The European Law Students’ Association (ELSA) is an international, non-political, not for profit organisation of law students and young lawyers. ELSA was founded by Austrian, German, Polish and Hungarian law students in 1981. Today ELSA is active in 42 countries, representing more than 32.000 students of 300 faculties. ELSA is the world’s largest law students association.

The vision of ELSA:

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

ELSA members are open-minded, internationally oriented/targeted and multilingual and acquire a broader cultural understanding than other law students. They gain direct experiences with foreign legal systems and business practices.

ELSA‘s 300 university-based local groups and 42 national groups as well as the international board are entirely student-managed and administered. Each group creates its own plan of operation in line with the overall goals of the association. Each group recruits and trains its volunteer executives and markets ELSA‘s programmes to the academic and business community.