Australian Law Students Association

The Australian Law Students' Association (ALSA) is the peak representative body of law students from Australia. The ALSA facilitates communication between the law student societies of each Australian law school; it represents students to government, universities and the public; it authors numerous educational and careers publications; and it hosts an annual conference and two additional council meetings each year.

ALSA is a not-for-profit association run by law students elected annually for the benefit of all law students nationally. ALSA's membership comprises all law students in Australia, and their universities' law student societies. Representation to ALSA is facilitated by these societies, whose delegates sit on the ALSA National Council. The organisation's functions are overseen by an Executive and Committee.

Members

*Adelaide University Law Students' Society
* [http://law.anu.edu.au/lss Australian National University Law Students' Society]
*Bond University Law Students' Association
*Charles Darwin University Law Students' Society
*Deakin Law Students' Society (Melbourne Chapter)
*Deakin Law Students' Society (Geelong Chapter)
*North Law Society (Edith Cowan University)
* [http://www.flsa.org.au Flinders Law Students' Association]
*Griffith University (Gold Coast) Law Students' Association
*Griffith University Law Society (Nathan Campus)
* [http://www.jculss.com James Cook University Law Students' Society]
*La Trobe University Law Students' Association
*Macquarie University Law Society
* [http://www.lss.unimelb.edu.au Melbourne University Law Students' Society]
* [http://www.monashlss.asn.au Monash Law Students’ Society]
*Murdoch Student Law Society
*Notre Dame Law Students' Society (Fremantle)
*Notre Dame Law Students' Society (Sydney)
*Queensland University of Technology Association of Law Students
*Southern Cross University Law Society
*Sydney University Law Society
*Tasmania University Law Society [http://www.tuls.com.au]
* [http://www.canberra.edu.au/ils Isaacs Law Society (University of Canberra)]
*University of New England Law Students’ Society
*University of New South Wales Law Society
* [http://www.unlsa.com University of Newcastle Law Students’ Association]
*University of Queensland Law Society
* [http://www.utslss.com University of Technology, Sydney Law Students' Society]
*The Blackstone Society (University of Western Australia)
*University of Western Sydney Law Students' Association
* [http://www.uow.edu.au/law/lss/ University of Wollongong Law Students' Society]
*Victoria University Law Students' Society

ALSA Annual Conferences

Traditionally an annual conference is held each year by ALSA, with council, general and competing delegates attending from the majority of Australia's law schools. Competitors are also invited from New Zealand's five law schools, and from the National University of Singapore. The conference allows students to compete against fellow member universities in mooting, negotiation, witness examination, paper presentation and client interviewing. Each competition allows the student to apply their legal training, skills and knowledge in a practical sense.

Bidding rights to host the conference are determined on the basis of a two-tiered classification system. ALSA-affiliated Universities are first divided into two groups by geography: Eastern (made up of Universities in Queensland, NSW, ACT and Victoria) and Other (made up of Universities in South Australia, Northern Territory, Western Australia and Tasmania). This makes up the first tier, with hosting rights rotating in a three-yearly cycle between Eastern, Eastern and Other.

Within each tier is the second tier, which divides Universities further into geographical classifications as follows:

Therefore, after the first tier is confirmed for any given year, the right to make a bid will fall on the next regional classification along, e.g. if it is an Eastern year and the last Eastern bid was from Victoria, then the right to bid will fall on NSW-Regional & ACT. If no University in the region which has the bidding rights that year makes a bid to host the conference, the next region along in that group will have the right to make a bid.

Bids for the opportunity to host the annual conference are heard two years in advance at the ALSA conference itself. The 2010 conference bid - currently allocated to universities in the NSW-Sydney region - will therefore be made at the 2008 conference in Hobart. If no universities in NSW-Sydney opt to bid, the Council will invite any university from the council who wishes to, to make a bid.

2008 April Council

Held 28-31 March 2008, Council was co-hosted between University of New South Wales and the University of Technology, Sydney. Issues discussed included:

* ALSA joining the Asian Law Students Association.
* Member LSS's failure to submit reports of promptly pay their affiliation fees.
* Forming a strategic plan for the Association

2007 Conference

The 2007 ALSA conference was held in Canberra from 2-8 July 2007, jointly hosted by Australian National University and the University of Canberra and sponsored by Mallesons Stephen Jaques. The Corrs Chambers Westgarth opening night gala ball was held in the Great Hall of the Australian Parliament and the closing night dinner at the National Museum of Australia. The mid-week sponsors' cocktail function was held at the Australian War Memorial. All functions catering was contracted out to the Park Hyatt Canberra.

In the Grand Finals:

Witness examination: National University of Singapore beat the University of Auckland before Justice Drumgold in the Federal Court of the ACT. Due to the failure of an Australian team to make the grand final, semi-finalist University of Technology Sydney will represent Australia in the Worlds at this event; the other knocked-out semi-finalist being New Zealand's Waikato University.

Negotiation: Macquarie University beat Monash University in the Federal Court of the ACT.

Client interviewing: Notre Dame University (WA) defeated the University of New South Wales in a 2-1 decision by the three-judge panel.

ALSA Mooting: Before a four-judge panel in the Supreme Court of the ACT, Macquarie University was declared the unanimous winner against UNSW

IHL Mooting: Monash University was declared the unanimous winner by a three-judge panel in the ACT Supreme Court, beating University of Adelaide.

Paper Presentation: Making it three trophies to take back to Ryde, this was won by Macquarie University.

Kirby Cup: The Cup was taken out by Australian National University (ACT) who defeated Murdoch University (WA) and the University of Sydney (NSW) [http://www.alrc.gov.au/events/events/kirbycup/index.html]

2008 Conference

The 2008 ALSA conference was held in Hobart from 7-13 July 2007, hosted by the University of Tasmania. The opening night gala ball was held at the Sandy Bay Wrest Point complex, also the designated accommodation provider for delegates. For the first time, in addition to the traditional themed party nights and the mid-week sponsor's cocktail function, Hobart 2008 introduced Breakfast With the Governor, where delegates were offered the opportunity to dine with Tasmanian Governor Peter Underwood, a former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Tasmania. The winner of the IHL moot was the University of Adelaide.

External links

* [http://www.alsa.asn.au/ Australian Law Students' Association]
* [http://www.alsanet.asn.au/ ALSA's Jobsearch website, ALSANet]
* [http://www.alsaconference2006.com.au/ 2006 ALSA Conference Website]
* [http://www.alsa.asn.au/files/bylaws/98.1.pdf/ ALSA bylaws]