Synergy Magazine 45

Magazine of The European Law Students’ Association

No.45 ¡ I-2009

SYNERGY

magazine

Conferences in the Network

UNESCO World Conference

Negotiation Skills

Report from academic ELSA Conferences across Europe

Students call for global ombudsperson for student rights

Tips on how to improve your negotiation skills

Council of Europe Anniversary:

60 Years of Human Rights

About ELSA The European Law Students’ Association, ELSA, is an international, independent, nonpolitical and non-profit-making organisation comprised and run by and for law students and young lawyers. Founded in 1981 by law students from Austria, Hungary, Poland and West Germany, ELSA is today the world’s largest independent law students’ association.

Synergy ELSA International in Brussels, Belgium produces Synergy. The articles are contributions from students, young and experienced lawyers as well as academics. The articles are edited at the discretion of the Editors. Please do not hesitate to visit Synergy Online www.elsa.org/publications/synergy.asp

Our Philosophy

Vision A just world in which there is respect for human dignity and cultural diversity.

Purpose To contribute to legal education, to foster mutual understanding and to promote social responsibility of law students and young lawyers.

Means To provide opportunities for law students and young lawyers to learn about other cultures and legal systems in a spirit of critical dialogue and scientific co-operation. To assist law students and young lawyers to be internationally minded and professionally skilled. To encourage law students and young lawyers to act for the good of society.

Our Network

ELSA is a unique and growing Network of 30 000 law students and young lawyers from more than 220 universities in 36 countries across Europe. ELSA currently has members and observers in: Albania, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Georgia, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, 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 and Ukraine.

Furthermore, ELSA co-operates with other student organisations across the world, for instance ILSA in North America, COLADIC in South America, ALSA in ASIA, ALSA in Australia, ALSA in South Africa and AEJCI in Ivory Coast.

ELSA’s Members

ELSA’s members are internationally minded individuals who have experiences with foreign legal systems and practices. Through our activities such as Seminars & Conferences, Academic Activities and the Student Trainee Exchange Programme our members acquire a broader cultural understanding and legal expertise.

Our Special Status

ELSA has through its activities and commitment within the international community gained a special status with several international institutions. In 2000, ELSA was granted Participatory Status with the Council of Europe. Furthermore, ELSA has Consultative Status with several United Nations bodies; in 1997 ELSA obtained Special Consultative Status with UN ECOSOC, UNCITRAL, in 1994 ELSA was granted Consultative Status in Category C in UNESCO. ELSA also has recently obtained Observatory Status with WIPO. In addition, ELSA has a co-operation agreement with UNHCR and co-operates with ICRC and all the European Institutions.

Contributions Synergy is published twice a year for ELSA’s members in 36 countries in Europe. Would you like to contribute with articles or pictures for the Magazine? Please contact ELSA International for further information and guidelines.

Advertising Would you like to advertise your courses, services, company or products, please do not hesitate to contact ELSA International in Brussels. Rates are available upon request from: advertisements@elsa.org Editor Torkil Norstrøm ELSA International Phone: +32 2 646 26 26 Fax: + 32 2 646 29 23 E-mail: elsa@elsa.org Website: www.elsa.org

ELSA International’s Corporate Partner

ELSA International’s Auditing Partner

ELSA International’s Human Rights Partner

ELSA International’s Media Partner

Marraine & Patrons

Maud De Boer-Buquicchio (Marainne of ELSA) The Deputy Secretary General of the Council of Europe.

The Right Honourable Lord Slynn of Hadley (Patron of ELSA) Law Lord at the House of Lords of the United Kingdom, London.

Professor M. Cherif Bassiouni (Patron of ELSA), Professor of Law, De Paul University, President of the International Association of Penal Law and President of the International Institute of Higher Studies in Criminal Sciences. synergy magazine

ELSA International’s Marketing & IT partner

Editor’s letter

Dear readers,

A member magazine should represent the ideas and activities of its organisation.

Torkil Norstrøm, VP Marketing, ELSA International

In this edition we give some special attention to the 60th anniversary of our Human Rights Partner Council of Europe.

In a network as diverse as ELSA it is always an interesting challenge to find the right balance when selecting articles for the magazine. It has been an interesting job to work with all the enthusiastic people around the network that have involved themselves in contributing to the magazine.

I would like to thank everyone who contributed with an article and especially Council of Europe for their great articles and Content5 for the great assistance with the production of the magazine.

I hope you will find some interesting articles in this edition and it can inspire you to organise or take part in a future ELSA event.

Torkil Norstrøm

synergy magazine

Contents

Council of Europe A letter to ELSA

Asian Law Students' Association Conference 2009 Beijing

Upcoming Conference: Main Trends in Copyright Development

Editor's letter

4

New Partners

6

A Letter to ELSA

7

The Council of Europe at 60

8

60 Years of Human Rights

12

Students call for global ombudsperson for student rights

14

Negotiation Skills

17

International law firms – ELSA reloaded

20

International Council Meeting of ELSA: My first impression

22

Legal work in Prague; a STEP experience

23

A report from a Trainee

24

Events Calendar

26

ELSA Iceland is back and well trained

28

Let’s Come Together, Right Now!

30

ALSA Conference 2009 Beijing

32

Facing the Global Challenge

35

Share your opinion with Europe!

36

Conference in Wroclaw: Contemporary Trends in Copyright Development

38

Upcoming Conference: Main Trends in Intellectual Property Law

39

Conference: Legal challenges of the cyberspace

40

Summer seminar in Copenhagen

42

Omnes viae Brussels ducunt…or all roads lead to Brussels

44

A trip to the north!

46

Multilateral Study Visit To Osijek

47

Summary Of The Conference On The Economic Crisis

48

A reflection on the Human Resources Programme in ELSA Poland

50

ELSA International

New partners of ELSA:

“A network in bloom” Every year ELSA strive to make good partnerships and to increase the stability and the quality of the network.

ELSA International has the pleasure to announce that we have 2 new partners from last Synergy and also that 2 agreements have been revised to become more extensive. Below you can find some information about the new partners. Since last Synergy ELSA also increased the number of countries in the network. We welcome ELSA Georgia to the network.

Human Rights Partnership:

International Alumni Association:

We are happy to announce that the already existing partnership between ELSA and Council of Europe has been renewed and also expanded. In addition to the expansion of the agreement ELSA now has the personal support of the Deputy Secretary General of Council of Europe Maud de Boer-Buquicchio as "Marraine" of our association. ELSA looks forward to the cooperation.

Founded in 1991, ELS - The ELSA Lawyers Society is the international alumni association of ELSA. ELSA and ELS has the last year decided to formalise tighter bonds and to work even closer together in order to facilitate the best possible solutions for both organisations. The new agreement between the two organisations signed in January 2008 will be sure to benefit both organisations greatly in the long run.

Media Partner of ELSA:

Marketing & IT Partner:

European Voice's mission is to promote informed debate, openness and progress in the EU and the newspaper has become essential reading for the EU regulatory and political affairs communities – Europe's most important decision-makers. Published by The Economist Group since 1995, European Voice is a high-quality read and staunchly independent in its reporting and opinions. It is not – and never will be – tied in any way to a member state, party or point of view.

In European Voice ELSA has found a media partner that will help raise the media attention around activities organised by ELSA. European Voice also has a European focus and as such is a perfect match for an association such as ELSA.

The C5 group is an integrated full service partner for agencies, consultancies and international corporations. Under the umbrella of the Content5 AG they offer first-class one-stop services. Content5, C5 Solutions and Plett, Schulte & Partner are involved members of the C5 Group.

ELSA International has been cooperating with the C5 group for around a year now. The cooperation has involved a new corporate identity, marketing materials, Synergy and also currently a new website project is on the way. It is a pleasure for ELSA to formalise the cooperation and we are sure that both parties will be able to greatly benefit from this agreement.

Council of Europe

Deputy Secretary General of Council of Europe:

“A letter to ELSA” In October 2008 The Deputy Secretary General of Council of Europe Maud de Boer-Buquicchio became the Marraine of ELSA. Marraine is the french word equivalent to Godmother.

Dear ELSA, I am very pleased to address all members of the European Law Students Association, both as your Marraine and as the Deputy Secretary General of the Council of Europe, in this edition of ‘Synergy’ highlighting the 60th Anniversary of the Organisation.

Besides the celebration of the 60th anniversary of the Council of Europe’s founding treaty in London, other human rights anniversaries are taking place in 2009 at the Council of Europe – the 50th anniversary of the European Court of Human Rights, the 20th anniversary of the Committee of the European Convention for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment as well as the 10th anniversary of the Office of the Commissioner for Human Rights.

More modestly, we can also celebrate the first anniversary of the Human Rights Partnership between the Council of Europe and ELSA, two institutions with human rights at the heart of their actions.

As you know, the Council of Europe defines standards for justice, equality, democracy and solidarity across the continent, standards that are intended to allow some 800 million Europeans to live together in mutual respect and peace. But we are also a campaigning organisation with the aim of raising awareness about challenges to human rights and the ways to deal with them.

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The Death is not justice campaign will remain of actuality until the moratoria become a definitive abolition in law throughout Europe, and until other international organisations also require their members to abolish the death penalty in law. Gender violence, human trafficking and other forms of discriminations must also be tackled and eliminated. I am convinced that ELSA members can help further these campaigns through their actions and cooperation with the Council of Europe.

As future legal practioners – judges, prosecutors and experts, policy makers, or university teachers – involved in managing and developing an ever more multicultural Europe, I would encourage ELSA members to draw inspiration from the Human Rights standards that are the long-standing acquis of our Strasbourgbased Organisation.

I invite you to follow the letter of the Council of Europe treaties and conventions, which combine measures for effective legal cooperation and a strict insistence on the respect of human rights, and I encourage you to make use of, and benefit from, this truly pan-European legal space.

I do believe that ELSA, with its energy and commitment to integrate human rights in all fields of its activities, can contribute to making human rights a reality for every woman and man in Europe.

Council of Europe

The Council of Europe at 60:

“An unparalleled system of human rights protection in Europe” Founded in 1949, the Council of Europe seeks to develop throughout Europe common and democratic principles based on the European Convention on Human Rights and other reference texts on the protection of individuals.

Seda Pumpyanskaya, Director of Communication Council of Europe

The Council of Europe will be celebrating its 60th anniversary this year. But diamond anniversaries are not only about celebration, they also give us an opportunity to reflect seriously on what we have accomplished.

We have come a long way since the Statute of the Council of Europe was signed on 5 May 1949 in London by the 10 founding members. The organisation has kept growing ever since, both geographically and in its areas of expertise. This development gained speed after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, and the Council of Europe today encompasses the entire continent of Europe (47 member states vs. 27 EU member states) and includes 800 million inhabitants.

At the same time, the Council of Europe, developed standards in its core areas of democracy, human rights and the rule of law and put together the tools necessary to make sure they are implemented. This was done by developing a series of conventions and monitoring mechanisms, derived from the Council’s fundamental mission. Today these conventions cover almost all aspects of the life of European citizens.

As the guardian of the European Convention of Human Rights, the Council of Europe has developed an unparalleled system of human rights protection in Europe. Since the establishment of this system, rights and freedoms are no longer just high-minded statements and abiding by them is no longer just a question of

good will on the part of signatory states. Compliance is ensured by a supranational body, established by the Convention – the European Court on Human Rights.

The Council of Europe has set up an arsenal of international legal treaties responding to the rapidly changing situation and to the new global challenges which our societies face: terrorism, corruption, cybercrime, trafficking in human beings, sexual exploitations of children, intolerance, racism, and so on. In July 2004, the Council of Europe Convention on Cybercrime entered into force, becoming the only binding international legal text on this issue of cybercrime. The Council of Europe conventions on the prevention of terrorism and action against trafficking in human beings are also open to non-member states.

The de-facto abolition of the death penalty across the continent is another major achievement of the organisation. Russia is the only exception, but they have agreed to a moratorium. The Council of Europe has also developed mechanisms for monitoring human rights conduct and democratic practice in member states, such as Council of Europe Anti-Torture Committee (CPT), the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI), and the Group of States against Corruption (GRECO).

The Council of Europe’s various institutions work on to disclose human rights abuses, for instance in the work of the Parliamentary Assembly. One example was Swiss MP Dick Marty’s report on how the CIA, with the collusion of several European countries,

Council of Europe

illegally and secretly transferred and detained people as part of its anti terrorist campaigns. Other examples would be the recent fact-finding missions to South Ossetia and ongoing election observation mission. The Human Rights Commissioner is another “whistle blower”. He tries to be the voice of conscience, and is independent from any form of political pressure.

This wealth of expertise is part of the reason why the Council of Europe is in a position to intervene in areas in which other international organisms, global and European, are also present.

The activities of these organisations are for the most part complementary. This overlap, however, can be confusing for European citizens, and that makes it very important to communicate well. To do this, the Directorate of Communication has devised a communication strategy for the Council of Europe with the

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primary objective to raise the visibility – and therefore the influence – of the organisation, and in doing so help it to achieve its statutory goals.

The aim of the communication strategy is to project a coherent corporate image of the organisation and ensure its visibility, so that the Council of Europe can efficiently promote a vision of Europe based on common values of human rights, democracy, and the rule of law. In order to position the Council of Europe as the leading authority in this domain, we need to make the organisation’s voice heard and reach European citizens.

Constant and careful work with the media ensures that our successes and achievements are seen by the public, and we also follow a disciplined approach to our visual identity. These two

Council of Europe

processes are central to improving the Council of Europe’s visibility. Of course, the European Union has infinitely larger budgets for communication projects at their disposal. Nevertheless, the Council of Europe continues to be creative in its thinking and strives constantly to improve, despite our comparatively modest financial means.

The communication strategy rests upon several guiding principles, one of which is increasing co-operation and co-ordination between different parts of the Council of Europe on communication-related issues. A greater emphasis is placed on those topics in which the Council of Europe truly excels and which are most likely to raise our visibility.

On a practical level, this means that the Directorate of Communication develops and implements communication policies and practices best suited to the own individual roles and objectives of the operational directorates or different bodies. We consult on all communication activities and provide early forward planning and media strategies, accompany campaigns and activities in a coordinating capacity, delivering media and press work and monitoring. Furthermore, the Directorate of Communication produces audio-visual material, develops and maintains the Council of Europe websites and co-ordinates its publications.

The other important aspect is a firm focus on the foundations of effective communication – presenting a coherent image, developing clear messages and carefully defining our target audiences.

This is complemented with a thorough professionalization and modernisation of the output and working methods of the Directorate of Communication.

Finally, making greater use of the Council of Europe information and partnership network is at the heart of the organisations’ approach. Our internal information network comprises press correspondents and field offices established in member states of the Council of Europe.

In 2009, the two major ongoing information operations will be the campaign against sexual exploitation of children and the campaign against discrimination. Of course, a host of communication activities will evolve around the history and the achievements of the Council of Europe on the occasion of the organisa10

tion’s 60th anniversary. Also, other campaigns on other subjects, such as corporal punishment of children, domestic violence or death penalty will be continued in 2009.

We hope to involve our partners in these efforts and to implement these ambitious projects and in that way promote values and messages of the Council of Europe to as many Europeans as possible.

Interested in Council of Europe?

Visit www.coe.int for more information

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11

Human Rights

60 Years of Human Rights

“Has anything changed?”

From 14th to 16th of November 2008 ELSA-Passau arranged a conferences focusing on different aspects connected with the 60th anniversary of the Human Rights Declaration

60 Years ago the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was proclaimed by the Natalie Griedl, Secretary General United Nations. Today about 200 nations ELSA Passau e.V. all over the world follow this declaration and it has been translated into more than 300 languages. But are these facts reason enough to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Human Rights Declaration? Do these facts really show us that the declaration has changed anything?

Regrettably, we have to say that human rights take no effect by only declaring them. They have to be respected and follow by each country, by each politician and by each citizen all over the world to protect humans from inhuman and discriminating treatment. Unfortunately it is generally known that humans are not treated according to this declaration: torture, wrongful death, imprisonment or child labour are still a reality in too many countries. Even in our industrial countries human rights are not always respected. With our conference we did not only want to celebrate the 60th anniversary of this declaration but we also wanted to call attention to failures and problems. We wanted to inform and question the declaration.

While preparing the conference and talking so much about human rights we de12

cided that it was the wrong way just to talk about human rights.

Why not help? We wondered about how to help and found “Gemeinsam für Afrika”. This German aid organisation is collecting money and goods for poor people in Africa to help them survive.

One of the focuses of our work on the conference and of the topics we wanted to concentrate on was Africa and human rights in Africa. “Gemeinsam für Afrika” was the perfect possibility for us to combine the conference with aid for poor people.

So we started collecting donations. We organised Charity Parties, we went to the city centre to collect money, we asked people on the campus to give some money to “Gemeinsam für Afrika”. But still this was not enough for us. In October new students came to the University of Passau. We, ELSA-Passau e.V., organised a round town quiz for new members and we decided that one challenge should be to collect money for “Gemeinsam für Afrika”. We gave one raw egg to each group. They were told to sell the egg or change it and sell the changed thing to get as much money as they could for this egg. 25 Groups participated in the round town Quiz. How much money would one expect for 25 eggs? Maybe – but just if they are really clever and have some luck – they could get about 10 € per egg.

But the new students impressed us. They collected all together about 400 €. Some of the groups sold “nice words”, others sold roses, others just changed and changed and

Human Rights

changed the egg until they had something expensive to sell.

After about one year collecting donations for “Gemeinsam für Afrika” we had 2.500 € to give to this aid organisation.

About 100 students from all over Germany attended our conference.The conference started with a huge panel discussion. Prof.

Dr. Maliha Zulfacar, the Afghanistan´s ambassador to Germany, Prof. Dr. Martina Haedrich, University of Jena, Cüneyt Gençer, lawyer for German and Turkish Law and Dr. Herbert Müller from the Baden-Württemberg Office for the Protection of the Constitution, department for Islamism and Islamic terrorism took part in the discussion about “Islam and Human Rights – an indissoluble conflict?“. Christian Sievers, a moderator from German television, presented the panel discussion. The panel discussion was an enormous success for ELSA-Passau e.V. We are a group with about 185 members. But on that evening we could welcome about 600 ardent listeners. All the months of preparation and stress seemed to be blown away and we were just so proud of ourselves and overwhelmed by the opening panel discussion. After the opening speeches and the panel discussion we had a wonderful gala dinner.

During the weekend we had a lecture by PD Dr. Thilo Rensmann from the University of Munich about the history of human rights and the universal human rights the way they are today. This was followed by Prof. Dr. Martina Haedrich from the University of Jena who talked about human rights and Islam. Afterward the floor was given to Prof.

Dr. Norbert Brieskorn from Munich. Finally Prof. Dr. Mark Villiger gave us information about the European Court of Human Rights.

Afterwards there was a panel discussion about Courts of Human Rights. The main question was whether they really represent power and adequate protection of Human Rights. Prof. Dr. Mark Villiger, Prof. Dr. Andreas Paulus from the University of Göttingen, Prof. Dr. Thilo Marauhn from the University of Gießen and Dr. Manfred Dauster from a higher regional court in Munich took part in this panel discussion that had been presented by Prof. Dr. Thilo Rensmann from the University of Munich.

of Frankfurt who talked about whether poverty is a violation of human rights. Dr. Manfred Dauster held a very interesting lecture about his work at a Tribunal after the War in former Yugoslavia.

Prof. Dr. Ralf Müller-Terpitz from the University of Passau who is a member of our advisory board and has given us so much assistance with our preparations for the conference talked about human rights in Germany. Without Prof. Dr. Ralf Müller-Terpitz we would not have been able to organize the conference in such a professional way. He did not only help us with defining the topic and finding speakers, he did also always help us when we had problems with the administration of our University.

With our conference we did not only want to talk about human rights. We wanted to show that there are still so many violations of human rights. There is no apology to not notice those violations.

We wanted to be a “city upon a hill”, the way Ronald Reagon said it many years ago. We wanted others to see the many problems and we wanted them to start thinking about how to change the situation for the better.

There is no better way to end this article than by quote Prof. Dr. Maliha Zulfacar: “To all the members of ELSA Passau, you can be proud of yourselves and your achievement. And with change spreading around the world, you truly can say: Yes, we can!”

So let us start changing our world for the better! There is no need to wait!

The next session Christoph Strässer, a member of the German Federal Parliament, lectured about international treaties in Germany. It was followed by Dr. Regina Kreide from the University synergy magazine

13

UNESCO

UNESCO World Conference on Higher Education +10:

“Students call for global ombudsperson for student rights” The official preparatory conference for the UNESCO (UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation) World Conference on Higher Education (WCHE) took place in Paris from the 21st to the 23rd of January 2009.

ELSA was represented by the responsible for Seminar and Conferences Kamil Szymański.

Kamil Szymański, Vice President Seminar and Conferences ELSA International

I had the pleasure to represent ELSA at the official preparatory conference for the UNESCO World Conference on Higher Education (WCHE). It was an amazing experience to be present with students from all over the world discussing the future for students.

students of all faculties and professions from all over the world the goal is to be able to influence the result of the main conference in July. The results of our debates and analyses can be found in our statement below.

There were representatives from Asia, Australia, Africa, North America, and of course Europe. The result of our meeting was the statement signed by the organisations gathered at the meeting. This statement will be addressed to the main conference in July 2009.

At a time of global financial and ecological instability, decision makers face a fundamental question: how will they ensure that future and current generations are equally and adequately equipped with the skills, knowledge and intellectual virtue to rise to the global challenges that we face in the 21st century? Our answer is education. Not for the few, but for all. As a body of student leaders, we are calling for a deep investment in the higher education of students globally. The only way to ensure the success of our future, higher education needs to be a priority and made a fundamental right for all.

It is not the first time ELSA is involved in this topic. The conference which will take place in July is a follow up on the first Global Conference on Higher Education that took place in 1998. At that time ELSA was represented by the former president of ELSA International Agnieszka Stobiecka. ELSA was granted consultative status in UNESCO already in 1994.

The preparatory meeting was initiated by European Students’ Union (ESU) in collaboration with UNESCO and Education International. During the meeting the participants discussed topics within higher education in order to find common goals and to unify the student voices before the main conference which will take place in July. By a unified and crystallized common voice of

14

WCHE Global Student Statement

We are dedicated to the advancement of the students' situation through student rights, accessibility, affordability, partnerships, mobility, learning experience and social justice.

Access and success We call for the greater accessibility of higher education so that everyone can access and succeed in learning and research regardless of their background. Access to higher education should be based on one’s willingness to learn and not the ability to pay.

UNESCO Access is not simply about providing entry to higher education; it is also about completing studies. High drop-out rates are still a severe problem. Progression through higher education must be facilitated by adequate support measures, specifically designed to adapt to the needs of the individual learner. Student income support is a crucial element in supporting students during their studies.

We demand that governments increase their commitment to students.

Doing so would recognise education as a public good which also enables greater accessibility, leads to a quality student experience and greater potential for learning and engagement.

We call upon UNESCO to start a global research study into national studying costs, while taking into consideration both tuition fees and living costs, as well as the support systems in place.

We urge governments to implement far more flexible visa procedures for students and improve information sharing between countries.

We call upon governments to stop using trans-national education programmes as a way of gaining access to educational markets in developing countries.

We call for a better and more transparent mechanism for degree, subject and qualification recognition, so that students are not discouraged from going abroad because their qualifications are not recognised when they come home.

Quality in higher education Quality is a distinguishing characteristic that provides a guide for students and higher education institutions. High quality and accessibility should be two sides of the same coin. Accessible higher education that is not high quality is worthless and high quality education that is not widely accessible is meaningless.

We welcome the further development of international co-operation to improve the quality, transparency, comparability and compatibility of degrees and studies. In addition, we respect the diversity of quality assurance models around the world, while strongly arguing for stakeholder involvement in each quality assurance exercise at every level.

In our vision, higher education needs to simultaneously fulfill all its missions: Improving graduate career prospects, democracy building and ensuring active citizenship. synergy magazine

We call upon governments to further disseminate and promote the UNESCO Guidelines on “Quality provision in cross-border higher education”, as an essential tool to protect students from disreputable higher education providers.

Students’ rights We demand that higher education institutions see the robust protection and propagation of student rights as key to the maintenance of universities and democracies. This includes both transparent formalised governance structures and the right to freely speak out and criticise teachers, rectors, ministers or other actors in higher education, without fear of retribution. The human right to free association is too often breached in the higher education sphere.

We propose that a worldwide ombudsperson office for students is established under the umbrella of UNESCO. Students as partners We call for higher education institutions to proactively encourage students to participate in all levels of governance and reform, be it at the regional, national, institutional or programme level. We emphasise that study programme coordinators must consult students in the development of the programmes and ensure that systematic ways allowing students to give feedback on how to improve their studies exist. Governance bodies must ensure that feedback mechanisms are effective and that their results and effects are made public.

We urge governments to recognise student voices in national and international policy and budget debates.

The learning experience and critical thinking On all continents, students are often encouraged to “chew, pass and forget” their curriculum and exams rather than to engage critically with their course content and teachers.

A student-centred approach across the board ensures critical thinking and active participation in the improvement of the quality of higher education. This can only be successful if higher education institutions rethink the way teaching is performed and courses constructed, so that the students are in the centre of the institutions’ strategies.

The inadequate link between certain higher education programs and the labour market is an obstacle to the development of the full potential of students in their subsequent professional activi15

UNESCO ties. We therefore encourage universities to further develop the concept of learning by doing as much as possible to support and recognise informal learning within student organisations so as to encourage entrepreneurial and value-based mindsets.

We, as representative student organisations from across the globe, consider it our responsibility to fight for quality higher education for all and for student rights and participation, while being fully aware of our role in preparing students to become active citizens in the current and future global society.

Higher education and social justice We strongly condemn all forms of discrimination. Higher education must be a key enabler of emancipation and never a reproduction of the existing systemic inequalities and discrimination in society.

Higher education must be accessible to all, regardless of race, religion gender, culture, sexuality or socio-economic background.

UNESCO’s role in global higher education We recommend that UNESCO should play a major role in the debates on global higher education.

We urge UNESCO to consult with students on a regular basis, and to facilitate dialogue between the students of the world.

Future cooperation of students We, the undersigned organisations, commit ourselves to regular communication both before and after the world conference, and to explore and map out a plan for the possibilities of future global student cooperation.

This statement was adopted in Paris on January 23, 2009, by: AASU – All–Africa Students Union AEGEE – Association des Etats Généraux des Etudiants de l'Europe ASA – Asian Pacific Students and Youth Association EDS – European Democrat Students ELSA - The European Law Students' Association ESU – European Students' Union FEUQ - Fédération étudiante universitaire du Québec IAAS – International Association of Students in Agriculture & Related Sciences IADS – International Association of Dental Students IFMSA – International Federation of Medical Students' Association IYCS–JECI – Jeunesse Etudiante Catholique Internationale JADE – European Confederation of Junior Enterprises NUS – National Unions of Students of Australia NZUSA - New Zealand Union of Students’ Associations USSA – United States Student Association

Negotiating Skill

Negotiation Skills:

“A Few Tips on Negotiations” Karina Sultanov is a member of the International Trainer's Pool of ELSA. She is one of 25 former ELSA member that has received external training in order to provide our members with various skills that are neccesary both in ELSA and later in professional life. She is also continously developing her skills as a trainer through her hands on experience at work. She has provided trainings at International Council Meetings, National Council Meetings, Regional Trainings and ELSA House Training Week.

We all negotiate in life. We start from our childish “I want my ice-cream now!” and find ourselves few decades later negotiating a good price for the first car or pay rise at work. Interestingly, a lot of people perceive negotiations as something what one can witness on the market.

However, that will be just a tiny part of negotiations process called “bargaining”, and there is more to it, if you are prepared to invest time and efforts.

other party? If yes, then why? How can you help them to mitigate that exposure, so that they can agree to your proposal? How can they help you in order to minimize your exposure if they can’t accept your draft? Part of such preparation is effectively putting yourself into “the other party’s shoes”, but it is also a good process for you to understand whether it is something worth for you to spend time on during your meeting with the other party, what additional document you may need and which counter-proposals you may face (and of course how you can act upon it!).

Negotiations differ one from another, depending on the number of parties, allocation of bargaining powers, cultural environment, whether they are external or internal, commercial or not. In this short article I have tried to suggest some useful tips on how to succeed in your negotiations, despite the scale of this topic.

As a minimum, have a think about your BATNA (“Best Alternative to Negotiated Agreement”). BATNA may be your second best option, but unlike your ideal scenario, BATNA may satisfy and meet the other party’s interests much better, and provide an opportunity for common ground, especially when starting positions of the parties are way too apart. BATNA may be required for each issue of your ideal (e.g. price, date of delivery, specifications, liability etc), and again – preparation is the key. Know your limits, and you will know when to walk away from a bad deal.

Karina Sultanova, ELSA ITP-Trainer Supply Chain Consultant, Shell

4 Hours of preparation for 1 hour of negotiations!

It is true that experienced negotiators dedicate minimum four hours of preparation for each hour of negotiations. Of course, this may not be practical if you just want to negotiate a change to you termination clause in the contract. Nonetheless, preparation is the key.

When preparing, ask yourself: what is the risk or exposure you are trying to mitigate? Is it a risk or unwanted exposure for the synergy magazine

A lot of it is very similar to being a good chess player, being able to see various options ahead and plan your way forward. The difference though is that in negotiations you do not aim to win over the other party. In negotiations everyone needs to win. And this would be my second tip.

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Negotiation Skill Always Aim for Win-Win This is a concept very easy to understand but not so easy to follow.

It is very often beyond us to let go the opportunities which are in front of us, and we grab all we can. May be some of it is hidden in our ancient survival skills. However, experienced negotiators will always try and make sure that the parties achieve a WinWin deal. Such approach shall be equally used for BATNA as well as for your preparations and work under counter-proposals.

I am certainly not suggesting to rush and offer to pay more every time you got a good deal as a buyer, but I do urge you in your professional negotiations to ensure that you have got a deal after which you all (and “all” is the important part of it) left the table with happy minds and excitement of working together. There is nothing worse than working together with a partner who feels unfairly treated, may be cheated and not appreciated. Remember: “what goes around – comes around”. And if one day you are on the high, the next time you may not have the bargaining power and circumstances you’ve enjoyed, when you did not opt for a Win-Win deal. By sealing a deal where you have “squeezed the last penny” from the contractor, you will not get a reputation of a good negotiator, you risk to get a reputation of aggressive, unreasonable and unpleasant person to work with.

Win-Win deals may require a compromise from each party, but the benefit of it will last beyond the deal. The parties would certainly be willing to work together in the future, and you’ll be surprised to be understood and offered some help when you are facing difficult commercial times. Most likely you will get the opportunities where you were not looking for it, just because you have aspired to and sought for a win-win deal. This closely connected to another slogan of negotiators – always try and increase the value.

Increase the Value This concept is often referred to as “Increasing the Pie”. Imagine that you have a pie which you have to divide between 4 hungry people. In theory, that would be a very easy task to do, obvious win-win and does not require too much preparation or bargaining. We face such little tasks and proceed without even realising that we may have passed by good opportunities. For example, you can always try and agree to bake a pie twice bigger. This may require a bit more ingredient investment but it will not compromise the result in any way, moreover each party will gain a bigger share.

In commercial negotiations this may mean that you should look at the range of things one party may offer, and the other party may benefit from. Increase the Pie concept can make “give and take” process much easier. For example, if you are negotiating a contract for supply of goods, you may be limited in volumes you can purchase due to capacity of your storage facilities. However, if you explore your restraints together, you may find out that the seller has his own cheap storage facilities which they can offer you, should you agree to buy higher volumes of goods.

There are may be hundreds of opportunities for a win-win and a profitable deal. To achieve that, try to list all the issues at your preparation stage, so that you can always refer to them during negotiations and remind yourself what are your possible ways to increase the pie. Experienced negotiators put them as unconnected bubbles rather a sequence of very well connected items. This may help you to be more flexible in your thinking - it has been helpful for many others!

Focus on Issues – Not People This is a very difficult thing to do for many of us but you can always start with asking yourself what is exactly the issue the other party is trying to address, and then come back with a commercial solution to it rather than spending your energy on how it was delivered and whether it is right or wrong to insist on such pro-

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Negotiation skills posal. Try and focus on testing, understanding and summarizing, rather coming back with counter-proposals and attacking. You will notice that the pie is easier to enlarge by seeking information and understanding the drives behind the proposal rather than arguing about the nature of it.

ELSA International Trainer's Pool Trainers of the International Trainers’ Pool are a valueable part of the International aspect of ELSA. They represent a major part of the experience within ELSA and put their knowledge into practise towards ELSA groups in need.

In short, experienced negotiators will always try and achieve the following: 1.

2.

3.

4.

Spend sufficient time for preparations Win-Win for all the parties involved Increase the Value Maintain the relationship and reputation at all times.

ELSA International is glad to issue a call for applications for the upcoming Train The Trainers Weekend where new trainers will be selected. Train The Trainers Weekend will take place between 9th and 12th of July 2009 in Belgium.

I am sure each of you has already embarked on the journey of finding your own style, which would maximize the value rather than get you only what you want. If you are interested in further development, I strongly recommend you to read a book called “Getting to Yes” by Roger Fisher and William Ury.

You may find information about this event from www.elsa.org.

Good luck!

Nottingham Law School

LLM Programmes – Enhancing your academic profile for practice or research Nottingham Law School, one of the largest full service university law schools in the UK, offers an innovative and flexible approach to postgraduate study which will allow you to ‘build’ an LLM programme to suit your specialisms and interests.

Awards are offered in the following areas of law: • Competition Law • Corporate Law • Criminal Justice • Employment Law • Europe and the Law • General Law • Health Law • Human Rights • Insolvency Law

• Intellectual Property Law • International Criminal Justice • International Trade Law • Sports Law Nottingham Law School offers: • LLMs on a full-time or part-time basis • Flexible programmes of study leading to Single, Joint or Major/Minor awards • Postgraduate certificates and diplomas

For further information, contact the Admissions Team on: Tel: +44 (0)115 848 4498 or email: nls.enquiries@ntu.ac.uk

www.ntu.ac.uk/elsa

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ELSA Lawyers' Society

ELSA Alumni:

“International law firms – ELSA reloaded?”

Dr. Leander Palleit is associate in the Berlin office of Salans LLP (visit www.salans.com). He was president of ELSA Germany in 1995/96 and president of ELSA International 1997. Since 1998, he has been a member of the ELSA Lawyers' Society.

For those of you who wondered: Yes, indeed, there is a life after ELSA. Sooner or later, after finishing university, one inevitably enters professional life, and for quite a number of former ELSA people this means working at leading international law firms. When checking the major players on the market, I bet you would have difficulties nowadays to find one without any ELSA-experienced lawyer on board. In the firm that I am working for, we are about seven former ELSA members, having been active at all ELSA levels: nationally, internationally, or in various local groups in Germany and Romania. The firm that I am talking about is Salans LLP, a full service international law firm with over 750 lawyers globally operating from 20 offices, providing its clients with comprehensive cross-border legal services. Note that regarding the numbers of former ELSA people mentioned above, I was only talking about the Berlin office of Salans. I am confident that in many of our other offices across Europe you will find colleagues with an ELSA history, too.

Dr. Leander Palleit, Associate Berlin office, Salans LLP

Why is it like that? Are these all career-focused people that merely used ELSA as a vehicle for their professional career? Some are, maybe, but with most people I know, this is surely not the case.

Back in their ELSA days, they were totally committed to ELSA and its philosophy, and would put ELSA priority over most other things in life. So, why do so many ELSA people later join international law firms?

Well, speaking for myself, there are two main links between my today’s job and my ELSA past. Firstly, there are quite some common

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features between being active in ELSA and working for an international law firm which I would miss otherwise, and, secondly, I feel that ELSA has prepared me quite well for such work.

Having been active in ELSA, one has, inevitably, got a feeling on how it is to work with people from countries and jurisdictions other than one’s own, to exchange ideas and experience across borders, to work in teams the members of which are located in various places, and thus experience different countries and mentalities first-hand. Apparently, the risk of getting addicted to this is pretty high. Concluding from many meetings and discussions with other ELSA seniors, it seems obvious to me that most of us seek a professional career which also offers opportunities of international exchange and inter-cultural experience. Not necessarily at the same standard and with the same intensity like in ELSA, but one does not want to miss that completely anymore. And this is where international law firms come into place. Of course, one element is the professional excellence you can meet there. But besides that, what makes them attractive is that you can work in teams with colleagues from other countries, meet clients from all over the world, negotiate in different languages, have different cultural backgrounds and experiences brought together in one firm, etc. This also explains why ELSA has helped me prepare for my present job more than I could imagine back then during my active ELSA time. All these discussions and negotiations at local, national and international council meetings, the drafting of proposals or working materials, the writing of minutes, the chairing of workshops, and all the organisational work connected with STEP jobs, seminars, conferences or other events – it all proved very useful and returned, though in different shapes, dur-

ELSA Lawyers' Society ing my professional life. ELSA has given me the opportunity not just to learn this in theory, but to try it all out practically, to make my own mistakes and to learn from them. So far for the practical skills ELSA has told me. More than this, however, ELSA has provided cultural experience which cannot be valued high enough for any future job one might take. It are these intangible things you learn when working, arguing and partying with so many different people from so many different places which teach you so much about how teams function, how human communication functions is general, and what important a role the personal and cultural backgrounds of each individual involved are playing. This experience is something which you can hardly ever gain as intensely as when working in ELSA, and definitely not that early in life. Yet it is a great asset to have, and it helps a lot in understanding and working with your clients and your colleagues likewise.

Now having said that, next to working at an international law firm there are of course a number of other opportunities to combine the international spirit experienced in ELSA with your later professional career. The variety of options is proven every time you talk to former ELSA people, and it also shows when you

look at the current professional activities of the ELSA Lawyers’ Society’s members. If you’re not sure which way to choose, there you can find good examples and very valuable advice.

There are many ways to somehow extend the ELSA life into your professional life. Working at an international law firm is one of them. Surely it’s not the worst.

Founded in 1991, ELS - The ELSA Lawyers Society is the international alumni association of ELSA ELS offers its members a natural continuation of ELSA upon graduation, but tailored to "postgraduate" interests, time constraints and budget.

Membership of ELS is open to all ELSA members that are close to graduation and those that were ELSA members and have already graduated. Outsiders that support ELS and ELSA’s aims are welcome if their application is supported by two members.

Visit www.elslawyer.org for further information.

Network event

International Council Meeting of ELSA (ICM)

“My first impression” ELSA Georgia got approved as oberserver of ELSA at the autumn Council Meeting 2008 in Nuremberg.

Below are the first impression of one delegate of the initiative group.

In the Spring 2008 I was informed by the Dean of the Law faculty about the students’ organisation which is ELSA.

cation and the draft for the ELSA Georgia’s future plural regulations.

Ever since there was a huge desire of Georgia to join the amazing universe of ELSA. Our country is well known with its historic past and besides, it’s actively directed to integrate in Europe. We wanted to join this association because ELSA is seeking to raise the European student’s consciousness. We also managed to get the support of our University in our quest for observership.

What was the most memorable???

Irakli Samkharadze, President ELSA Georgia

The preparation for the first ICM is very unforgettable to me. As anyone knows, ICM Nuremberg had the most important meaning for Georgia. A lot of law student's dreams were fulfilled in one of the oldest and the most beautiful cities of Germany. Nowadays we can proudly say that Georgian students are the part of the European student’s community.

ICM Nuremberg was very special for me because that was the first time when I truly realized how much of a pleasure it is for me, and what it really means to be the member of this Europe-wide law student association. By participating at the ICM I understood what it really means to work for a week and feel that your work is very fruitful. As a participant of the President Workshop I was impressed by the meetings of the work group. From the beginning of the workshop I realised ELSA’s International goals, and I think that protecting all of these things is the moral obligation for all the European students.

In Nuremberg Georgia was attending the meeting as the applicant country, so according to this status we were really trying to get our European colleague’s trust. We presented the appli22

… 1st November 2008, approximately 5:00 pm.

The loudest applause of the meeting hall while the member’s of our delegation heart’s beating fast filled with happiness, Georgia was elected as an Observer country unanimously. It will be very hard to ever forget this feeling, we procured the trust and we are obliged to carry it all the way through.

Today, when Georgia is the part of ELSA network, it is my great obligation to justify our ELSA friends’ confidence. In spite of many difficulties and resistances we are ready to overcome all the problems and work really hard for developing ELSA in our country. Each day we are trying as hard as we can to inform the students and our community about the Association. We make presentations and meetings, we work constantly to create the lawful form and basis for ELSA Association in Georgia. It is significant that the number of interested students is increasing daily and nowadays approximately 150 students have already joined ELSA Georgia!

The beginning is very helpful. In youth relationship it is very considerable that the beginning is successful because it is the basis of winning the future in which we believe. There is a lot to do but the youthful energy is never afraid of the difficulties, so...

WE ARE READY!

Student Trainee Exchange Programme

STEP in Czech Republic:

“Legal work in Prague; a STEP experience!”

When I started with STEP in ELSA I was curious to see how STEP was working in other countries. So I joined some international events and found out that STEP people are really enthusiastic. So I became convinced to invest time and energy into the programme and start to build a great STEP tradition in Czech Republic again.

Katerina Bukovska, Vice President STEP ELSA Czech Republic

I was contemplating what STEP means to employers. What are the benefits?

I figured out that employers retain employee which are highly educated and motivated to work abroad. ELSA chooses the candidates which are matching the criteria set by the employers.

ELSA has a big network which means a big pool of students to choose from.

The employers are also saving their time and money because ELSA take care of all the time consuming details. In a world which is more and more global even Lawyers are not in contact just with local market, customers and tasks. So it is not so big deal to find work for trainee which is not connected to official language of the state.

After some time and much hard work we managed to find a STEP partner in Czech Republic. I am really glad that we found the law firm Pokorny, Wagner & Co. who were interested and assisted us to start up with the first traineeship last summer.

At the moment we are offering three traineeships in Czech Republic. And if you should be selected for a traineeship we welcome you to an unique experience! synergy magazine

One night last summer I just arrived home from a party and I opened my e-mail box Member and found the following: Congratulations, ELSA Hungary You are the chosen one – the e-mail was written by Katka Bukovska Vice President STEP ELSA Czech Republic. I started to scream and run around in the flat and even tough it was late I called all my friends and said: I got the traineeship in Prague! I was very happy and I felt that I would have a great summer. And so it was.

Zsofia Bitai,

I was working for Pokorny Wagner & spol. law firm (PW), which is one of the biggest law firms in Prague. The colleagues and the senior lawyers of the firm were very kind to me and thanks to the office managers and my roommate in the office, Zuzka who supplied me with every kind of help, I felt comfortable from the very beginning.

I was working in the unfair competition team. The case which I was working on was very complicated but also very interesting.

Sometimes the work was hard, but at the end I can only sum it up in a positive way. I got a taste of Czech law and observed the Czech way of legal thinking. It was also great to see different approach on legal matters. I learnt a lot especially about competition law, special thanks to my team leader. This experience gave something very extra to my Curriculum Vitae and gave me knowledge that I could not had gained anywhere else which will be really useful in my current legal practice.

I would also like to thank the great STEP team in ELSA Czech Republic for taking good care of me. I can warmly recommend anyone that is thinking of applying to take the chance and experience STEP in Czech Republic or anywhere else!

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Student Trainee Exchange Programme

STEP in Lithuania:

“A report from a Trainee” Natalia Kovalevska had the pleasure of being a part of the Student Trainee Exchange Programme of ELSA in the autumn 2008. Below are her thoughts regarding her traineeship.

In September 2008 I was the lucky one to be chosen for participating in STEP program in Lithuania. The traineeship seemed as a great opportunity for me to get an interesting international experience, to make new ELSA friends and to live for 2 weeks in a beautiful European country. Besides the capital of Lithuania – Vilnius was proclaimed to be the European capital of Culture in 2009. So I was really happy for and inspired my selection for the traineeship.

Natalia Kovalevska, Secretary General, ELSA Ukraine

As you know only ELSA members can take part in STEP program. I’d like to tell you a secret that 3,5 years ago I became an ELSA member just because I wanted to be STEP applicant.

Then I didn’t even know that ELSA life would involve me in a great, exciting activity so much that I will forget about my original aim to participate in STEP. Actually my application to the program was sent 3 years after I first heard about ELSA. It proves one more time that dreams come true. You just have to believe in it and act accordingly!

Now I would like to tell you about the traineeship itself. The employer was the Law Firm "Naus, Žentelis and partners". I was accepted with warmth and pleasure from the first day.

Furthermore I was very surprised that all the lawyers besides English knew Russian as well, which meant that we had 2 working languages.

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The person in charge of the traineeship, Saulius Žentelis, told me which cases the firm deals with. I was also introduced to what jobs are carried out by each colleague of the Firm and I was given the tasks for the period of my traineeship. It's a well known fact that lawyers are busy people, that’s reason why I spent most of my time with the assistant of Saulius Žentelis. She was a very nice girl who was only for 4 years older than me. We made friends and were together both on the working place and after working hours. We went to court, executing commissions, had lunches together, and went to clubs and cafes. I had no time to be bored!

After completing the traineeship I wrote a report about the job done. I had splendid impressions about everything because it was my first paid job, it was in a foreign country where I was treated kindly and with respect. And of course I got an experience for my future with unforgettable memories!

And, of course, the traineeship would be impossible without ELSA Lithuania’s National Board efforts! They came to an agreement with the University about providing trainees with accommodation for free, arranged our social program and involved a lot of ELSA members in the activities connected with our stay. Great job done!

ELSA is an adventure! And you have to try it while you are a law student or young lawyer! ELSA forever!

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ELSA Legality Week Date: 26th April - 2nd May 2009 Place: Napoli, Italy Working Language: English, Italian

Legal Regulation of Climate Change Date: 24th -26th April 2009 Place: Lviv, Ukraine Working Language: English and Russian (translations provided when needed) Contact Person: Liuchiya Iavorska E-mail: ecoconference@gmail.com Website: www.elsa.org.ua

International Maritime Law: Problems and Challenges Date: 24th -25th April 2009 Place: Kaliningrad, Russia Working Language: English and Russian (translations provided when needed) Contact Person: Svetlana Vasilyeva E-mail: sveta-v@hotmail.com

European Court of Human Rights: It’s Activity and Achievements Date: 16th -18th April 2009 Place: Odessa, Ukraine Working Language: English, Ukrainian, Russian (translations provided when needed) Contact Person: Iurii Zhukovskyi E-mail: iuzhukovskyi@gmail.com Website: www.elsa-odesa.org.ua/conference/

APRIL

Law School on Mergers & Acquisitions

JULY

International Conference on Travel Rights: Between environment, liability, safety and amendments Date: 4th - 7th June 2009 Place: Bremen, Germany Working Language: English Contact Person: Marlena Harnisch E-mail: vpsc@elsa-bremen.de Website: www.elsa-bremen.de

JUNE

e Problems of Legal Regulation of Refugee Status Date: 22nd-23rd May 2009 Place: Uzhorod, Ukraine Working Language: English Contact Person: Iudita Hubal E-mail: judita89@mail.ru Website: http://www.elsa-uz.org.ua

e Final Oral Round of ELSA Moot Court Competition on WTO Law (EMC2) Date: 19-24 May 2009 Place: Taipei, Taiwan Working Language: English Contact Person: ELSA International E-mail: vpaa@elsa.org Website: www.elsamootcourt.org

ELSA Events Calendar 2009

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ostrup

Law School on International Arbitration 2nd Edition Date: 31st August - 6th September 2009 Place: Ankara, Turkey Working Language: English Contact Person: Emin Eren Belli E-mail: sc@elsa-ankara.net Website: www.elsa-ankara.net

Webpage: www.elsa-cph.dk/

E-mail: sc@elsa-cph.dk

Contact Person:

Working Language: English

Place: Copenhagen, Denmark

Counter-Terrorism And Human Rights Date: 2nd - 9th August 2009

AUGUST

Webpage: www.elsa.lt

E-mail: J_beloglovyte@yahoo.com

Contact Person: Justë Beloglovytë

Working Language: English

Place: Vilnius, Lithuania

Date: 26th July - 1st August 2009

ELSA Lithuania Summer Law School 2009 Trade and Environment

Contact Person: Guendalina Ronga E-mail: sc@elsanapoli.it Website: www.elsaitalia.it

International Focus Programme Evaluation Conference Main trends in IP Law Date: 13-17 May 2009 Place: Gdansk, Poland Working Language: English Contact Person: Joanna Jurak E-mail: j.jurak@ifpconference.pl Website: www.ifpconference.org/

Lawlympics Date: 1st-4th May 2009 Place: Mali Losinj, Croatia Working Language: English Contact Person: Imon Choudhury E-mail: imon_choudhury@yahoo.com Website:www.elsa.hr

MAY

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International Summer Law School Human Rights and Globalization Date: 27th July - 2nd August 2009 Place: Zadar, Croatia Working Language: English Contact Person: Marija Zoretic E-mail: malo_sunce21@yahoo.com Webpage: www.elsa-zagreb.hr/

ELSA House Training Week Date: 12th - 19th July 2009 Place: Brussels, Belgium Working Language: English Contact Person: Amaryllis M端ller E-mail: ehtw2009@gmail.com Website: ehtw.elsabelgium.org/

Date: 6th - 12th July 2009 Place: Istanbul, Turkey Working Language: English Contact Person: Pinar Kunt E-mail: vpsc@elsa-istanbul.org Website: www.elsaistanbul-ls.com

Webpage: www.elsafinland.fi

E-mail: sc@elsafinland.fi

Contact Person: Katarina Lundahl

Working Language: English

Place: Helsinki, Finland

Date: 24th - 28th November 2009

Intellectual Property Rights from a Human Rights Perspective

NOVEMBER

LVI International Council Meeting Date: 25th October - 1st November 2009 Place: Bucharest, Romania Working Language: English Contact Person: ELSA International E-mail: elsa@elsa.org Webpage: www.elsa.org

OCTOBER

Training Event

“ELSA Iceland is back and well trained” From the 6th-13th of January the Treasurer and Secretary General of ELSA International went to Iceland to provide trainings for the freshly reviewed national group of ELSA Iceland

It was getting darker and it looked like it could start to rain any minute when Berglind, the President of ELSA Iceland, and I went to pick up two people we didn’t know at the central bus station in Reykjavík. We really didn’t have a clue about what they looked like, Antti Husa and Jean-Marc Lauwers, the Secretary General and the Treasurer of ELSA International. We sat in the central bus station, waited and wondered if this or that person that came in could be our European guests. Then they finally showed up and we recognised them immediately.

Marta María Friðriksdóttir, Secretary General ELSA Iceland

Although we had never seen our guests before we had been in communication with them while planning our training week.

Few days after the ELSA Iceland board was elected in the beginning of October, when everything was white with snow in Iceland, the International board contacted us about a training week in Iceland. The newly elected ELSA Iceland board got the feeling from the very beginning of our communication with the International board that they were very eager to get ELSA Iceland back on track and would train us well for that.

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Our soon to become trainers asked our expectations for the training. We e-mailed them our thoughts and comments and a schedule was made especially for ELSA Iceland. Soon the four of us came to Árni’s place and his parents welcomed our international ELSA members and showed them their room. By that time it was very dark outside, like it is at this time of year in Iceland. Berglind and I left our European guests in the good hands of Árni and his family and they celebrated the last day of Christmas together.

The following day we started to get to know ELSA and the ELSA spirit. Antti and Jean-Marc taught us, Berglind and me, about the association and the famous ELSA-spirit until Eva the VP Marketing showed up. Soon it was time to pick up the third European guest, the trainer. Sylvie Kleinke, ITP-trainer appointed to ELSA Iceland, is specialised in teambuilding and organisational skills. After picking up Sylvie we went all together to the world-famous Blue Lagoon to experience some Icelandic specialities.

Next two days were as promised and hoped for, full of teaching and knowledge on international cooperation in ELSA. Between raindrops, a little bit of sun and clouds we

Training Event the parliament was held in the olden times. Then we took the so-called Golden Circle. While Árni and I showed our trainers Iceland, Berglind and Eva prepared a delicious dinner for the evening when the last training session was scheduled with all our trainers.

Jean-Marc and Sylvie left the next day. Antti stayed and the day after we had a short training session on ELSA Online and member management. Early in the following morning in the darkness and the freezing cold I took Antti to the central bus station.

When I woke up again in the morning the ground was covered with snow again and the darkness was so much brighter than just a week before. ELSA Iceland is back for good, filled with ELSA knowledge and ELSA spirit. learned about ELSA in general and the vision of ELSA. We also learned about how to work as a team, about the KISS and FISH theory. We were given tips and tricks about how to organise our team and how to manage ELSA-related projects. We were also given an idea about an event we could host, but that will remain a secret for now.

During these training days a funny new feeling was growing inside the national board of ELSA Iceland. If I had to describe my feeling I would say it was very enthusiastic about the ELSA work with a constant consideration about how to make ELSA better in National and International level. Maybe there was ELSA spirit growing inside of me?

On Friday afternoon ELSA Iceland organised in cooperation with our international guests a training on presentation skills provided

by Sylvie that was open for all law students in Reykjavik and Bifrost. The board of ELSA Iceland was pleasantly surprised to see around fifteen people at this training. We really didn’t expect that many because the total amount of members of ELSA Iceland is today around twenty. At that time the board of ELSA Iceland started to realise that success comes with many small steps. We began to believe in ELSA Iceland.

In the dark and freezing evening we met downtown to show our guests the nightlife of Iceland and how do we party. It was fun indeed although Árni stated when we left the town around 3 o’clock that he had never left so early from an Icelandic party but it was justified due to our early wake up next morning.

Freezing cold, rain, snow, wind, sun and clouds. Impassable road that we finally passed on a small car. Horses, geysers and waterfalls. Old Icelandic parliament. Those are all words that describe our sightseeing tour very well. First we went to Þingvellir, where synergy magazine

We’re World-Class. Are You? In the recent official assessment of the quality of staff expertise (the RAE 2008), 60 percent of the Law School’s output was officially graded ‘world-class’ or ‘internationally excellent’ – in effect this ranks Strathclyde Law School as the seventh best Law School in the UK (out of 67) and top in Scotland. This means students are being taught by among the very best legal experts in the UK. Students can choose from a diverse range of LLMs and research degrees, including the latest internationally focused programmes* which offer a unique opportunity to undertake a real-world field dissertation within an international organisation.

• Construction Law • Criminology • Human Rights Law • IT & Telecommunications Law • International Economic Law* • International Law and Sustainable Development* Find out more by visiting our website or getting in touch with the department (Please quote: SYNERGY1/09).

W: www.law.strath.ac.uk E: courses@law.strath.ac.uk T: +44(0)141 548 3738 The University of Strathclyde is a charitable body, registered in Scotland, number SC015263.

The place of useful learning

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Training Event

ELSA Ukraine:

Let’s Come Together, Right Now! ELSA Ukraine organised a fresher camp for new members in the autumn 2008.

Mariia Tsypiashchuk, Director for Training ELSA Ukraine

The first thing you think about when you hear ELSA is Network; young people joining for one mutual goal; inspired and creative members ready to contribute to ELSA’s development!

Actually, it’s not that easy to get involved and become a successful ELSA member straight away. It is not the “student-of-oneday” work. Network - is relationship, Network - is friendship, Network - is love. But all that does not come with words only, but with close experience, contacts and reflection. It’s also important to inspire new member at the very “organizational childhood”, to start to work with them from the very first day of his step in ELSA. Thus, to strengthen the ELSA Network some special events concentrated on connecting people should be regularly organized, such as Fresher’s Camps.

The Transition period for the current National Board of ELSA Ukraine had just passed in scrupulous and precise planning, hotly discussed and polished: we had to decide upon the forth strategy of expansion and increasing the whole level of our national group. An integral part of such “increasing” was further organization of

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Fresher’s Camps.

The venue had already been decided upon. At the spring 2008 National Council Meeting two local groups - ELSA Donetsk and ELSA Uzhgorod - claimed their intention and readiness to hold this event in autumn. So, it seemed - the deal is done.

We hoped that on the experience of previous Fresher Camps no palpable obstacles should arrive.

However, we had been mistaken. In it's second year of organising the fresher camp in Ukraine had gained an extreme popularity among ELSA Ukraine members. Almost every local group intended to participate with far more than ten persons (which was the maximum of freshers from each group). Besides, the number of locals increased almost to the double of expected. Finally we had a shocking amount of prospective participants - over 150, leaving out the organising comittee, staff and trainers!

For the first time we’ve been in real panic!!! By the moment we got this data - too many things had already been made - there was an approximate program, budget, venue, trainers and many other items arranged.

However, such quantity of participants made us revise all that and almost the whole work started from the very beginning.

Training Event

A Fresher’s Camp is a training event for new members of ELSA. Its purpose is development of skills and features which will help them to work as a team and as one network. While preparing the event, training materials and communicating, every member of the national board and the organising comittee took a very active part. The trainings for the participants were prepared and held by the National Board of ELSA Ukraine. Besides members of the current National Board, former Secretary General of ELSA Ukraine, Oksana Zolotaryova was a trainer on ELSA Donetsk Fresher’s Camp. Thus, we could also speak of Alumni involvement into event like this one.

With the time limitation from Friday evening to Sunday morning we had to choose the most suitable and necessary information to fill the programme with. This proved to be more difficult than first imagined; too many topics seemed to be fundamental. In the end we chose trainings on General ELSA Knowledge, Project Management and Time Management. We considered these topics as major and starting point in ELSA activities. Post event evaluation ascertained that the choice was good.

"At last the date for the Camps arrived - how was it? It was great!!!" Marvelous corners of nature and its beauty - the freshers' camp was held in sanatoriums which constituted a unique atmosphere. The trainings were held with games and the fun made participants dynamic and free with each other and a great social program closed the circle - so the freshers became not simply members of one similar organisation - but true and close friends.

And not only friendship, but real ELSA Love was found during that weekend and lasts forth, reminding the incredible days that was spent!

This great event would not had happened without the help and organisation provided by the organising comittees. They made it possible to make EVERYONE enjoy the event and feel ELSA spirit.

Tired, sleepy, a bit upset because of a hasty farewell but happy and sentimental, we returned to our homes. The very next thing after entering our homes was connecting internet and typing, typing, typing messages to the huge number of new friends.

The spring Fresher’s Camp is coming soon, and our members are impatiently awaiting it. It’s like an illness, but one do not need any antidote, it’s like a drug, which really makes people come together! synergy magazine

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ALSA

ALSA - Asian Law Students' Association

ALSA Conference 2009 Beijing Two delegates from ELSA went to ALSIC the bi-annual Conference of ALSA in Beijing 7th-14th of February 2009

In the freezing beginning of February, we travelled across the world to attend ALSIC (Asian Martin Pultzner Law Students’ International Conference) as VP Marketing, observers. We will try to bring you closer this ELSA Prague wonderful event, where we met tons of amazing people, experienced new culture, created new friendships and strenghtened old ones.

First of all, let us introduce ALSA (Asian Law Students Association) which is younger and smaller, however evolving more dynamically than ELSA. Even though ALSA resembles ELSA in essential elements, such as structure composed of national units called chapters similar to ELSA’s national groups, ALSA differs from ELSA in some ways, mainly concerning organized events and activities, for instance ALSIC itself.

About ALSA The Asian Law Students Association (ALSA), formed in 1989, is an organization of law students which is currently composed of 10 members namely: China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand as a result of the Tokyo Agreement. It is a non-governmental, nonpolitical and non-profit student organization. The main goals of ALSA are basically the same as the ones of ELSA. As an example ALSA China was established in 2003 to achieve: "mutual understanding between Asian countries with various history and cultural backgrounds, organizes academic activities and cultural exchanges such as study trip, English corner, English debate, academic lectures and visits to law firms and show our sincere wishes to communicate with the world".

ALSIC 2009 – an experience to remember ALSIC 2009 for us started already at the Beijing airport where we were already expected by our “caretaker”. The Caretaker is a member of the OC in charge of taking care of their assigned delegation. Our caretaker Fluffy was a first year student of Peking 32

University and we found her very helpful from the first moments throughout the entire conferMember ence. It was very comfortable to be shown the ELSA Prague nearby area of hotel with places to eat and public transportation stops and also have explained all uncertainties about the conference schedule such as dress code and places to be at right at the very first day. Fluffy also did a perfect job taking us to interesting Beijing sights, bargaining with locals while shopping for souvenirs and most importantly being a translator. We enjoyed how well the academic activities blended together with a very interesting social program. The key part of the whole social program was representation of each delegation’s culture. During so called “Cultural Night” every delegation performed on the stage dressed in traditional clothes, singing and dancing traditional songs and dances sharing a piece of their culture with other delegates. Still for us Europeans in exotic China the organized sightseeing of the Forbidden City and the Great Wall made the highlight of non-academic part.

Matej Auxt

Academic program ALSIC is way more than just entertainment. Academic activities dominated at this conference. ALSA delegates engaged in various activities to further explore legal realms of this year’s main topic of discrimination. Academic program consisted of the following: Table Discussion Specific problems of today’s society were discussed to come up with interesting opinions.

ALSA Moot Court Competition In the form of a competition, delegates strived to create the most cohesive and logical argument to impress the judges.

ALSA Symposium This interactive symposium on the issue of discrimination has been a great way for delegates to learn about the hot topics re-

ALSA garding discrimination in China from the “China Law Society”, a highly qualified and experienced source with a chance to interact in the form of questions and discussions.

Academic Visit All delegates visited "All – China Women’s Federation and Legal Aid Center". The delegates had their knowledge enhanced and horizons broadened through listening to the views of experts in the field of gender discrimination.

Governing council (GC) ALSIC is not only about academic activities, which are, however, the core of the conference. Governing council meetings were also covered up in the program of the ALSIC. Presidents and other representatives of all ALSA national chapters participated in this workshop with a very extensive and interesting agenda.

Improvements to ALSA, establishing new projects and enhancing and upgrading old ones were the main goals of this GC meeting.

As president of ALSA, Chris Potranandana, visited ELSA's International Council Meeting (ICM) in Nuremberg as an observer, he brought lot of ideas to ALSA and the main portion of the GC meeting occupied reports from the ICM and possible improvements for ALSA. We could observe discussion about origination

of a STEP program, alumni network, International Governing Council meeting and other interesting topics. Decisions and procedures about new applicant countries for ALSA membership were also discussed on the GC meeting together with reports and improvements in fundraising and PR. The GC meeting as a whole was very dynamic and incentive, thanks to the many new ideas delegates came up with.

All aspects of the conference were brilliant. Not just academic activities, but social program and especially wonderful people created success of this event. ALSIC 2009 was truly experience to remember. If you would like to experience similar atmosphere, there are next ALSA events coming up in August 2009 in Philippines (ALSA Forum) and in February 2010 in Indonesia (next ALSA Conference) opened for ELSA observers.

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ELSA Moot Court Competition

ELSA Moot Court Competition

Facing the Global Challenge The EMC2 can proudly call itself the largest moot court competition on WTO law in the world.

At the moment ELSA oversees six Oral Selection Rounds all over the world.

This year, 60 teams from all corners of the world have registered through our website.

EMC2 coordinator, The Regional Rounds have more teams ELSA International than ever, making every Round an exciting and great academic event. In May, 20 selected teams will proceed to the Final Oral Round, which is organised by our partner, the Asian Centre of WTO & International Health Law and Policy (ACWH), in Taiwan, for the first time not in Geneva, the seat of the WTO secretariat.

Koen Klootwijk,

Participation Over the years, the EMC2 has grown to become the widest spread event ELSA has to offer. The main objective of the Competition is to contribute to the development of legal education. That being said, the Competition also brings people from all different countries and cultures together. Not only students, but also academics, lawyers and staff from different institutions, like the WTO and EU. With the organisation of the EMC2, ELSA has quality high on her list of priorities. The same is expected of the participants.

It is not an easy competition to take part in. Before even going to the Oral Selection Rounds, two written submissions have to be produced per team, one as a complainant and one as a respondent in the case.

This is expected for the oral proceedings as well, where the team has to plead on both sides.

This is all ELSA’s way of contributing to the participants’ legal education. Especially in Europe, WTO law is one of those fields of law which is often forgotten in

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the curriculae of the universities. According to both participants and WTO specialists, the EMC2 is helping students to achieve a profound knowledge about the subject matter, not in the least because they have to be prepared for all sorts of questions during the Oral Pleadings.

In the pleading rooms, teams are each other’s opponents and will do everything to beat the other party. However, outside the arena the participants meet their counter parts in an informal way, during dinners, parties or just in the hallways of the hotel. Besides that, most teams have to travel to a foreign country to participate developing awareness of other cultures.

Another part of the Competition is that a participant gets to meet many WTO specialists from all over the world in a both formal and an informal way. Talking with them can give a student a clear image of the reality of working in the field of WTO law.

Conclusion Taking part in this Competition, either on the participants’ or organisers’ side of the spectrum, is hard work. But, there are so many benefits of having been a participant of the EMC2, like: a highly increased knowledge of a very important field of law; an updated address book, with contacts from all over the world; or a new insight in different cultures and an urge to travel to countries you have never thought of before.

When you take this all together it is hard to think of reasons why not to participate in the ELSA Moot Court Competition on WTO Law and Face the Global Challenge!

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Selected Paper on European Law

Selected Paper on European Law

Share your opinion with Europe!

Selected Paper on European Law (SPEL) is a publication aimed at law students and phd students that have an opinion and would like to share it with the rest of Europe.

In the ELSA Network, you meet exceptional people. Exceptional in any regard. If you SPEL team, read this as an ELSA member you’ll know it ELSA International to be true. If you’re not already a member: I hope this sentence is intriguing you to find out. Afterwards you’ll agree, because ELSA members are exceptional, there is no arguing with that. And this of course starts to show in their curriculum vitas as well. It’s not the simple “I went to university and after a few years I graduated”. It’s more. But there is one point even the exceptional CVs are missing out on: published articles.

Matthias Geissler,

If you ever had to write a CV – and I assume at this point that most of us already have – I guess you didn’t waste a thought about the point: publications. But why? It’s for professionals only, I hear you say. For experts and professors, who hope to gain a reputation by doing so. It has little to no use for me at this point. Once again: why? First of all, as I pointed out, it’s a bonus others don’t have. Something that can make you exceptional, even in comparison to other already exceptional CVs. And, if – as paradox as it may sound - crafting your CV isn’t your life, shouldn’t the possibility of getting your opinion heard and noticed be reason enough? Your opinion is as valuable as anybody’s. So share it!

How? Well, that’s the easy part. The answer lies in four little letters: SPEL, the Selected Papers on European Law. ELSA’s own law journal started in 1998. SPEL has already been published seven times as a hard copy. Now the recent update of the guidelines, concluding the transformation of ELSA SPEL into an online law journal has opened new possibilities. Although the hard

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copy issues will be continued, articles can now – after approval – be immediately published on www.elsa.org, making them easily accessible to a wider audience.

So visit regularly, if you don’t want to miss an update. Or do you want to be part of this process? Do you want to share your opinion?

Then write an article, an essay or any other legal paper concerning the field of Public or Private European Law and send it to ELSA International (elsa@elsa.org). The paper needs to be in English and of a minimum of 1500 words in order to be eligible for SPEL. After it has been sent to ELSA International it is reviewed by an editorial board of academics making sure the article has the required academic quality.

If you’ve already written a similar paper, maybe even a dissertation that you would like to share: contact ELSA International.

They’ll know what to do and can give you feedback whether your paper is eligible for SPEL. SPEL is an opportunity and a benefit for law students that seek to have their opinion heard. The opportunity is available, but as always it is up to you to make use of it.

Your submission must include: Text concerning Public or Private European Law 1500+ words (English) Short summary of text and author To be sent to: elsa@elsa.org

Selected Paper on European Law

ELSA

Selected Paper on European Law

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Conference

Intellectual Property Law Conference in Wroclaw:

“Contemporary Trends in Copyright Development” From the 14th - 15th of November 2008 ELSA Wroclaw organised a conference called ‘Contemporary Trends in Copyright Development’.

Piotr Lubowski, Vice President S & C ELSA Poland

We decided on the topic because copyrights in our opinion is one of the most important area of intellectual property. It gives the author the only right to use or grant permission to use his creation by other parties in a determined way.

It is important to realize that copyright protection favors development of economy and culture. Economical and artistic successes of phonographic, film and computer markets contribute to the overall economic growth. That is why it is very important to form social awareness regarding high rank of copyright among other branches of law. What more as International Focus Program deals with IP Law we decided to use this great instrument to prepare big event. Only because of strength of ELSA network we had opportunity to invite for cooperation representatives of World Intellectual Property Organization – an institution coordinating and creating legal regulations regarding protection of intellectual property worldwide. International Trademark Association non-profit organization, which gathers the biggest companies to protect their trademarks and related intellectual property and Wikipedia – well known.

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The aim that OC had set forth was to introduce copyrights to students and practitioners of law from across Poland and Europe.

We also wished to present the newest solutions and legal regulations regarding this matter.

The Conference had been divided into five theme parts, which - in OC opinion - introduced and covered the given topic in the vastest way. In the first part the participants were introduced to Polish copyright regulations. The second part covered international copyright issues. At the end of the first day representative of the Police presented a practical aspect of functioning and enforcing criminal regulations regarding copyright.

The second day started with the fourth part, which covered copyright protection in the reality of Information Technology. The last part we devoted to threats that copyright expansion brings to our culture.

We enjoyed it so much that we, as ELSA Poland, will organize another International Conference on Intellectual Property Law. You are all welcome to Gdansk from the 13th -17th of May.

Conference

Upcoming Conference:

“Main Trends in Intellectual Property Law”

The International Focus Programme (IFP) was introduced in order to highlight the global dimension of ELSA members work. IFP meant that the whole network was focusing on a topic which Kamil Szymański, was considered a "hot" legal topic in Europe at VP S & C, ELSA Int. the time. IFP was introduced in October 1994 at the International Council Meeting organised by ELSA Malta. The first IFP duration was around three years. During all those years some of the topics were more successful and some obviously less, however it experienced how crucial it was to make good preparation for the implementation of the topic to be a success. At the ICM in Prague spring 2007 the Council decided to set the new IFP topic as Intellectual Property Law. The term of the current IFP topic has been extended during the ICM in Nuremberg until 31st July 2010.

This year ELSA International felt a need to highlight the importance of this topic, slow down for a second and try to evaluate where we are and how much we have benefited from this topic and what more can be done. That is the reason why we have decided to organize an IFP Evaluation Conference. We decided that this project should be organised in cooperation with one of the local groups. The group that took the challenge was ELSA Gdansk from ELSA Poland. The Conference will take place at the University of Gdansk faculty of Law and Administration in Poland from the 13th to the 17th of May 2009.

To achieve a high quality project we cooperate in all levels of the network. First of all it is important to highlight that this high quality will be ensured by prestigious lecturers from such organizations as World Intellectual Property, International Trademark Association, European Patents Organization, Max Plank Institute, Council of Europe as well as lawyers specialized in IP Law from international Companies and Academics from European Universities.

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During the conference we are going to raise the most important issues of IP Law. These are: patents, trademarks, copyrights and IP and human Piotr Lubowski, rights. We believe that the participants of the VP S & C, conference can benefit more from the project ELSA Poland when there is a possibility not only to listen to the lecturers but also take part in the workshops.

This is why the program include interactive panels, where everybody can ask questions, deal with case study or discuss ideas with other students.

The perfect ending for the conference will be solemn gala ball. It will be hold in Gdansk Old Town. It is one of the most beautiful places at the Polish seaside, full of magic and mysterious points to see. This ceremony will include Prize award ceremony for the winners of ELSA IP Law Essay competition as well as presentations of the sponsors of the conference. The project is about writing an Essay in English about one of the chosen topics within Intellectual Property Law, hereby trademark, patents and copyright. International essay competition is the best way for law students to maximize their participation and be rewarded for their significant effort. In that direction, several ELSA groups under the umbrella of the IFP join their efforts to provide their members with a unique opportunity to compete at European level by presenting their academic views and concerns on hot legal topics that touch upon Intellectual Property. Since IFP is a programme of the whole ELSA Network we hope to see you all there.

www.ifpconference.pl

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Conference

Conference ELSA Republic of Macedonia

“Legal challenges of the cyberspace” During the 27th – 30th November 2008 ELSA Republic of Macedonia organised an International Conference with 80 participants in the city of Strumica.

Katerina Todorovska, Vice President Marketing ELSA Republic of Macedonia

Lawyers and high technology usually don’t go together- and it’s a pity.

The technology today creates a new level of existence-virtual reality, which is out of reach for regulation by the law. The world needs lawyers who can operate with technological terms and are familiar with the issues which arise in the cyberspace. Sadly, our regular curriculums at the university do not include lectures of this topic.

ELSA Republic of Macedonia, in the spirit of its leadership and exploration of unknown academic territory, decided to go where no ELSA group has gone before-the world of the cyberspace.

Thus as a topic for our traditional Pan European Conference, which took part from 27th – 30th November 2008, we chose “Legal Challenges of the Cyberspace”.

It was the 4th time we organized this kind of event, each time on a different location in Macedonia.

This time we took our 80 domestic and international participants to Strumica, a city known for its vibrant nightlife in Macedonia. And have no doubt that ELSA spirit was up for the nightlife challenge.

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The academic side of the event was mostly focused on the issue of online security- protection of privacy, national, international and European laws and standards, protection of private data, computer crime, cyber terrorism, privacy policies on websites etc. It was an interesting mix of technical information and legal dilemmas.

Vesna Poposka, Member ELSA Republic of Macedonia

Most of all, this event was important because a whole new generation of ELSA Republic of Macedonia was introduced to ELSA spirit, to the international side of our organization. By making international friends and exchanging ideas in the heart of Macedonia, they could feel the importance of ELSA for the Macedonian student. In a reality where the young and restless spirit of the students is captured within the narrow national borders, ELSA is one opportunity to experience and become part of the international community.

On the next page you can read the impressions of one of our ambitious freshers, Vesna Poposka, for whom the Pan European Conference was the first ELSA event ever.

Conference The conference in Strumica was my first ELSA-experience. But definitely not the last one! I went there knowing almost nobody, and came back with so many friends. I was totally catched by ELSAspirit! Enthusiasam, positive energy, and eagerness are the words that best describe those 72 hours spent in Strumica!

Being a part of the great ELSA family is a lifetime experience, and of course something essential for every student of law.

Sometimes it is more important to exchange knowledge and experience, with colleges from all around Europe than sitting in front of the professor and listen. I am so sorry I didn’t become part of ELSA earlier. I love ELSA Republic of Macedonia!

The topic of the conference was well chosen, it’s something popular and new for students. That was the first thing that attracted me because it’s something you can not learn at university. The lessons were interactive and gave us essential knowledge about cyber-crime. Another thing I won’t forget is meeting the members of IB, and their presentation on ELSA general knowledge. It was so motivating for us, ELSA’s youngsters, named “mushmuli”(after one Macedonian sweet fruit). As well as the social program,that included night parties and excursions. It’s amazing how we had time to reach everything!

We proved that even on the ”Western Balcan” things can be done on European way!

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Conference

Intellectual Property:

“Summer seminar in Copenhagen�

Between the 21st and 26th of July 2008 ELSA Copenhagen arranged a summer seminar on Intellectual Property Law. 38 participants from over 11 countries took part.

Benita Thostrup, Vice President S & C, ELSA Copenhagen

ELSA Copenhagen has a long tradition for hosting an annual summer seminar. Last summer the seminar was held between the 21st and 26th of July and 38 participants from over 11 countries took part.

During the intense week-long seminar with the topic: Intellectual Property Law in a European perspective, the participants was guided through the very start of products IPR and to its end and narrowing the topic down. With only 6 days to attend a lot of lectures and a social programme every day right after the lectures with exploring the Danish capital and getting to know each other, we surely put our participants to a big test.

Special focus was paid to the fact that in a world with increasing globalisation and international trade the international competition has become critical. In the battle of survival as a company it is today now more than ever crucial to apply for patents, brands, and trademark and get an intellectual property right to avoiding outmatching by more distant parts of the world, where the man craft doubtless is cheaper.

Therefore in order to survive in a global market today, European companies have to be equipped with knowhow, innovation, in-

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ventiveness and finally good knowledge in IP-law. Larger companies often use huge resources on guarding themselves against copycats and exploitation of their trademark.

If a well-reputed company's brand is used unlawful or a copied product is of poorer quality than the original or actually unhealthy the company is undeservedly put under a risk of gaining bad publicity, which can cause fatal consequences for the company as it can be very hard to restore a good brand.

The legislation of intellectual property and the enforcement differs from country to country. There has been launched international attempts to harmonise the legislation and partly it has been achieved through international treaties like the '1994 World Trade Organisation Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights' while other treaties simplify the registration and making it possible to be protected in more than one country at the time.

Because a company's brand/trade mark constitutes such an incredible valuable asset for the company, lawyers constantly have to be aware of the development and always be a step ahead the copycats.

Conference The purpose of this seminar was therefore to elucidate how the originators best protect themselves against illegal generic product and not at least how the intellectual property right is enforced in the case of misuse.

We made several field trips to law firms. I just want to emphasize one of them, Maqs Law Firm, where we also vividly heard about the lawyers' enforcement of IPR in real life away from his desk, saw some actual counterfeits, and had a wonderful lunch at their deck of their building with a magnificent view of the city on an unusually hot summer day.

We had carefully selected the lecturers among respected lawyers with many years of practice in the field of intellectual property law and some of the lecturers are currently teaching law students in the LL.M. subject 'intellectual property law' at Copenhagen University. Some of the lecturers were partners either in big law firms and consultancy firms and one lecturer were working in the European Court of Justice. With some persuasion from our side, some of the lecturers suspended their holiday just to come to pass on their knowledge to us.

It was truly the biggest seminar in scale and most successful in ELSA Copenhagen's history, so now with solid experience from last year, we try to keep the standard with the next seminar. The topic will be Counterterrorism and Human Rights. The seminar will take place from the 2nd to 9th of August 2009. We look forward to see a lot of our participants from our previous seminar and a lot of newcomers! So if are you up for the challenge then view more about our seminar and apply at www.elsa-cph.dk.

The seminar had also a broad variety of social offers to the participants: sightseeing by foot, canal tour, trip to Carlsberg brewery, picnic at the harbour, theme-parties, trip to the amusement park Tivoli, gala ball, discos etc. All with the aim to show the great sides of our capital and to let people get to know each other.

Friendships and new bonds were established. Many of the participants are still in touch and some are seeing each other at ELSA events across Europe.

Everything one’s heart can ask for is here in our astonishing capital. The cultural side of Copenhagen offers a great variety of possibilities; here are many theatres, museums, exhibitions and an amusement park. Denmark’s proud sign, the Little Mermaid, is in fact small but that is indeed the very charm of her and the reason why many tourists must just go and see her twice. Some people like spending time shopping others prefer an afternoon at the beach. In Copenhagen you will not have to compromise – it is possible to do both. When you finish a day with so many nice impressions would like to go out and grab something to eat, you have the possibility to choose from hundreds of restaurants with the same number of different cuisines.

Not to mention the great number of cafés, bars and discos as an end of the evening. The most comfortable thing of all: All these great things are to be found in walking distance. We all learned a lot about each other's different and similar cultures and habits. synergy magazine

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Study Visit

Institutional Study Visit

Omnes viae Brussels ducunt …or all roads lead to Brussels 17-19 of November 2008 and 6-10 of December two ELSA groups visited Brussels on an institutional study visit.

Vaida Pilibaviciute, Seminar & Conferences ELSA Lithuania

There is a proverb saying that all roads lead to Rome. But now as the times has changed so did the roads… They all started to lead to Brussels. And there is no question why, with so many important institutions in one place it would be a shame not to call this city the new Rome.

There is one more proof to this – two ELSA groups decided to visit Brussels almost at the same time! Two different groups, two different roads, almost the same programme, the same name – institutional study visit, the same city – Brussels and the adventure begins...

ELSA Lithuania national group had an institutional study visit on the 6-10th of December, but this story began earlier. ELSA Vilnius, our local group, visited Brussels last year, and they were so satisfied with how this turned out that this year I decided to organise one for our national group. And it was easier than I could ever expect. Firstly I decided which institutions we would like to visit and I started contacting them. After a few e-mails to NATO, European Parliament and Embassy of the Republic of Lithuania, I had some answers. I have found out that there was a possibility to get financial support for this visit. The European Parliament suggested applying for this by filling an application form.

Their financial support is about 180 euro for travelling plus a 30 euro daily allowance per person. Unfortunately it was the end of the

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Žofia Šuleková, VP Marketing ELSA Košice

year and we could not get this support. But it seems like it was anyway worthwhile because I have managed to get some great contacts and a promise from European Parliament to get the support for next year’s study visit as they have a fund to support delegations as ours. Moreover, I was suggested not to forget that European institutions are not only in Brussels, but also in Strasbourg and Luxembourg, so there is an opportunity to expand next year’s study visit. The second answer I received was from NATO and it was quite confusing. I was reading it over and over because I could not believe that they wanted to pay for our tickets and one night at the hotel. That news was like an early Christmas present for me and the members of ELSA Lithuania.

NATO bought 20 tickets (regular flights Vilnius – Brussels – Vilnius) and booked 10 rooms for one night at a fancy hotel in Brussels’ downtown. All I needed to do was to send the list of participants. And that is all! Brussels here we come!

In my opinion the very first week of December could not be a better time was for our visit in Brussels because we had a chance to participate in ELSA Christmas Cocktail party. As most of our delegation were new to ELSA this was a very good opportunity to show them an international ELSA spirit.

What is more, we had some spare time to visit the most famous places of Brussels like Mini-Europe, Market Palace and Manneken Pis.

Study Visit

What kind of event without some great parties? We tasted the best Belgian beer at the legendary Delirium, participated in a Pizza party at ELSA House and had many room parties. Our academic program was really interesting. First of all we have visited European Parliament and Embassy of the Republic of Lithuania. The European Parliament was huge to us and we had some difficulties with finding an entrance for visitors. An European Parliament officer told us more about its structure, tasks and decision making procedures. We also had a meeting with European Parliament member’s from Lithuania assistance and she told us about internship possibilities.

The next day we visited NATO. There we have spent the whole day and had a lot of interesting lectures about NATO’s current political agenda, NATO’s internship and job recruitment, organization’s division, NATO’s relations with other International Organizations, Security Policy division, NATO’s relations with Russia. We have also visited the Lithuanian delegation in NATO and had a meeting with ambassador Linas Linkevicius.

As mentioned before all the roads meet in Brussels and so did the journey of ELSA Košice. The trip was quite exhausting as the time spent travelling in the bus was the same as the time actually spent in Brussels. The atmosphere of the city was spectacular.

The gray medieval streets with the picturesque squares and little chocolate shops were mixed with the glass and steel modern European buildings. A truly remarkable sign of old and new Europe meet in one city.

The evening after our arrival we were scheduled to meet up with another ELSA delegation in the ELSA House. However, because of lack of French language skill it took us quite some time to find our way around. The problem was that the tram we were supposed to take was canceled.

After all the trouble we finally made it and joined the party.

EU and its institutions. After a tasty lunch at the EC canteen we visited the House of Slovak Regions. The House consists of regional representations, which are located jointly under “one roof ”. This unique project was initiated by the Košice Region to promote the interests of Slovak Regions and to contribute towards greater knowledge about EU policies and legislation. It is situated next to the Permanent Representation of the Slovak Republic to the EU which plays a central role in the communication between Slovakia and European institutions. With the ambassador Maroš Šefčovič we discussed not only their current work but also the recent issues of upcoming Euro currency in Slovakia and the financial crisis.

On our last day we went to see the NATO headquarters. Frantisek Kašický, the Slovak Permanent Representative to NATO, welcomed us and gave the presentation about current missions and answered our curious questions. Time was passing and we still had our last visit in the European Parliament in front of us.

Unfortunately, the session was scheduled to the Strasbourg for that day. Finally, as Nelly Furtado sings “All good things come to an end” so we had to say goodbye to our wonderful and delightful experience.

Brussels is not only the capital of European Union, metropolis of institutions, but also capital of beer (which Slovaks especially love) and chocolate pralines. We all had the opportunity to experience it during the few days by ourselves. These days passed so fast and we returned to our country with unforgettable memories.

According to the opinion of ELSA Lithuania and ELSA Košice it was a great opportunity to strengthen relationship with our International Board and meet other ELSA members. I can’t forget to mention that we have gained a lot of information, learnt something new and enjoyed the charm of this beautiful European city.

The next day, we visited the European Commission where the presentation was given about

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Study Visit

Exchange in the network:

A trip to the north!

The 24th of September 2008 ELSA Nijmegen went on a Study Visit to ELSA Lund and ELSA Copenhagen

ELSA Nijmegen organised a study visit to Lund and Copenhagen in association Vice President S & C, with ELSA Lund and ELSA Copenhagen.

ELSA Njimegen We left on 24th of September at 3 o'clock am. We were welcomed by Amanda, who’s from ELSA Denmark. In Copenhagen we visited Amnesty International. A lawyer filled us in on the activities of Amnesty International in Copenhagen and the struggle with the police and prosecuters in Copenhagen. He told us things which none of us could ever imagine would happen in Denmark. So that was quite interesting. After our visit to Amnesty International we left Copenhagen, to end up in Lund, where we got a guided tour at the university, which was absolutely breathtaking. During dinner, which was made by ELSA Lund, we all got the chance to get to know each other. Afterwards, we dove into bed early, since we had barely slept the night before.

Valentina Ili,

The next day we visited the Raoul Wahlberg Institute for Human Rights, where very enthusiastic people told us about their motivation to make a change in, among others, Georgia. In the evening we had a karaoke night at the residence of an ELSA member.

Everybody participated, including the teachers that had come with us from Nijmegen: Ms. dr. Van Hedel and Mr. dr.

Sillen. After that, we went out and danced the night away.

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In the weekend we headed to Malmö, a city not far from Lund.

The program consisted of laser gaming and a visit to the sauna.

On Sunday it was time to say goodbye to ELSA Lund, but not after we enjoyed a delicious brunch that they made for us. After the brunch we returned to Copenhagen, where we got a guided city tour by the father of the Treasurer of ELSA Copenhagen. It really is a beautiful city, it was wonderful to see al the statues, buildings and of course, the little mermaid. On the last day of our study visit we paid a visit to Bech Bruun, an international law firm, that welcomed us with coffee, tea and croissants. It was good to see that there are law firms that want to stand out on the international level. The Danish Institute for Human Rights was the last institution we visited in Copenhagen. We learned about the scope of their activities in Denmark, and it was absolutely interesting to find out what kind of role the institute plays during political tensions, like the ‘cartoon crisis’.

In the end, I can honestly say that it was a very successful study visit. Unfortunately, ELSA Lund will not be able to come to Nijmegen, but who knows, maybe in the future…

Thanks to all the people that have made this trip well organised and fun!

Study Visit

The perfect remedy to the post-ICM trauma

Multilateral study visit to Osijek The goal of the Study Visit between Ukraine, Hungary and Croatia was to establish a close connection between those groups and provide them with essential updates of the progress and development in the ELSA network as well as the soft skill trainings to give them a chance to organize a great event together in the future.

Do you know what the Post-ICM Trauma is? If you have already attended any of the President Council Meetings of ELSA International, I ELSA Pécs am convinced you do. Just to enlist a couple of symptoms: aching body, packed and numb mind, lame extremities, complete physical and mental exhaustion, and the bittersweet feeling of having met your dear ELSA friends after six months – but have had to leave them again after a week full of effective work, loads of fun and adventures.

Réka Fertői

So what to do to alleviate the pain? Find a hyperactive ELSA Group somewhere in the neighborhood eager to organize a multilateral study visit, and continue the adventure there the following weekend. At least this is what ELSA Pécs and ELSA Ukraine did, by visiting the good old neighbor, ELSA Osijek.

Board during the study visit. The venue was the University of Osijek. The other part of the study visit was to get more knowledge about the law study system in Croatia. Therefore we had two meetings. The first one with the dean of the law faculty of Osijek University about the Bologna system. The second one with the representatives of the University and the student union of the University.

In ELSA Pécs, our "ars poetica" is the following: maybe it is a tough job to convince a passive member to become an active one… but take him or her to an international event, and you will not face any difficulties in these terms anymore. And voilá, the five freshers I seduced to come with me to Osijek, are all enthusiastic ELSAnians by now. So thank you, good old neighbors, for the reinforcement and also, for providing us remedy for the post-ICM trauma! Hope to see you soon in Pécs!

The members of ELSA Pécs are always happy to spend time together with the Croatian ELSAnians, so we could hardly wait to take the train, to reach Osijek in two hours – even closer than Budapest. At the train station, we received a warm and friendly welcome by Imon Choudhury, president of ELSA Croatia, who introduced us to the Ukrainian delegation, full of very open and enthusiastic ELSA members. It was our pleasure to meet the new members of our host group, ELSA Osijek as well and since it was not the first time we spent together, some old friends also came by.

The four days spent at Osijek, in this friendly and beautiful town, was not only a great experience for those, who attended an international ELSA event for the first time, but also for us ELSA addicted crazy ones. We attended a great training on self-presentation by Kamil Szymanski, who represented the International synergy magazine

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Conference summary

Financial Crisis:

Summary Of The Conference On The Economic Crisis A summary of the conference organised by ELSA Louvain La Neuve in Belgium 13 November 2008

During this conference we wanted to learn more about today’s economic crisis and therefore we needed to go back in the recent financial history.

taken into account as sometimes there is too much fresh money coming in each day. Consequently, poor decisions were made as this money had to be invested since the customer wanted to see a yield.

In 2000, the goal of the American government was to try to revive the American economy and one aspect was to increase credit availability for businesses and individuals. Yet in order to maintain this credit availability, the USA was living beyond its means.

There are lessons we will have to draw from this crisis. As a depositor, we do not expect our bank to invest in complex products.

On the other hand, care must be taken to review the composition of the Boards of Directors since these people themselves often do not know how to read a financial report, and even if they have a good network (politicians) this is insufficient. Prudential control and the role of rating agencies must also be reviewed. We must ensure that risk control systems are in place and operational.

Julie Montoisy, President ELSA Louvain-la-Neuve

Since it was good for the economy, it was decided to grant credits to insolvent people, a practice known as "sub-prime" lending. At that time this was not a problem as the housing market was booming, so even if an individual went bankrupt, as this is possible in the US, the bank was able to seize the property and resell the house. This worked very well since the bank then made a profit. The main advantage was that all institutions carried a share of the risk, but in the end this actually led to a crisis of trust.

This was followed by deregulation of the financial market and the introduction of the so-called derivative products such as options, etc. But we eventually came to the Basel Accords in which equity capital was regulated; in other words there was a certain minimum amount needed in relation to the assets. This tended to increase additional debt.

During the 1990s we saw the rise of hedge funds. This is money that is not monitored, that can be managed by anyone without the central banks and banking commissions knowing anything.

The IAS accounting standards and overabundant liquid assets are

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There are new dangers: - When someone is insured, he is more trusting. And in this case, governments are giving ever-greater guarantees.

- The amount of liquid assets injected is huge, yet this money will flow to financial assets, for which the same concerns can thus arise.

- Financial conglomerates recreate themselves, as was done in the 1920s, a model that had previously been broken up; we have to decide what kind of financial asset we want.

Conference Summary

What are the consequences of the financial crisis?

We speak of concentration and synergy, but what is the impact on purchasing behaviour, the offer for consumers? An analysis must be carried out. This will then lead to divestment. With these banks that have merged, corporate governance is going to evaporate since there is a new actor: the State as a shareholder. As such there will be conflicts of interest.

As for the financial guarantees the government has now provided, this could have been carried out via bodies created for this purpose. In so doing, there would have been only a little discrimination. In the end only history will show the impact of the crisis over time.

The private individual shareholder will complain as the State has invested in large international groups. What can be done to have governments divest their share in the banks? Will they be protectionist or will they be willing to sell to anybody?

Then there will be the drives for restructuring. It is often the people that are in business who are the most interested in bonuses. The situation requires harmonised measures at the European level. As for asset management, this could be a sector that is externalised as it is a factory that creates the products that are sold.

Savings trends also risk undergoing modification as governments have much less need of money and so the market is inundated with securities: a report by the Banking, Finance and Insurance Commission (CBFA) argues in favour of a plan designed to inform people of how their investments function.

Finally, pensions are likely to become a delicate subject, but it is of course in the long term that we recognise that at some time or another they must increase.

Securitisation is the core of the problems and a whole series of bad debts has been covered up. The CBFA and all other bodies were unable to fulfil their role as controller, although to our knowledge no inquiries have been carried out to verify whether these statements were correct.

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Human Resources Management

Strategic Human Resources Management in Poland:

“A reflection on the Human Resources Programme in ELSA Poland” The position of Director for Human Resources has existed in Poland since 1999.

Piotr Nowak Director for HR Management ELSA Poland 2006-2007 and

In 1999 the first thoughts about a strategic Human Resources Management plan appeared. At that time the position of Director for Human Resources was created. Our duty was to be the connection bridge between the ELSA Trainers’ Group (ETG) – the entity which mission is to provide ELSA Poland members with trainings in soft and hard skills - and the Local Groups. We were responsible for discovering the needs for trainings and pass that information to ETG.

Since then the value of Human Resources Management (HRM) has been slowly increasing. We were taking on new challenges – more or less successfully. Naturally, we were the first to get in touch with new members, taking care of them during the Fresher’s Camp (in Poland called Adapciak) and the ones to show them the opportunities of ELSA and their possible career paths in our Association. Very many of us, as we are always keeping an eye on educational aspects, after our terms in office became members of the ELSA Trainers' Group. Łukasz Górzny Director for HR Management ELSA Poland 2008

Until 2006 the amount of people involved in the project was rather small and unsettled. Thanks to a new policy of appointing these directors that showed Local Boards the advantages of this position, the first Human Resources Team was initiated. This team after being trained led to composing and validating the duties within Human Resources Management. It was a very important moment for Directors for Human Resources Management

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as earlier, mainly because we are picked on the grounds of being good spirit for the others, we were not always taken seriously.

During the National Council Meeting in 2007 in Bialystok we imposed on ourselves (as it was our own proposal) work obligations within several areas.

The first thing we took upon us was coordinating the recruitment of new members. Herein promotion of the Fresher’s Camp at our faculties and being the care-taker of this Camp for participants from the university we’re from. Also promotion of ELSA, particularly in the first 3 months of the academic year and active help in organising training events for members in cooperation with the Local Board and ELSA Trainers' Group.

The second area is directly connected with members’ integration and motivation by organizing meetings and parties for them, coordinating training events, keeping in touch with Alumnies and exchanging information with other Local Groups.

Human Resources Management

As part of the Human Resources strategy in 2007 a project called ELSA Summer Party (ESP) was launched. The main aim of the project was integration. The first edition took place in August 2007 in the suburbs of Warsaw. During that weekend we received clear feedback that we scored a bull's eye with the project.

It had no agenda except for 2 events per day planned without time assumptions. The aim of the project was to get ELSA people together and strengthening the bonds between the many local groups.

For two days ELSA people had a great time chatting, partying and playing games with each other. We organized a football match between Alumnies and members and an ELSA knowledge quiz. All these activities were accompanied by informal conversations. Being sure that the idea of ESP needs to be continued we organised a second edition in 2008 as well. This time in Tuchola Forest by the Charzykowskie Lake. It lasted one day more, from Tuesday till Sunday. During the evaluation of the event we agreed to give ESP formal frames as the two last editions were prepared in two different ways. Simply, we didn’t want this project to face problems with organisation so that it could focus on integration.

In November 2008 on the National Council Meeting in Sulejów. we put forth the "Know How – Human Resources in ELSA Poland". This several-dozen pages work is summing our talks, ideas and achievements on the specific field of Human Resources Management in ELSA. It contains chapters enumerating pros and cons of ELSA in our opinion, features of a good Director for Human Resources Management, strategic planning in HRM, pieces of information on projects and tips about the Director for Human Resources Management role in the ELSA members development; starting from their first crossing the ELSA office door and ending up as an ELSA Alumni supporting their younger colleagues. synergy magazine

P.S. Despite the fact that we - the authors of this article - are no longer Directors for Human Resources in the National Board of ELSA Poland we still feel the connection with this position.

That is why we decided to write this article in first, not in third, person.

Start your legal career now!

LL.M. – Master

LL.M.-SEEI

In addition to the beforementioned duties we took it upon us to keep up-to-date archives of our work within Human Resources Management. And also to take part in nationwide meetings and cooperating with all Local Groups and intensifying our knowledge of Human Resources Management.

We hope this article shed some light on the everyday work of the Directors for Human Resources Management in ELSA Poland.

In 2009 surely we’ll take new challenges and try to work and educate our members even harder as there is always something to do with Human Resources Management. Seizing the opportunity we’d like to invite you to come on the third edition of the ELSA Summer Party in August 2009 and enjoy the ELSA Spirit together with us!

in South East European Law & European Integration · Uniquely positioned in Europe – study while you are working · Additional focus on the EU’s new Member States Bulgaria and Romania · South Eastern Europe between accession and stabilisation LL.M

www.seelaw.eu

University of Graz

Another activity area is general help in solving problems and conflicts in Local Groups. The responsibles for Human Resources Management are obliged to gain the necessary knowledge how to do so and practice it during workshops on training weekends.

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