Australian Law Students Association
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| Public, limited by guarantee | |
| Founded | 1979 |
| Website | www |
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 most Australian law schools; it acts as a conduit for intervarsity dialogue and intercourse; 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 law students nationally. ALSA's membership comprises all law students in Australia and their universities' law student societies, with the exception of the Sydney University Law Society. 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. The ALSA Executive and Committee (ALSA Main) should not be confused with the ALSA Conference, which is run by a separate body (from the host university) and which is supported by ALSA Main.
All law student societies are members of ALSA, with the exception of the Sydney University Law Society, which withdrew from the association in August 2014.
Presidents of the Association are elected by the ALSA Council, with each Member university exercising two votes each. The President's term runs from 1 August to 31 July each year. Past Presidents have come from a variety of universities:
The University of Melbourne and Macquarie University have supplied the most number of ALSA Presidents - both five times since 1978. Twenty one ALSA Presidents have been male, while sixteen have been female.
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.
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