have been having at the United Nations for the past 25 years and develop new opportunities.

group for the community of current and former ELSA Delegates. All of this combined is always done with the aim of developing ELSA Delegations to the point where it is recognised and promoted in the Network as a very prestigious opportunity that every member or alumni should go for.

Commonly to other areas, our goal this term was also the return to our physical ELSA Delegations at the United Nations and WIPO headquarters. This provided a great experience for our ELSA Delegates to go on-site, like Maria and Stephanie who attended an ELSA Delegations during this year:

We are indeed very proud that this year we had the opportunity to finally be recommended for provisional admittance as an observer NGO at the UNFCCC which inter alia will grant ELSA the opportunity to send Delegates to the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP) happening for the first time this year at the COP 27 in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt. This is a tremendous opportunity for future ELSA Delegates and a step forward for the ELSA Delegations project and our Association as a whole. Truthfully, participating in COP will give our association additional recognition for the work it has been doing for the past 40 years.

“Participating in the WIPO Symposium on Trade Secrets and Innovation as an ELSA Delegate was a great privilege. It was a fantastic opportunity to broaden my horizons on a topic near and dear to my heart. Being on-site in Geneva enabled me to meet experts on the topic, diplomats and my fellow delegates. I would recommend this experience to everyone.” - Maria Gawecka “After almost 2 years of Online-Delegations, I had the incredible opportunity to be a UN ELSA Delegate to the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW UN ECOSOC) at the UN Headquarters in NYC. Participating in the Delegation on-site was one of the most enriching experiences in my professional life so far. It was breathtaking to witness international decision-making and to be surrounded by an incredibly inspiring international community. UN ELSA Delegations offer a vast array of main sessions and side events to attend, where you get the chance to interact with internationally renowned experts and diplomats from all around the world.” - Stephanie Payer

From the internal work point of view, my team and I decided to work on making ELSA Delegations clearer and more transparent. Firstly, by updating our selection criteria to give more certainty to the selection process for our applicants. Secondly, by introducing pre and post- Delegations calls to give the opportunity to adequately discuss with all ELSA Delegates any questions they might have and to use all their feedback to improve the project. This feedback was for example used to update our guidelines and cover the specificities of the online version of our ELSA Delegations, as well as to create a Facebook ANNUAL REPORT

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Last but not least, we also had the chance to attend once again the World Forum of Democracy, organized by the Council of Europe. This year’s topic was ‘Can Democracy save the environment?’. As Head of Delegation, I had the opportunity to lead our 10 delegates to the World Forum, where we fully dedicated ourselves to actively participating and sharing the ideas promoted as much as possible. This year’s topic aimed at starting a discussion on whether some democratic actions, such as public society debates or the use of people’s freedom of expression, should be the way we deal with climate change. I believe that it was a very insightful opportunity for our ELSA Delegation and we left it with the knowledge of the tools we have at our disposal to start the lead of fighting climate change with the help of our democracies.

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ANNUAL REPORT

THE RETURN OF WELS AND SELS TO OUR NETWORK

VALENTIN BADERT

Vice President in charge of Seminars and Conferences

PAULA BAČIĆ

President of ELSA Zagreb

DARIO SCHÖNBÄCHLER VP S&C of ELSA Switzerland

Another challenge of this year was to bring back one of the largest-reaching projects we have in our Association after two years of a mandatory pause: the ELSA Law Schools project.

happy that in the context of our coaching strategy, we had the opportunity to proceed with those previsits throughout the year in Munich, Istanbul, Adana, Athens, and Sarajevo, and I am sure that it helped them and us to organise an even better ELSA Law School.

Our ELSA Law Schools aim to allow our members and non-members to discover a new legal topic while also benefitting from discovering new cultures from all across Europe and making friends for life.

In the end, the clear message that we received from our network was that this was something they were profoundly waiting for, as Paula and Dario explain:

Testimonials from WELS/SELS Organisers

At the beginning of our term, we had decided to take a proactive approach regarding the project to change our usual structure and make it fit for the COVID-19 situation to guarantee our participants’ safety and good health. Indeed, in addition to delaying our first cycle to evaluate the situation better, we also decided to make COVID vaccination certificates a prerequisite to participating in our ELSA Law Schools. This approach enabled ELSA Law Schools to take place in the best conditions of health possible, and we are happy that overall, we managed to welcome everyone without experiencing any significant outbreaks.

“As a proud president of a local group participating in both the winter and the summer cycle, I am extremely glad that the Schools in the ELSA network could finally be held again!

Our WELS took place from February 27th until March 6th on the subject of Law and Business; the participants visited the High Commercial Court and the Croatian National Bank as part of the academic programme. A part of the cultural and social programme was marked by trips to the Plitvice Lakes National Park and the nearby town of Samobor where a traditional carnival was held.

However, one of the extra challenges we had this year in addition to the COVID pandemic was to ensure that the quality of one of our most unified projects would stay the same, if not improve. Right when the cycles started, the ELSA Law Schools team decided to have a very prominent approach to the ELSA Law Schools Coaching, being either through multiple calls, the organisation of our Training Weekends in an online format to ensure the possibility for the largest number of people to participate, and also through an idea that was implemented in 2019 but which we were able to execute only this year, namely the ELSA Law Schools Pre-Visit. During the pre-visit, the aim is to witness the organisation of the ELSA Law School in person and to use this opportunity to check rooms, venues, accommodations, food etc. I was therefore ANNUAL REPORT

At the end of July, SELS will be held traditionally on the coast, in the City of Zadar; the topic is, again, Human Rights and Globalization. We have prepared a rich academic, cultural, and social programme for more than 40 participants, and we are organising a boat trip to another national park, this time to the Kornati Islands.

The organisation of Schools meant a great deal to me.

Namely, the student organisers have the opportunity to try different challenges, acquire many skills, and deepen their legal knowledge.

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I am also glad that we can once again offer young people the opportunity to get involved in such a fantastic project, where cultural and social experience are combined with academic knowledge. Schools are an exceptional opportunity for members and nonmembers to feel the ELSA Spirit and learn something new in a more informal and relaxed environment.” Paula Bačić “Finally is what I thought in January 2022, when the decision was announced not to cancel Summer ELSA Law Schools. I was very happy that one of my favourite projects – and one of the flagship projects of ELSA – was a step closer to happening. By January 2022, the Organising Committee for the SELS Geneva had already been working on the SELS Geneva for over half a year. Organising a project that had not happened for two years has its own challenges. Only two people in my Organising Committee experienced an ELSA Law School. The majority of the OC never attended a SELS or WELS. However, everyone was very motivated to give their best to make the comeback of ELSA Law Schools a success. Organising an ELSA Law School is not just a lot of fun; it is also amazing to see what skills everyone involved learned individually and as a team. Furthermore, it is a project that lets the participants enhance their knowledge and skills immensely. Although there were many challenges, thanks to the dedication of the Organizing Committee and the support of ELSA International we overcame these challenges and provided our participants with a fantastic SELS experience, one that I hope they will want to relieve at another WELS or SELS now that the project is back!” - Dario Schönbächler Finally, the return to physical law schools gave us the opportunity to bring back into the spotlight our partnership with CBL International, an organisation that holds different Law Schools annually, for example at the Oriel College of the University of Oxford.

The continuous partnership between ELSA and CBL enabled us to again provide a 20% discount for all ELSA Members applying to the Oriel College programme this summer.

Testimonial from Gabriel Li, Academic Partnership Manager, CBL International - Worldstrides “It is really exciting to see students from ELSA again in our Summer Institution at Oriel College, University of Oxford, after the pandemic. ELSA is one of the most important partners of CBL; we have worked together for more than 10 years. This year, with the great support and help from Valentin and his team, we believe the students will have a delighted and unforgettable summer. We also look forward to seeing more students from ELSA at Oriel College next year.”

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ANNUAL REPORT

THE NEW INTERNATIONAL FOCUS PROGRAMME TOPIC

VALENTIN BADERT

Vice President in charge of Seminars and Conferences

LENA DIMMLING VP S&C of ELSA Germany

“New term – new International Focus Programme topic. From now until 2025, the ELSA Network has the opportunity to work on the concept of Law and Sustainability, followed by three sub-themes responsible consumption and reproduction, energy law, and no planet B -. This topic offers countless opportunities for our students to continue their education beyond their studies.

During our term, it was an absolute pleasure to see our network dedicated to our IFP campaign, where we aim to develop our members’ legal education on topics beyond a law degree curriculum. The process of adopting the new IFP topic started very early in our term, through giving National Groups the opportunity of submitting new proposals of topics. We then continued our work by researching each topic’s strengths and weaknesses as well as their sub-division to provide our Network with the best possible structure and overview on a sample of topics that will follow ELSA for the next 3 years. The peak of our work was the final decision made by our International Council at the LXXXI ICM Cosenza, where it was incredible to see how our Groups discussed and were involved in this important choice. We are looking forward to seeing what the ELSA Network will be able to achieve with the new IFP topic as we are truly convinced of its importance and its game-changing aspect for the legal education of our members.

This theme offers us many different aspects that serve as a basis for various events for both National and Local Groups. From conferences on sustainable supply chain matters, visits to international organisations working on the legal aspect of sustainability, moot court competitions on environmental violations to many other formats. Each Key Area will be able to access and implement the topic rapidly, and National Groups where this topic has played a significant role for the past years will now find their place in this whole cycle.

From a National group perspective, I believe that this will enable our Groups not only to go on a path that we have not been able to focus on before and that is entirely new to society but also to go further than the ‘ecological’ sustainability that we may have been focusing already but which is complemented by a whole range of new topics.” - Lena Dimmling

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EPILOGUE Dear Network, Dearest Community of ELSA Friends, With this Annual Report, we officially conclude our term as the International Board of ELSA 2021/2022. A year that can definitely be described as atypical, filled with challenges and new experiences, where we learned to consider different perspectives and think outside the box.

At the very beginning of this journey, we settled on our main goal, the goal of taking the responsibility of making a difference for those who believe “in a just world”, the goal to #BeTheChange that we wanted to see in our Community.

A year later, looking back on our work, we can safely say that we put all our efforts into achieving what we set out to do, by taking it upon ourselves to organise the first physical ICM since the COVID-19 pandemic, by the rebranding of some of our most important flagships, by bringing our ELSA Law Schools and Moot Court Competitions back to their physical format, by focusing on providing concrete and valuable benefits for our members and by welcoming a new Patron of ELSA in order to strengthen the credibility of the Association.

But those changes were not only aimed at improving the work of the International Board itself. This was only the starting point. What is way more important is the significant impact that those changes aimed to have on our Network. A Network that now can find the inspiration to begin once again organising International Internal Meetings and projects, where they can spread the ELSA spirit among members of new generations. A Network of people able to count on ELSA to open its door for them, when finding a place to feel at home seemed too hard or almost impossible.

This was our first primary goal, reflected on each step we took throughout the year, and which is now our last message to all of you. Do not wait for things to get better, do not postpone the realisation of that dream that you have been waiting to follow, and do not be afraid to be the first one to do something that was never done before. We encourage you to do it in the best way that you can.

Be the change.

ELSAfully yours, Francisco, Lucy, Ainoa, Tony, Samira, Mathieu, Susanna and Val.

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