SYNERGY magazine"Our Rights, Our Freedoms"

Essay and photo competition

No.47 · I-2010

Thomas Hammarberg

Commissioner for Human RightsELSA and ELS

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New Commission set tostart work on 10 FebruaryThe new European Commissionis on course to take up office on 10 February, after a delay causedby MEPs’ refusal to approve theappointment of Rumiana Jeleva,Bulgaria’s nominee for Europeancommissioner.Bulgaria’s replacement nomi-nee, Kristalina Georgieva, a vice-president of the World Bank, willhave a hearing before MEPs on 3February. The European Parlia-ment will then vote on JoséManuel Barros’s second team on 9February. If the vote in Strasbourgis positive, as is now expected, thenew Commission will be sworn in-to office at the European Court ofJustice the following day.This timetable was to be con-firmed by the Parliament’s politi-cal group leaders who are meet-ing this morning (21 January).Jerzy Buzek, the president ofthe Parliament, had last night (20January) received all but four ofthe evaluation letters from thevarious Parliament committees.His spokeswoman said: “The

content is positive for all of them.”As European Voice went topress, Manfred Weber, the centre-right co-ordinator on thecivil liberties committee washolding out on approval for Cecilia Malmström as home af-fairs commissioner.The other three evaluationsoutstanding were of Neelie Kroes,Olli Rehn and Algirdas Šemeta,whose performances were allconsidered unsatisfactory in var-ious respects. But the MEPs arenot expected to reject Barroso IIover any of these three.The Parliament had beenscheduled to vote on the BarrosoII team on 26 January, whichwould have allowed the Commis-sion to take up office on 1 Febru-ary. But on Tuesday, Jeleva re-signed, having failed to commandthe support of the Parliament’s de-velopment committee. She per-formed badly in the hearing andwas accused of being inaccurate inher declarations of financial inter-ests. An opinion from the Parlia-ment’s legal service had given aclean bill of health to the declara-tion she made as a commissioner-

designate, but found fault with thedeclaration she had made whenshe was an MEP in 2007-09.Joseph Daul, the leader of thecentre-right European People’sParty (EPP) group to which Jele-va belongs, accepted her resigna-tion only reluctantly. He said thatshe had been the victim of awitch-hunt and treated unfairlyin her hearing. But he ruled outtrying to remove a commissionerfrom the Socialists and Democ-rats or Liberal groups in revenge.José Manuel Barroso, the pres-ident of the Commission, will meetGeorgieva today, either in Brusselsor Strasbourg (21 January).He said that he intended to putGeorgieva forward for the sameportfolio as was earmarked forJeleva – international co-opera-

tion, humanitarian aid and crisismanagement. Georgieva hasbeen working at the World Banksince 1993 and is an expert with-out political affiliations, thoughshe has been acting as an adviserto Bulgaria’s Prime MinisterBoyko Borisov. She has workedon humanitarian aid pro-grammes and is expected to passher hearing without difficulty.“I’m not planning any changesto portfolios,” Barroso said.According to the revisedtimetable, the Commission presi-dent would have his new team inplace before he meets national gov-ernment leaders on 11 February,when they will hold an informalsummit in Brussels to discuss eco-nomic policy and climate change.Jeleva also resigned as Bulgar-ia’s foreign minister, a post shehad held since July. She has beenreplaced by Nikolay Mladenov,the defence minister.Borisov said as he announcedthe nomination of Georgieva: “Iwant to make it possible for theEuropean Parliament to elect aEuropean Commission soon andlet the Commission start working.”

Simon Taylorsimontaylor@economist.com

Burning question‘Yes’ or ‘No’ to a 30% carbon cut?Page 17

21 – 27 January 2010Volume 16 Number 3

Planning for the year ahead?Visit our online diary, now updated withkey EU dates in 2010.European Voice, your companion through the six months of Spain’s presidency of the EU

www.europeanvoice.com/diary

The EU mulls making loans to Greece as aform of self-help for the eurozone. PAGES 2 AND 20

NEWSCaptured funding A row over how to finance carbon-capturetechnology threatens to delay projects. PAGE 3

Stockholm urges EU adoption of its home-grown bank levy system, rather thana US import. PAGE 18

Fear and stereotyping Dominique Moïsiexplores Europeans’defensive crouch on identity, and Kazakhstan’spresidentwrites about Western stereotypes.

NEWSClassical dilemma

Europe increases aid, sends paramilitary police and counts the cost of re-building the Caribbean island. PAGE 3

NEWSHelping Haiti

BUSINESSThe Swedish model

Staying afloatPaolo De Castro maintains buoyancyPage 14

PRESIDENTIAL HOPES A moment of optimism about relaunching EU activity is shared by European Commission President José Manuel Barroso

(left), European Parliament President Jerzy Buzek (centre), and Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero (right), before the European

Parliament plenary debate on 20 January on the programme of the Spanish presidency of the Council of Ministers. REUTERS

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Synergy

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

Contributions

Synergy is published twice a year for ELSA’s members in 40 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

Should 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

Frida Orring

ELSA International

Phone: +32 2 646 26 26Fax: + 32 2 646 29 23E-mail: elsa@elsa.orgWebsite: www.elsa.org

ELSA International’s Corporate Partner

ELSA International’s Human Rights Partner

ELSA International’s Media Partner

ELSA International’s Marketing & IT partner

ELSA's Partner Law Students' Association

The European Law Students’ Association, ELSA, is an international, independent, non-political 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 stu-dents’ association.

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 pro-

mote social responsibility of law students and young lawyers.Means To provide opportunities for law students and young lawyers to learn about other cul-

tures 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 200 universities in 40 countries across Europe. ELSA currently has members and observers in: Albania, Armenia, Austria, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Montenegro, The Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Republic of Macedonia, Romania, Russian Fed-eration, Serbia, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine and United Kingdom. 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 experience in foreign legal systems and practices. Through our activities such as Seminars & Conferences, Aca-demic Activities and the Student Trainee Exchange Programme our members acquire a broader cultural understanding and legal expertise.

Our Special StatusELSA 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, in 1994 ELSA was granted Consultative Status in Category C in UNESCO. ELSA also obtained Observatory Status with WIPO in 2005. In addition, ELSA has a co-operation agreement with UNHCR and co-operates with UNCITRAL, ICRC and all the European Union Institutions.

Marraine & Patrons

Maud de Boer-Buquicchio (Marraine of ELSA) The Deputy Secretary General of the Council of Europe

Chang-fa Lo (Patron of ELSA)Professor of Law, National Taiwan University College of Law Director, Asian Center for WTO and International Health Law and Policy of NTU College of Law

About ELSA

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SynErgymagazine 3

Dear readers,

In many aspects we are living in exciting times for ELSA. We are about to sum up the current topic of the International Focus Programme – IP Law, and decide upon which field of law should set the path for the next few years to come. Moreover, preparations have started for the 30th anniversary of ELSA in 2011 and to-gether with the Council of Europe we celebrate the 60th anniversary of the European Conven-

tion on Human Rights by launching an essay and photo competition with the theme ‘Our Rights, Our Freedoms’.

The beauty with ELSA is that you may customize your membership to suit you. Are you interested in traineeships abroad? Apply for STEP. Ever wanted to experience WIPO from the inside? Apply for a delega-tion. Do you have an urge to develop your management skills? Apply for a board position. Want to be up to date with the business market or experience law in another continent? Subscribe for Corporate Interna-

Editor’s letter

tional Magazine or sign up for the ELSA CBL Summer Law School in China. Want your thesis to be published and professionally recognized? Send it to the editorial board of ELSA SPEL.

When skimming through Synergy bear in mind that this is not a re-view of what ELSA has to offer, this is, and can only be, merely a hint. Throughout the magazine there is a common meaning; in different ways appreciation and devotion to ELSA. It is yet to be seen what the future holds for us, but let me assure you that ELSA will be a part of it.

I would especially like to thank the authors of our articles for this 47th edition of Synergy. Additionally there are two names that need to be mentioned; Laithe Jajeh and Sofia Kallio, for their support I am eter-nally grateful.

Frida Orring

Frida OrringVP MarketingELSA International

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Editor's Letter 4

ELSA and ELS 6

Prepare yourself for professsional life with ELSA 8

Interview with Thomas Hammarberg 10

The European Convention on Human Rights at 60 12

Examining European Trademark Issues and Developing New Strategies 15

‘Our Rights, Our Freedoms’ 16

Creating a culture of human rights through education 18

Network Support System 20

The year of change 22

A Detroit experience 24

Events Calendar 26

CBL brings ELSA to China 28

ELSA Latvia Moot Court Competition 2009 29

Share your opinion – towards the future of our flagship 30

Why organize a WTO Moot Court Competition in 2010? 32

ELSA delegates in the headquarters of WIPO 34

UNCITRAL Working Group I on procurement in Vienna 36

Czechoslovak Trainers' Pool 37

ITP – Project management, team building, negotiation skills... 38

The way from Dream to Reality 40

Embrace the power of your youth 42

Intellectual Property and Human Rights 44

It's not about nostalgia, it's about perspective 46

Maritime Piracy – Legal Perspectives 48

International Arbitration 50

Study visit to Switzerland 51

Contents

International Trademark AssociationELSA delegation at the conference in Vienna

The Lisbon Forum 2009Keynote speaker from ELSA International

Thomas HammarbergThe Commissioner for Human Rights

6

ELSA and ELS

In the eyes of lifetime members of our official alumni associationLifetime members of the ELSA Lawyers’ Society share their thoughts and opinions about their ELSA career, reasons to join the alumni association and current occupations...

ELSA International

The ELSA Lawyers’ Society was created in 1991 by the dedicated alumni of the European Law Students’ Association and since then the co-operation between the two organisations has gone through dif-ferent stages and shows many stories of success. One of the biggest achievements so far has been the conclusion of coopera-

tion agreement between ELSA and ELS in January 2009, which brought the associations closer to each other and finally ensured ELS the status of ’official alumni association of ELSA’.

ELS supports our activities in many different ways and there’s no doubt that members of this association and former members of ELSA provide a valuable contribution and encouragement to our activities. The lifetime members of ELS are the most vivid exam-ples of people whose heart is still beating for ELSA and who have decided to express their support by joining the alumni association for a permanent period.

Their memories of the years spent with ELSA are full of emotions, travel-ling, meeting new friends and gaining international experience and outlook. "My years in ELSA can be called a constant ad-venture", says former president of ELSA Austria, 1998, Gregor Wenda. His most memorable event from his ELSA career was charing the plenary of the

Anniversary International Council Meeting in Vienna, Austria in March 2001 where he had a chance to meet all the founders of the European Law Students’ Association. Now Gregor works as a deputy head of the Department of Electoral Affairs in the Austrian Federal Ministry of Interior, and since 2007 he is the Secretary General of the Austrian Association of Administrative Sciences.

Other alumni have their own special memories about the ELSA years. Meinhard Schröder, former president of ELSA Munich and now assistant professor at Munich University and Treasurer of the Executive Board of ELS, says that the most memorable moment for him was his participation at the 9th International Criminal Court Prepcom in April 2002 in New York, USA. The UN Secre-tary General at that time, Kofi Annan attended the NGO recep-tion and shook hands with some of the ELSA delegates, including Meinhard.

For the lawyer-linguist in the European Court of Justice in Lux-embourg Kim Rubæk, who started his studies in the University of Copenhagen in September 1993 and met ELSA at the same

time. For him the 5 years of membership in the asso-ciation brought travels to 25 cities in 15 countries, meetings with law students and young lawyers from 40 countries and in the end – election as the Treasurer of the International Board of ELSA at the autumn Council Meeting of 1997.A former Vice President for Seminars and Conferences of ELSA International in

Leonid CherniavskyiPresidentELSA International

SynErgymagazine 7

ELSA International

1993 and currently a lawyer in Poland, Bartolomiej Raczkowski’s most memorable involvement in ELSA was his participation in the process of drafting the famous philosophy Statement including our vision "A just world in which there is respect for human dignity and cultural diversity". The members of ELSA learn how to under-stand the views and opinions of others, discuss them from different positions and come up with a joint solution which is particularly challenging when people are coming from different countries and have different backgrounds. This is probably how the Philosophy statement was drafted and this is what Bartolomiej means when he points out that his participation in ELSA was the first ever experi-ence of team work in an international environment.

It goes without a doubt that there’s a range of other useful experi-ences and skills gained during their ELSA years that ELS mem-bers mention as being helpful in their present careers. For instance, many alumni within the association will agree with the former president of ELSA Belgium from 1992 Paul Hermant who is cur-rently a partner of the international law firm Bird&Bird in Brussels when he says that ELSA was invaluable for improving of his un-derstanding of foreign cultures and knowledge of foreign languages as well as organisational skills. These gains were one of the factors which helped him to succeed in his professional career. ELSA also provides its members with an opportunity to attain and improve basic practical skills which for sure are not an unnecessary thing for a legal professional. Christian Plate, diplomat of the German Fed-eral Foreign Service, currently working in the German Embassy in Tbilisi who in 1997 used to be a Director for Corporate Resources of ELSA International, particularly mentions that after his years in ELSA he knew very well how to chair a meeting or how to write minutes.

The International aspect of ELSA plays an especially important role. Attending meetings and working groups to discuss sensitive issues on the international stage, preparing presentations and re-ports and elaborating on the wording of decisions and conclusions are all part of the daily work of Gregor Wenda now and all of these he was already practicing during his years in the association. He says: "ELSA allowed me to learn how to prepare and organise large scale events such as seminars or conferences. As I organize a dozen events every year currently, this knowledge has always proved in-valuable". These opinions are also shared by another lifetime mem-ber of ELS, Umut Kurman who is now a partner in a law firm in

Turkey. "As a practicing international field lawyer", he says, "you need to have certain skills I gained mostly through ELSA: good language skills, social skills for communication, self-education (fol-lowing seminars and reading up-to-date articles), organisational skills from a Local ELSA Group to your own law firm, self confi-dence and self respect".

When asked about reasons for becoming lifetime members of ELS there were many different answers. For example, Marlies Huijbers who used to be Vice President for STEP of ELSA the Netherlands and is now an environment, health and safety regulatory consult-ant in Brussels says that it was the feeling of an important need to pass on the experience and knowledge she had gained in her ELSA years.. For a lot of ELSA alumni it is a conscious decision to become a lifetime members of ELS because after having achieved a solid position in their professional careers they want to show to ELS and ELSA their eternal appreciation.

The words of advice from Gregor Wenda to the new members of ELSA that were in one way or another repeated by the other alum-ni are worth mentioning: "Get the most out of your time in ELSA! Try out as much as you can, train your organisational, social and language skills, enjoy the unique opportunities to meet new people and see other countries and cultures, and get a feeling of what the law is really about, far beyond any books and exams".

One must agree with the encouragement from the public notary in Romania Arabela Trifoi (former President of ELSA Bucharest) regarding ELSA: "Get involved! It’s worth it!", and after that to continue with the words from Umut Kurman: "Make the next step! Join ELS!".

Thanks to lifetime members of ELS who inspired and helped with writ-ing the article: Gregor Wenda, Umut Kurman, Arabela Trifoi, Marlies Huijbers, Francescopaolo de Bonis, Bartolomiej Raczkowski, Mein-hard Schröder, Kim Rubæk, Christian Plate and Paul Hermant.

Get a feeling of what the law is really about, far beyond any books and exams.

8

When a former high school mate offered me a ticket for a disco party organised by "elsa" in the autumn of 1996 my first re-action was to ask "Who is Elsa?". As the story goes, the friend disappeared about one year later while ELSA, all capitals, became a major, at times all-absorbing, part of my life for the following 6 years, and it is still part of it today. Having held

a number of positions on the local and national level and hav-ing organised and participated in an even greater number of na-tional and international events, I can fairly say I’ve experienced (almost) everything our association has to offer to its student members. However, now that almost 10 years have passed since my "active duty" times, what was in my experience in ELSA that I retained and eventually helped me in my pro-fessional life? The answer is surprisingly simple: being an active member and what I learned from it.

In effect, in an European job market that is practically saturated by law graduates, it is probably having acquired and exercised skills uncommonly found in other law graduates that helped me, and could help you, finding interesting opportunities in your soon to come professional life. ELSA excels precisely in provid-ing such skills, if you are ready to dedicate your time to it.

Already being active at the local level of ELSA will set you apart from the masses: as I organised ELSA events I learned the basics principles and, most importantly, had a practical chance of exer-cising the arts of project and human resources management, ac-counting, marketing, fundraising and logistics. Moreover, it was (professionally, at least) a risk free chance of trying out working

with a group of people for a goal (that was not necessarily of my direct interest) having a deadline and limited resources: the everyday of professional life. Not many of my fellow students finished their studies already having this kind of experiences.

It is, however, being an active member on the international side of ELSA that provides the greatest opportunities. Having worked in contact with the IAEA, the FAO and the WFP I can say that these training-on-the-job averse international organisations look very highly on the kind of first-hand experience our association offers to the ones who join the delegations that are routinely sent to the various UN working groups. Many of my ELSA friends

are now working in an international law firm or a multinational com-pany and it was a STEP experience which set

them apart and ahead of the mass of their colleagues who dedi-cated their university years to their exam grades, but had no in-ternational working experience in their CVs.

ELSA Lawyers Society - ELS

Guido CostantiniExecutive Officer for National Representatives ELS

Being an active member on the international side of ELSA provides the greatest opportunities.

Follow the advice of an active ELS member

Prepare yourself for professional life with ELSAGuido Costantini shares his thoughts of ELSA as an experience that can get you ahead.

Fabrizio Cancedda, board member of ELSA Italy 1996, and Guido Costantini meet at an ELSA event 2009

SynErgymagazine 9

Finally, for the very dedicated ones, being a National Board (and even more so, I’d assume, an International Board) member will give you a practically a unique chance. As a student and NB member, it was an amazing experience to work in international teams, assuaging culturally different attitudes and approaches to negotiation, while learning that there is no single way to reach a result, but as many as the number of people around a table.

Years later, such ELSA experience was most probably the decid-ing factor in being selected, as a professional, as Italian repre-sentative to the G8 Nuclear Safe and Security Group for the duration of the Italian presidency of the group, a position cov-eted by colleagues much more senior than me and possibly more technically prepared, but with no international experience what-soever.

In short, ELSA is like a teller of pastries: you may want to be one of the hundreds of anonymous customers who enter a shop and try them, but it’s getting covered in flour and sugar while learning how to make them that will set you apart and give you something you will carry with you forever.

ELS Exec Officer for National Representatives 2010ELSA Italy Secretary General 2000 & 2001

ELSA Rome President 2002ELSA Rome Secretary General 1997 & 1998

ELSA Rome - Honorary memberELSA Yugoslavia - Honorary member

ELSA Belgrade - Honorary member

ELSA Lawyers Society - ELS

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10

The Commissioner for Human Rights is an independent institution within the Council of Europe, mandated to promote the aware-ness of and respect for human rights in 47 Council of Europe member states. The Com-missioner has gained respect and high level of cooperation with governments of the mem-bers of the Council of Europe. Mr. Thomas Hammarberg occupies the position of the Commissioner for Human Rights since the 1st of April 2006.

ELSA: What are the functions of the Com-missioner for Human Rights?

TH: The establishment of the Commission-er’s Office stemmed from the need to have an institution that could work complementarily with other Council of Europe bod-ies, in particular the European Court of Human Rights (EC-tHR). It has mainly a preventive role, focusing on the changes that should take place in member states in order to prevent hu-man rights violations.

With my staff members (ap-prox. 20 people), I carry out visits to member states in or-der to assess the human rights situation. We visit different in-stitutions and places of human rights relevance, such as prisons, refugee camps, psychiatric hospitals, shelters for abused women and orphanages. Our Office has a direct dialogue with civil soci-ety groups, ombudsmen and parliamentarians both from govern-ment parties and from the opposition.

After the visit, a report is usually drafted and published, identify-ing the shortcomings and measures to remedy them. This includes possible changes for example in legislation, the system of justice,

law enforcement, the judiciary and the peni-tentiary system. The reports are widely dis-seminated among the media, as they have a crucial role in reinforcing the message.

We also propose measures that national au-thorities could adopt in order to enhance their human rights monitoring. We always recommend that governments listen to and have a dialogue with non-governmental organisations (NGOs). In fact, NGOs are important for the development of democ-racy and they are often true human rights defenders.

We also encourage governments to have a constructive relation-ship with the media. It is important to avoid censorship, ensure media freedom, and to promote the diversity of the media so that different voices can be heard in society. A major problem today in many European countries is that the media are owned by very

few, either the state or some very rich people who pursue their own interests.

So far, I have to say that gov-ernments are more responsive than I thought when I started. We have access to decision makers at the very highest level: presi-dents, prime ministers and other key ministers. Of course we must maintain the quality of our work so that our credibility and reputation are ensured.

Finally, my mandate also entrusts me to work on human rights education. I publish every two weeks a viewpoint, which is an article highlighting one human rights problem which is particu-larly topical in public discussions in the member states.

Interview with Thomas Hammarberg

NGOs are often the true human rights defendersRepresentatives from ELSA had the honor to meet the Commissioner for Human Rights Thomas Hammarberg and hear his thoughts about the commissioner's role and responsibilities.

Human Rights

Paying close attention to the human rights discussion will never be lost time.

SynErgymagazine 11

ELSA: What are the main concerns in your work currently?

TH: For me the major problem in Europe is that there is too much complacency among decision makers. Many governments feel that there are no problems any longer when it comes to hu-man rights in Europe and that the problems are only outside our continent. That is a mistake.

One of the issues which my Office deals with is terrorism. Af-ter 11 September the war on terrorism was carried out in a way which all too often disregarded human rights standards. Some laws which were adopted during that time are not in line with international human rights norms, and there is tidying up work to be done now.

However, if I have to choose the most important theme in my work, I would say that it is all that relates to discrimination. For example, the Roma are a vulnerable group in almost all European countries and have not been supported when it comes to their human rights. Also concerning migration; today in Europe there are several million people underground, many of them living in the fear that they will be discovered and arrested or sent back. In some countries, there is a quota for the number of irregular migrants who should be rounded up and sent back. Instead, there should be individual treatment of each person, because people are not numbers.

There is also more to be done when it comes to the rights of women and children. As regards women, I always raise three is-sues: domestic violence; the pay gap (i.e. lower salaries for women than for men doing the same type of work); and political repre-sentation, as women are still underrepresented in political deci-sion making.

ELSA: You worked in Amnesty International as well. Do you see any differences between these two positions that you have had?

TH: I think it is important not to do the same thing with the same approach. Amnesty, Human Rights Watch and the other NGOs have their strengths with the way they work which is very much with publicity and reports. I relate very closely to govern-ments and ambassadors. Therefore, the influence is probably more informal, but also on a higher level. Although we are trans-parent in what we do, sometimes we do not make everything public immediately, as the NGOs almost always do. I think the strength is the combination of the two.

In this context, the constant exchange between my Office and the ECtHR is particularly noteworthy. I put a strong emphasis on its case-law during my discussions with governments.

ELSA: Could you give us any recommendations on how to edu-cate ourselves as law students?

TH: You should remember that lawyers are key actors in protect-ing human rights. Law is about defending principles which have been agreed upon and the main purpose of lawyers is to defend ordinary people and to give them justice. You should therefore never forget that human rights are a pillar of justice, and paying close attention to the human rights discussion will never be lost time.

Human Rights

Mr Thomas Hammarberg was elected Commissioner for Human Rights on 5th October 2005 by the Council of Europe's Parliamentary Assembly. He took up his position on 1st April 2006, succeeding the first Commissioner, Mr Alvaro Gil-Robles.

Prior to his appointment, he spent several decades working on the advancement of human rights in Europe and worldwide. He has held the key posts of Secretary General of the Stockholm-based Olof Palme International Center (2002-05), Ambassador of the Swedish Government on Humanitarian Affairs (1994-2002), Secretary General of "Save the Children" Sweden (1986-92), and Sec-retary General of the London-based Amnesty International (1980-86).

12

A Convention born in adversityEurope in 1950 was not the Europe of today. The Second World War, the most bloody and destructive ever, had left Europe in ruins. Economic activity was severely dis-rupted, societies profoundly disturbed and political institutions fragile. The Nuremberg trials of Nazi war criminals, charged with the most appalling war crimes, genocide

and crimes against humanity, had recently concluded; memories of these unprecedented atrocities, as well as of countless lesser instances of brutality, betrayal and collaboration across the con-tinent, remained painfully fresh. The Allied coalition between western powers and the Soviet Union had broken down, replaced by an "Iron Curtain" separating western from central and eastern Europe, with Germany divided into a democratic West and a communist East.

Against this grim back-ground, visionary politi-cians came together to build the foundations of a new Europe, determined to prevent another catastrophe and realising that the best way to do so was to strengthen freedom and democracy and protect them against repression and extremism. At the Hague Congress of 1948, west-ern European leaders supported the proposal for a Council of Europe, adopting a "Message to Europeans" at the final plenary session which declared, amongst other things, that:

"2. We desire a Charter of Human Rights guaranteeing liberty of thought, assembly and expression as well as the right to form a political opposition;

3. We desire a Court of Justice with adequate sanctions for the implementation of this Charter".

The following year, the Council of Europe was established by the Treaty of London between Belgium, Denmark, France, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and the United Kingdom (Greece and Turkey joined later that year and Iceland and Germany the year after). By its founding Statute, the organisation’s aim was (and still is) "to achieve a greater unity between its members for the purpose of safeguarding and realis-ing the ideals and principles which are their common heritage and facilitating their economic and social progress"; to this end, a member State "must accept the principles of the rule of law and of the enjoyment by all persons within its jurisdiction of human rights and fundamental freedoms, and collaborate sincerely and effectively in the realisation of the aim of the Council".

In 1948, the new United Nations had adopted the Universal Dec-laration of Human Rights. One of the first acts of the Council of

Europe was to establish a re-gional system for protecting certain of these rights within its member States. Based on a draft prepared by the or-

ganisation’s Consultative Assembly, the European Convention on Human Rights ("the Convention") was opened for signature in Rome on 4 November 1950 and entered into force on 3 Septem-ber 1953.

An instrument of unique importanceThe Convention did not, of course, mark the birth of human rights. The development of international human rights mecha-nisms had, however, been greatly stimulated in response to the wars, persecutions and repressions of the first half of the twen-tieth century. US President Franklin D. Roosevelt, in his 1941 "Four Freedoms" speech to Congress, had put the defence of liberty and democracy at the heart of the Allies’ war aims. These

The European Convention on Human Rights at 60:

Building on the past, looking to the futureMr Philippe Boillat, Director General of Human Rights and Legal Affairs of the Council of Europe reviews the European Convention on Human Rights through a historical perspective.

Council of Europe

Philippe BoillatDirector General of Human Rights and Legal Affairs of the Council of Europe

"Visionary politicians came together to build the foundations of a new Europe."

SynErgymagazine 13

same four freedoms – of speech and expression, of worship, from want and from fear – were an inspiration for (and mentioned in the preamble of ) the 1948 Universal Declaration. Reference to the Universal Declaration can in turn be found in the preamble of the Convention.

The Convention’s importance lies not only in the scope of the fundamental rights that it protects. More particularly, its impor-tance resides in the unique way in which it ensures protection of those rights. Firstly, the Convention’s provisions are binding on the States parties as a matter of international law; and secondly, States’ fulfilment of these obligations is supervised by an interna-tional control system.

Originally, the control system was composed of three bodies: the European Commission of Human Rights, the European Court of Human Rights and the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe. All applications lodged by individual applicants and States Parties were first examination by the Commission, which ruled on their admissibility. If a complaint was declared admis-sible, and no friendly settlement was subsequently reached be-tween the parties, the Commission drew up a report establishing the facts and expressing a non-binding opinion on the merits. The Commission and/or the respondent State could then refer the case to the Court for a final, binding adjudication. If the case was not referred to the Court, it was decided by the Committee of Ministers, an essentially political body.

The central component of this system, responsible for resolv-ing the most contentious cases, was the European Court of Hu-

man Rights. The Court began functioning in 1959, when the then-Consultative Assembly elected the Court’s first members and it held its first hearing. Its first judgments were delivered in 1960/61 in the case of Lawless v. Ireland, concerning deten-tion without trial under anti-terrorism legislation – an issue still relevant today.

The control system has undergone several structural and proce-dural reforms over the past 60 years. In 1963, Protocol No. 2 gave the Court competence to give advisory opinions on legal questions relating to the interpretation of the Convention and its protocols to the Committee of Ministers on request. Protocol No. 8 of 1985 allowed the Commission to streamline its pro-

cedures and increase its efficiency by setting up chambers for straightforward cases and committees for applications that could be easily ruled inadmissible or struck from the list. Protocol No. 9 of 1990 extended to individual applicants the right to request the Court to deal with the case. Protocol No. 10 of 1992 reduced the majority required for the Committee of Ministers to find a violation in cases not referred to the Court from two-thirds to a simple majority.

The 1948 Hague Congress had also adopted a Resolution stating, amongst other things, that "any citizen of the [member States] shall have redress before the Court, at any time and with the least possible delay, of any violation of his rights as formulated in [the Convention]". Under the original text of the Convention, however, private individuals or non-governmental organisations could only make applications if the State concerned had accepted

Council of Europe

14

the Commission’s competence to hear them and could only be decided by the Court if the State had also recognised the Court’s jurisdiction.

Since the entry into force of Pro-tocol No. 11 on 1 November 1998, all individual applicants have been entitled to submit their cases directly to the Court, which, as a now full-time body, has replaced the former two-tier system of the Commission and part-time Court. This has resulted in an entirely judicial system, with the Committee of Ministers now responsible only for ensuring that respondent States execute the Court’s judgments against them – although this in itself is an important and complicated task.

---The Convention, although not in itself a "European constitu-tion", now plays a central role "as a constitutional instrument of European public order on which the democratic stability of the

Continent depends" (former Sec-retary General Walter Schwim-mer, Rome, 3rd November 2000). It has been incorporated into the legal orders of all the Council of Europe’s member States, with more or less direct effect; in many, its provisions have constitutional status. It is a remarkable fact that

this single text can thus be applicable in all 47 States parties, with their very different legal systems.

---Europe today, thankfully, bears no comparison to that of 1950. The Convention, a unique and living instrument, has played a key role in achieving this and must continue to develop and con-tribute to ever-higher standards of democracy, human rights and the rule of law for the next 60 years and beyond.

This is an extract of an article published in the Selected Papers on European Law (ELSA SPEL) on the website of ELSA International. For the full article, please visit www.elsa.org/spel.

Council of Europe

This Top Master Programme in ‘International and European Law’ (also known as PILC) is located in the capital of Europe, Brussels, and in the immediate proximity of the main European Institutions. It exists for over 35 years and has recently been evaluated as “excellent” by an independent international Committee of experts, in the framework of the Bologna accreditation process.

The Programme offers advanced education and practical training in international and European law, to prepare lawyers for further (PhD) research or for their international careers, at policy-making levels, in the private or public sectors. The LLM is internationally recognized for its high level multi-national teaching staff who bring a broad mixture of academic and professional experience to the classroom. Current staff includes full time academics, practising lawyers and European Union officials.

Each year, the Programme carefully selects around 35 high quality students (from more than

A steppingstone towards an

international career

LL.M. in International and European Law

20 countries) who have successfully completed a master degree in law and who seek an advanced educational challenge.

Over the years, graduates have taken leading positions in universities, governments and law firms world-wide, as well as in numerous international organisations such as the European Union, the Organisation for Economic

Co-operation and Development (OECD), the World Trade Organization (WTO), the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, and many of the UN Specialised Agencies.

For more information, check our website or contact:

Mrs Marleen Van ImpeEmail: secrpilc@vub.ac.bePhone: +32 2 629 2631

Invest in your career http://www.ies.be/pilc

SynErgymagazine 15

INTA conference in Vienna, Austria

Examining European Trademark Issues and Developing New StrategiesOn the 3rd and 4th of December 2009 ELSA had the privilege to send their first delegation ever to a conference hosted by the International Trademark Association (INTA).

ELSA’s delegation to the Vienna conference was the first official attendance by ELSA mem-bers in an event hosted by INTA and is a result of the cooperation agreement signed between ELSA and INTA in the summer 2009. Because of the International Focus Programme and its current topic, Intellectual Property, ELSA and INTA are natural partners in raising the aware-

ness of issues related to IPR. One form of cooperation is the ELSA study visits in Brussels with lectures in intellectual property and trademark law provided by INTA. This opportunity is open to all ELSA groups visiting Brussels or the INTA Headquarters in New York. For more information on the Study Visits and other forms of cooperation, please contact ELSA International.

For more information on the academic activities of the Interna-tional Trademark Association, visit www.inta.org/go/academic.

Intellectual Property Law

The conference gave the participants the op-portunity to discuss the current development in the field of trademarks, with a focus on the optimization of the work in relation to trade-marks in times of economic downturn, the trademark enforcement in Eastern Europe and the cost-effective enforcement strategies. Final-ly, there was a session on the special relation-ship between the EU and USA when it comes to trademarks.

The conference in Vienna was attended by over 260 legal profes-sionals from all over the world specialized in intellectual property law and working either in a law firm, institution or in the legal department of some of the largest companies in the world. ELSA, due to its special relationship with INTA, was a special guest and the only international students’ association participating in the conference.

For us as students it was an incredible opportunity and experi-ence to take part in the discussions and hear which problems and solutions trademark professionals are dealing with in their daily work. Also it was very interesting to see how the decisions of the European Court of Justice and the Supreme Courts in various countries shape the practice of national authorities in the field of trademarks and how this field of law is ever changing and de-veloping.

Furthermore, divided over the two-day conference the well-known writer James Nurton from the global magazine "Man-aging Intellectual Property" moderated two informal interviews live on stage. The informal interviews hosted Mr. Francis Gurry, Director General from the World Intellectual Property Organiza-tion (WIPO) and the President of the Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market (OHIM) Mr. Wubbo De Boer. ELSA Delegates together with

Alan C. Drewsen, Executive Director of INTA

Peter Christian Binau Hansen

TreasurerELSA International

Jakub Cech

VP S&CELSA Czech Republic

Erratum: In Synergy I-2009 p. 38 & 39 it was mentioned that INTA participated in two of ELSA's conferences. While INTA was indeed invited and did consider offering speakers, in the end they were unable to attend. ELSA apologises for this misprint.

16

Council of Europe

This year, the European Convention on Human Rights – the Council of Europe’s flagship treaty protecting basic human rights and fundamental freedoms in 47 member States of the Council of Europe – is celebrating its 60th anniversary.

The European Convention on Human Rights – signed in Rome under the aegis of the Council of Europe on 4 November 1950 – is an international treaty under which the member states of the Council of Europe promise to secure fundamental civil and political rights not only to their own citizens but also to everyone within their jurisdiction.

States that have ratified the conven-tion have undertaken to secure and guarantee to everyone within their jurisdiction – not only their nationals – the fundamental civil and political rights defined in the Convention.

The Convention and its Protocols give a number of rights as well as a number of prohibitions. The Convention’s importance lies not only in the scope of the rights which it protects, but also in the protection system set up in Strasbourg to examine alleged violations and to ensure that the States comply with their obliga-tions under the Convention.

"Our Rights, Our Freedoms"To mark the 60th Anniversary of this milestone Convention, the Council of Europe and ELSA International are pleased to launch two competitions running parallel to each other and open for members of ELSA and other law students in Europe.

Under the slogan "Our Rights, Our Freedoms", the competition – divided into the essay competition and the photo competition – is designed to appraise the history and performance of the Conven-tion and of the Court of Human Rights.

ELSA members are invited to submit an essay assessing the achievements and shortcomings of the Strasbourg legal system. The subject of the essay competition is ‘What is the role of free-dom of speech in a democratic society and where are its limits?’ The subject was chosen by ELSA International from a number of themes formulated by the European Court of Human Rights.

The photo competition, illustrating the impact of the Human

Rights Convention on the everyday lives of European citizens, is only open for local ELSA groups. Participating ELSA Groups are invited to submit a photo report comprising a maximum of 12 pictures relating in some way to the articles of the European Con-vention on Human Rights. The pictures should convey a clear message and be innovative and original.

What is legal writing?To foster an enthusiasm for legal writing among law students and young lawyers, ELSA promotes and engages in the organisation of essay competitions. The aim of an essay competition is to pre-pare law students and young lawyers for the special form of writ-ten communication that is required within the legal profession. In many legal settings, specialised forms of written communica-tion are required. In many others, writing is the medium which lawyers must use to express their analysis of an issue and seek to

New project between ELSA and the Council of Europe

"Our Rights, Our Freedoms"A competition is being launched where ELSA members have the opportuntiy to contribute both in writing and graphically to the awareness of the European Convention on Human Rights.

Amanda Bertilsdotter NilssonVP AAELSA International

Barbara OrkwiszewskaDirectorate of CommunicationCouncil of Europe

The opportunity to practice your legal writing skills and to deepen your knowledge within the field of Human Rights Law.

SynErgymagazine 17

persuade others on their clients' behalf. Any legal document must be concise, clear, and in line with the objective standards that have evolved in the legal profession. The purpose of legal writing is to express legal analysis, legal rights and legal duties. This es-say competition gives you the opportunity to practise your legal writing skills and to deepen your knowledge within the field of Human Rights law. If you are aiming for an international career, entering an essay competition in English is an excellent way to practise your skills in legal English.

More than "just’ writing & taking photos"This competition, which is in accordance with ELSA’s purpose – To contribute to legal education, to foster mutual understanding and to promote social responsibility of law students and young lawyers – is not only about writing and taking photos but also about co-operation. The running of two parallel competitions offers an opportunity for individual students to practise their skills, while at the same time providing an opportunity to involve different students with an interest in Human Rights and ELSA and to create something together. Most of the practical work for ELSA is done at the local level, and good co-operation between law students at universities is crucial. The biggest challenge for a law student is not to read huge numbers of pages and paragraphs and learn them by heart, but to put the knowledge acquired from books into the perspective of the real world in which we are liv-ing. If you enter this competition as a local ELSA group, you will have to form a team that can do just this: look beyond the many books and paragraphs and see the justice that exists in our every-day lives. The group of students will need to co-operate and share their experience and knowledge, giving them very good practice for their futures once they have left their universities.

Prizes The prizes, awarded for the three best essays and photo reports, will be presented during the main commemorative ceremony for the anniversary of the Convention in Strasbourg in November 2010. The winners will also be honored at the ELSA Interna-tional Council Meeting in Alanya, Turkey, in October 2010.

The individual prizes in the essay category are:1st prize: 3,000 €2nd prize: 2,000 €3rd prize: 1,000 €

The group prizes in the photo report category are:1st prize: 5,000 € or an item of equivalent value2nd prize: 3,000 € or an item of equivalent value3rd prize: 2,000 € or an item of equivalent value

The best submissions will be promoted among the academic, political and artistic circles identified by the Council of Europe and ELSA International. In particular, they will be published, exhibited at promotional events and uploaded on to the relevant websites. When selecting winners for the Essay Competition, a team from the Editorial Board of ELSA SPEL (ELSA’s online law review) and a team of judges from the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg will be involved, ensuring the high quality of the winners.

Entries, in electronic format, should be submitted by 30 June 2010 via the competition website www.ourrightsourfreedoms.org. at the following address: competition@ourrightsourfreedoms.org.All information you may need to take part in the competi-tion is available on the Competition’s website www.ourright-sourfreedoms.org. If you need further information after visiting the Competition website, you may contact the Competition Co-

ordinators:Ms Amanda Bertilsdotter Nilsson: vpaa@elsa.org andMs Barbara Orkwiszewska: barbara.orkwiszewska@coe.int

We would like to invite all ELSA members to take part in the ‘Our Rights, Our Freedoms’ Competition and we hope that you feel in-spired by its topics.

We wish each and every one of you the best of luck!

Council of Europe

18

"The right to learn is not only a human right. It is also the point of departure for an effective protection of all human rights. It is only through learning and knowledge sharing that we can build a truly universal culture of human rights." As Mrs Maud de Boer-Buquicchio stated at the Lisbon Fo-rum (13–14 November 2009), the starting

point for a culture of human rights is education – which ELSA provides to its members in various ways. The education can have the form of events or it can happen imperceptibly through cul-tural exchange.

I had the honour to speak on behalf of law students at the Lisbon Forum, which is a platform for dialogue and for sharing experi-ences, expertise and good practices between Europe and the other continents, especially the Middle East, Africa and the countries on the south of the Mediterranean. The event is hosted annually by the European Centre for Global Interdependence and Soli-darity (more commonly known as the North-South Centre of

ELSA International

Creating a culture of human rights through education

A law student’s point of view to human rights educationSofia Kallio from ELSA International was one of the keynote speakers at the 2009 Lisbon Forum which took place 13th -14th November 2009 in Lisbon, Portugal.

the Council of Europe) which is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year. The North-South Centre is run on the basis of a quad-rilogue, a cooperation of four partners from political institutions and civil society – governments, parliaments, local and regional authorities and non-governmental organisations (NGO). The Lisbon Forum 2009 focused on the theme of "Creating a cul-ture of Human Rights through Education". ELSA was invited to participate in the debate during the session "Youth as agent of change in Human Rights education" and give the view of law students to the matter.

When human rights education differs in the 40 member coun-tries of ELSA, it is of course hard to generalize the state of the education concerning all law students. However, there are some issues that are common for many law students. In general, fu-ture lawyers tend to have a quest for impartial approach. Also in the human rights statement of ELSA it is acknowledged that "ELSA shall strive to be recognized for a strictly legal, academic and impartial approach towards human rights". We do not rise to the barricades or actively seek to rectify the injustices of the

world. Instead, we offer our members the possibility to learn, understand and build up knowledge in order for them to form their own opinions and have the tools for making a difference in the society – whatever way they choose.

ELSA has a commitment to human rights awareness, human rights education and the respect of the rule of law, and the vision of striving towards "a just world in which there is respect for human dignity and cultural diversity". Even if lawyers would stereotypically be considered as cold or analytic, I find it a healthy sign that the world’s largest association for law students and young lawyers emphasizes human rights in its vi-sion, in its purpose of existence and in its activities.

Sofia KallioVP S&CELSA International

SynErgymagazine 19

ELSA International

Traditionally, human rights are covered in legal education from the point of view of treaties and conventions in connection to international law, oc-casionally recalling the non-binding instruments of the international organisations. Indeed, in order to follow the development concerning human rights education, a law student can take an interest into the UN World Programme on Human Rights Edu-cation and its second phase focusing on higher edu-cation, or the development of the UN Declaration on human rights education and training ("Mar-rakech initiative"). Also regionally, the Council of Europe is promoting human rights education, for example, through the European Charter on Educa-tion for Democratic Citizenship and Human Rights Education (expected to be adopted this spring). We are living interesting times also regarding the Euro-pean Union, since the ratified Lisbon Treaty makes the Charter of Human Rights legally binding.

However, human rights are not only treaties and conventions be-longing to the sphere of international law and ministries of foreign affairs, since they have to reflect the entire legislation in order to be effective. In order to understand the impact of human rights, they should be studied as a part of the essence and principles of each area of law, with a horizontal approach. More specifically, human rights are a part of everyday life. Human rights are about your sister getting the same salary as her male colleague, about

you being able to publish your blog in the internet or about your grandparents receiving a respectful treatment in the rest home.For ELSA members, intercultural exchange is a part of every-day life and our activities as such promote the culture of hu-man rights. When bringing together law students from different parts of Europe, and also through the cooperation that we have with the law students’ associations in other continents, the con-nections between law students are strengthened. When working with students with different backgrounds it is unavoidable to run into different points of view. For the sake of the project or task at hand, it is necessary to step over the hurdle of cultural bar-riers and reach mutual understanding. The first hand informa-tion and experiences one gains through the personal connections with students from various countries makes the individuals more sensitive to the human rights protection – or the lack of it – in different countries. Through personal contact and cooperation

the human rights protection is no longer a statistic or a lesson of legal history, but the background of a person, the background of a family, the background of a friend.

Recently I talked with Brian Haw, a British human rights activist who leads a peace campaign and literally lives at the Parliament Square in London since 2001. He told me that everyone should choose his or her own way of being aware. Indeed, we can all act as role models for the people around us, sharing the information and experiences that we have gained. As their way to contribute, some people choose the activist approach; others start from their families and friends. We as law students have a unique opportu-nity to be servants of justice.

As an ELSA member your opportunities to human rights ed-ucation are numerous. You can attend one of the legal events dedicated to a human rights topic, you can arrange one of those events yourself or maybe organise an Institutional Study Visit to an international institution concerned with human rights. May-be you can even represent ELSA in a meeting of an international organisation – as for example the ELSA Delegation participating in the session of the Commission of the Status of Women in March in New York.

I encourage you to be active. Any effort to educate yourself re-garding human rights is highly recommended, whatever your specialisation may be. We do need skilled human rights lawyers, but even more we need socially responsible corporate lawyers, judges and advocates. In the days of networking and direct com-munication, why not use yours for making a difference. Encour-agement – that is my way of contributing to human rights educa-tion. What is your way?

We as law students have a unique opportunity to be servants of justice.

20

Network Support System

"It is literally true that you can succeed best and quickest by helping others to succeed." This quote by Napoleon Hill, an American author, closely describes the core of the Network Support System - earlier known as the Buddy System. As it is now, the Net-work Support System has been regulated as

a Council Decision since spring 2007. It is a tool to develop, consolidate and strengthen the Network in the sense of ELSA’s yearly lifecycle.

The usual practice of a National Group in need of assistance is to contact the International Board and ask for help and advice regarding some specific matter. Have you ever thought that for some situations the help might be found even closer? We are a Network because we realise the potential in changing experiences

and the power of cooperating with each other rather than trying to do things solely by ourselves. That is one of the reasons for what we are today.

One way of doing this exchange is to establish a development project in which two or more National Groups consciously help each other in strengthening their knowledge and know-how within all or just one specific key or supporting area of ELSA. Establishment and participation in this project is voluntary and is dependant upon the National Groups involved. A National Group can search for another National Group independently or with the help of ELSA International and the planning of a project is made by the participants of the project.

How to do it in practice? Use your existing connections around the Network or contact ELSA International for assistance in de-

fining a suitable National Group for the project. Usually it is helpful to have some kind of plan when starting the search. Af-ter finding a partner group it is easier to brainstorm a more detailed plan of action. The aim of the project can be for exam-ple a BEE and FM related project in order to develop the fundraising practices of a certain National Group. NSS project can also be a project for organising an event. That is also sharing the practical details between more and less developed coun-tries. It could be for example an interna-tional training event with an international organising committee combining the knowledge and know-how. NSS project is certainly a project for motivating all par-ties and a challenge and learning experi-ence for everyone involved.

Network Support System (NSS)

A tool for a stronger NetworkELSA Council Meeting Decision Book: The NSS shall be an instrument to develop, consolidate and overcome structural weaknesses in the National Groups of ELSA.

Timo KortesojaSecretary GeneralELSA International

SynErgymagazine 21

Network Support System

Taking into consideration the yearly cycle of our association, by keeping up the active exchange using the Network Support Sys-tem, we minimise the challenges that we face with transferring the information for the new boards, and we ensure continuity. The normal understanding inside this network of 40 countries and more than 200 Local Groups is that the exchange of experi-ences and knowledge regarding the functional areas takes place at the International Council Meetings. To a certain extent it is and it should be the case but we can get so much more out of the exchange by taking advantage of the Network Support System.

Through the Network Support System we actually synchronise that knowledge and know-how that the national groups hold and raise it to a higher level where this information is shared in the whole ELSA network. Consolidation in this sense is a secure basis for the development and a way to a greater learning from one another.

The ideal situation for implementing a NSS project is in the case of two National Groups with relatively different level of develop-ment. The less developed National Group may easily get valuable information on how they should proceed for example with the hunting of STEP jobs. On the other hand the more developed National Group has the chance for exchange and creation of some new feasible ideas for example on how to hunt STEP jobs more efficiently. As a result both parties of the project will get something for themselves and perhaps they can create something together and share it with the network.

The development, the consolidation and a stronger ELSA net-work lies in the core idea introduced in the beginning of this arti-cle – by helping the others, you help yourself! ELSA International is ready to give all the help that is needed in order to create a development project under the Network Support System. There are numerous possibilities for projects under the NSS. You just have to see the core, get involved, inform the Secretary General of the International Board and let your ideas fly.

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Netherlands Human Rights Institute,Utrecht University

www.wcl.american.edu/hracademy

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Academy onHumanRightsand Humanitarian LawA LEGAL APPROACH TO HUMAN RIGHTS

Specialized Human Rights Program

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Christof Heyns, Dean, Faculty of Law, University of Pretoria, South Africa

Rebecca Cook, Faculty Chair, International Human Rights, University of TorontoJames Cavallaro, Director, Human Rights Law Center, Harvard Law School

Elizabeth Andersen, Executive Director, American Society of International Law

Manfred Nowak, Special Rapporteur on Torture, United Nations

Juan Méndez, Special Advisor on Crime Prevention, International Criminal CourtAntonio Cançado Trindade, Judge, International Court of Justice

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22

members from various National/Local Groups show a great interest in this particular area of law. That is why the LRG focusing their efforts on Energy and

Climate Law, was the biggest of the three groups that were cre-ated.

Energy and Climate law has vital importance for humanity, be-cause the environment affects the planet on which we live. Eve-rything (winds, trees, animals, insects, people, etc), forms part of the living system of the Earth. Energy and Climate law is a current topic of discussion in the world because it concerns us all as human beings that depend upon the natural resources that the planet provides. Global warming is not a concern for the future but now. The result of climate change is affecting the environ-ment and our planet daily. There are many questions that need

answering: Why is there unusual winter conditions within Europe at present? Why is Australia ex-

periencing periods with extraordinarily warm temperatures? The answers to questions such as these are simple – they are all results of global warming.

The members of the LRG recognise the impor-tance of the global warming issue and are mak-ing efforts to present this to the entire ELSA

Network. We believe it is time for the European Law Students’ Association and for us, each member of

this organisation as a citizen of the universe to become involved in preventing this global matter. It is time to "make the world a better place to live in".

The preparation taken for the upcoming IFP topic was a long development process. Everything began with simple brainstorm-ing workshops during the ICM in Budva, (spring 2009) and continued through the 2nd USA meeting (Italy, August 2009). It was during the ICM in Sinaia (fall 2009) that we finally narrowed down the topics to three: Energy and Climate Law, Health Law and Internet Law. Furthermore, a call out was made for the creation of Legal Re-search Groups (LRG), who’s primary function would be to begin working upon the preparation of the three chosen topics. The finalised work of the LRGs will be the main basis when decid-ing upon the new IFP topic. The report of the LRGs will give an overview of what that particular area of law is about, why the topic is a "hot legal topic", how diverse the topic can be for the purpose of study and lastly which institutions/companies are working in this field of law.

At the ICM in Malta the LRGs will present their results and present the opportunity to ask fur-ther questions. Each represented national group will have the opportunity to base their decision upon the detailed results presented by the LRGs. At this point I, as the Director for the International Focus Programme, would like to thank all members of the LRGs for their dedication and hard work dur-ing this project. You have done an amazing job.

Energy and Climate LawEnergy law and Climate law are two areas of increasing impor-tance globally and of course within the ELSA Network. Many

International Focus Programme

From Intellectual Property Law to a new Focus

The year of changeThis is an important year for the International Focus Programme (IFP). The current topic – Intellectual Property Law – will expire on 31st July 2010, and the Final IFP Conference will take place in Munich (27th April - 2nd May). During the ICM in Malta we will be voting for the next IFP topic.

Mirela MurticLegal Research GroupInternet Law

Martina KalapácováLegal Research GroupHealth Law

Zinaida ChkhaidzeLegal Research GroupEnergy & Climate Law

Nina PrantlDirector for IFPELSA International

SynErgymagazine 23

International Focus Programme

Health LawNowadays, health law is one of the most developing branches of law. The topic has become a daily issue with which we have to deal with. The term Health Law covers an entire range of dif-ferent fields, from healthcare law, mental health, public health, technology and medical care, to medicine, and the entire health-care field, including specific laws governing the health industry: physicians, nurses, hospitals and health systems, health main-tenance organisations, health in-surers, managed care companies, nursing facilities, home care pro-viders, and the relationship among them and patients, as well as clon-ing and genetic engineering. The topic can be considered on a global, regional or national level as well as on a private (relation patient – doctor), or a public (insurance) level.

It consists of many hot topics such as global health and protec-tion from diseases like AIDS, SARS, seasonal global epidemics (i.e. swine flu and bird flu), questions of ethics and rights on life and death (interruptions, euthanasia), a patient’s right to be informed, personal data protection, the pharmaceutical industry and its lobbying/influence upon public opinion (recently in con-nection with swine flu), IVF - egg donation and the question of insurance amongst many others.

Health Law reflects the condition of society today but has a very serious impact for the world of tomorrow. Thanks to it we can directly regulate our lives, which under the development of sci-ence and techniques of "life engineering" and world globalisation becomes of new importance.

Internet Law What does Internet Law stand for? The answer to this ques-tion can be found in the description of the internet itself and with a careful consideration of its extensiveness. As a part of the new economy industry, the internet represents one of the fastest growing and fully developing areas of modern technology. The constant progress and evolution of the internet and its ability to become a part of people’s everyday lives are the main elements indicating that this area will always be of great interest and is therefore in need of detailed legal research and regulation. If we want our varied use of the internet, including daily banking services, communication, education, enjoyment, etc. to be safe, we need to explore the dimensions that are brought to us by this phenomenon. The latter can be ensured only with adequate legal regulation. In this regard, members of ELSA can contribute with a variety of experience, opinions and knowledge. This is exactly

why Internet Law is a field, where we (as students and future lawyers) will be able to make important contributions, both in its formation and upgrading. One of the goals of the IFP is to give students the possibility to form opinions and get experience in different legal areas. For this reason we believe Internet Law is a topic that enables the indi-vidual to come into contact with a wide range of legal areas, i.e.

human rights, intellectual prop-erty law, internet crime, etc. all of which are connected by only one common point – the internet.

In the light of the above, Internet Law currently is and will always be a contemporary area in the everyday life of individuals and as such is in need of thorough legal research and management, in which the whole ELSA Network can make great contributions.

"The opportunity to base their decision on the results of a detailed research"

College of Law

24

When I arrived in the Unites States I didn’t know what to expect. I was both excited and nervous at the same time. To be there, not just for vacations, but to hold a profes-sional job sounded scary to me. Luckily as soon as I arrived at my new workplace, all my fears disappeared.

Through ELSA and STEP I interned at Butzel Long in Detroit, one of the largest law firms in the State of Michigan and in the whole United States. Butzel Long has a vast experience with the internship program and has been active in training European law school graduates since 1998. My supervisor and the attorney I was mainly assigned to, Mr. Stasevich, is the head of the firm’s European-U.S. International Practice Group.

Mr. Stasevich is listed in Best Lawyers in America for Corporate law and also in "Super lawyers" in the field of Interna-tional law. Due to his numerous projects, I never had time to be bored. During my internship I was responsible for handling day-to-day activities, covering client relat-ed analytical tasks and I received training in various matters such as client develop-ment and management. My main focus was corporate law issues, but I was also involved in contract law and other areas of international and US law. Furthermore, I was involved in drafting memos and other legal documents. Mr. Stasevich has proved himself to be an excellent teacher and he and his colleagues always gave me necessary guidance and sup-port when it was needed.

During the five months of my internship, I also had a chance to attend many social and cultural events. As the Honorary Con-sul of the United Kingdom to the State of Michigan, Mr. Stase-

vich knows all members of the Consular Corps of Detroit and he kindly introduced me to them. I also met many of the key players of Michigan politics. I had an opportunity to speak with David Bing, the new mayor of Detroit. I was even introduced to the former president of India, Mr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, when I attended the VIP dinner in his honor at Oakland University.

Thanks to my internship at Butzel Long I gained both: the in-sight into the Anglo-American legal system and the invaluable experience of US law practice. I had a chance to work under the close supervision of a team of excellent lawyers who are extremely dedicated to their work. Thanks to their training I became much more independent, I improved my technical research and draft-ing skills and most importantly, I became more confident about the work I do.

I highly recommend the STEP program to everyone. I believe this program is an outstanding opportunity for all students to go to a different country, experience a new culture and new working environment. I spent five great months working in the US, and I am confident to say, that interning at Butzel Long was one of the best experiences in my life.

STEP placement in the United States

A Detroit Experience

Student Trainee Exchange Programme

Veronika BacigalovaSTEP TraineeButzel Long

STEP Employers 08|09 - Thank you for sharing our vision!

Austria- LReg Naturschutz- Magistrat Graz- LReg Europarecht und Europapolitik- Hackenberger/Greilberger- Institut für Öffentliches Recht, Staats- und Verwaltungslehre, Leopold-Franzens-Uni versität Innsbruck- Institut für Europarecht und Völkerrecht, Leopold-Franzens-Universität Innsbruck- Tiroler Landesregierung (BH Kitzbühel und BH Schwaz)

Czech Republic- Pokorný, Wagner & spol- AK BARÁK, BEDROŠ & spol

Finland- University of Helsinki, Eric Castrén Institute

of International Law and Human Rights- University of Helsinki, Institute of

International Economic Law / Centre of Excellence in foundations of European Law and Polity Research

- University of Turku, Faculty of Law / TurkuSchool of Economics

- University of Lapland, Faculty of Law

France- Société Générale

Germany- Arendts Anwälte- GOEHMANN Rechtsanwälte- GÖRG- Landwirtschaftskammer- Melchers

- Peters, Schöneberger & Partner- Rechtsanwalt Frank van Been- Universitätsstadt Marburg- Universität Passau- VNG - Verbundnetz Gas AG

Italy- Studio Legale e commerciale Trimboli

Lithuania - METIDA Law Firm of Reda Žabolienė

Malta - Credit Solutions Limited

The Netherlands- World Legal Forum, the Hague

Norway- Wikborg Rein Attorneys at law Oslo - The Faculty of Law, the University of

Bergen

Poland- Lizak, Stankiewicz, Królikowski Adwokaci

S.C.- Naklicki i Bilewicz Kancelaria Radców

Prawnych- Stankiewicz Jacek - Kancelaria adwokacka- Dr Krystian Ziemski & Partners Kancelaria

Prawna spółka komandytowa- Dariusz Jan Babski Kancelaria Adwokacka - Kancelaria Adwokacka Krzysztof Zuber - Lubiniecki Sołtyszewski Kancelaria Radców

Prawnych Sp.p. - E/N/W/C Rechtsanwälte E. Stobiecka -

Kancelaria Prawna sp

Republic of Macedonia- Macedonian Lawyers Association- HAT Ltd.- Secretariat for European Affairs

Serbia- Law firm „Milan Petrović"

Slovenia - TDS Skupina d.o.o.

Slovakia- e|n|w|c Natlacen Walderdorff Cancola

advokáti s.r.o.- Law firm Detvai Ludik Malý Udvaros- Law firm DT LEGAL- Law firm FUTEJ & Partners, s.r.o.- Law firm MarkOffice- Law firm ULC Čarnogurský- Law firm VALKO & PARTNERS

Turkey- Bagatur Law Office- Poroy & Ozulku Attorneys At Law- Cinar & Cinar Law Firm- Avsar Law Firm- Varoglu Law Firm

Ukraine- Ukrtelecom

United Kingdom - RGIS Inventory Specialists Ltd

USA - Thomas Jefferson School of Law- Butzel Long

28

2010 Summer Law School in China for all ELSA members

CBL brings ELSA to China!

CBL International

Global partner:

Held at:

Local partner:

Visit the World Exhibition EXPO Shanghai 2010 and climb the Great Wall in Beijing3-week law lecture programme held in Shanghai and Beijing

Main topics: Corporate Law, Start-up in China, Intellectual property law, Taxation, Chinese labour law, Merger & Acquisition

Integrated courses of international law

Early bird discount - apply today and save money!

For details visit us atwww.cbl-international.com/elsa

Shanghai/Beijing, 1 to 21 August 2010

ELSA - CBL International

China Law SchoolELSA - CBL International

China Law School

CB

L In

ternational Law School

also offering programmes in Oxford & Dubai

cbl-international.com

Keen on visiting the World Exhibition 2010 in Shanghai? CBL International, a private education provider, makes it possible to combine both, learning about different cultures and studying law. At the summer programmes in Shanghai, Beijing, Dubai, Oxford and Riga, participants get the chance to attend high-level lectures from international faculties, to meet distinguished lawyers pre-senting latest case studies and to build up ties with multinational companies.

In August 2010, CBL International will host a joint programme with ELSA in Shanghai and Beijing. Mark Rehberger, Project Manager at CBL International, tells ELSA more about the op-portunities they offer.

ELSA: You help students and young professionals to cross bor-ders. What are the benefits for their career?

Mark: CBL International schools aim to introduce hot spots in different emerging markets to students from different origin and background. CBL International offers the platform to learn more about China, Dubai, and other destinations around the world in a short period of time. Anyone interested in, let’s say, China, can get fast and qualified access to law firms, lawyers, companies and managers.

ELSA: A special ELSA – CBL International China Law School will be organised in August during the World Exhibition in Shanghai. Can you tell us more about this?

Mark: The EXPO 2010 in Shanghai will be one of the biggest events ever. More than 70 million visitors are expected to come to the EXPO site. Over 220 nations and international organi-sations will be present. CBL International is cooperating with several National Pavilions and we will have direct access to special events. Therefore, we will offer a special programme for ELSA members in August. Participants will experience Shanghai and visit the EXPO, and they will have lectures on Chinese and inter-national law in various fields. All current topics will be covered: Intellectual Property rights, Chinese legal system, Mergers & Ac-quisition, Taxation, and much more. One week will be hosted in Beijing, with some sightseeing included: We’ll climb the Great Wall and visit the Forbidden City.

ELSA: Who will be suitable participants and what do ELSA members have to do to find out more?

Mark: Our concept is very simple: everyone interested in the spot is welcome to join and to apply for ELSA – CBL Interna-tional China Law School. On the ELSA website you can find the special offer for ELSA members with timetable and application form. Each ELSA member receives a special discount of 100 US-Dollar.

ELSA: We are happy to cooperate with CBL International, and we hope that many ELSA members will take the chance to experience the World Exhibition!

SynErgymagazine 29

The moot court competition is a simulated constitutional court case whereby teams of students appear before the fictitious con-stitutional court as representatives of par-ties within a case where the conformity of a legal act with the Constitution of Latvia is disputed. Participation allows students to

train their legal research, writing, rhetoric and argumentation skills that are necessary in the everyday work of most lawyers.

The inspiration for the subject of the cases usually are real legal problems which are discussed in lawyers’ circles. This year’s fictitious case was also based on real facts. It was about the legal nature of a request for a loan from the International Monetary Fund (which takes place in real life with the aim to help Latvia overcome the economic crisis) and following requirements of the International Monetary Fund that states should fulfil in order to receive the loan – optimisation of the judicial system that involves the liquidation of the cassation instance, de-valuation of national currency, reduction of pensions and a waiver of many social benefits. The conformity of this act with the Constitution of Latvia was doubted by the institution called Tiesibsargs (this institu-tion is similar to ombudsman), who submited a complaint in the Constitutional Court. The proper presentation of these problems required from par-ticipants excellent knowledge of public international law, constitutional law and human

rights (including the case law of the European Court of Human Rights).

On 19th December, seven teams met each other in front of the judges to defend their position orally. After few rounds the best two teams were selected and played against each other in the final round in front of the panel of judges. The final round was very difficult for participants due to the fact it lasted more than four hours, during which the participants delivered their speeches and showed great endurance and wit, answering tricky questions from the judges and opposing parties.

The judges usually are well recognized and highly qualified lawyers. This year was no exception and ELSA Latvia was very happy that for the first time the president of a fictitious tribunal was the head of the Legal Bureau of the Parliament of Latvia, Gunars Kusins, who is also a recognized specialist of Constitutional Law and many students’ favourite lecturer (members of ELSA Latvia still remem-

ber their first year of law stud-ies amid the amazing lectures and seminars in Constitutional Law with Mr. Kusins).

The competition was followed by an informal party in a local restaurant in which the winner and the best orator were an-nounced. This part was mag-nificent because students had a chance to mingle and seek discussion with well-known lawyers, establishing contacts with those who may well be their future employers.

ELSA Latvia Moot Court Competition 2009

Practicing on a fictitious case based on real factsEvery year a Moot court competition named after the famous Latvian professor of constitutional law, Karlis Dislers is organised by ELSA Latvia. This year the competition took place for the 11th time and it is now considered to be a well-established tradition.

Moot Court Competition

Anna NikolajevaVP STEPELSA Latvia

The winning team

30

In the 33rd edition of this magazine, pub-lished right before the very first edition of the ELSA Moot Court Competition (EMC²) was executed, it was written:

"While some changes are inevitable and professionalism in the or-ganisation is yet to be attained, it is not too optimistic to expect the success of the EMC² worldwide". Some years ago, ELSA was looking for a global uniting activity, which would also give law students an extracurricular experience in addition to increased professional global networks. It should be fun in the present and useful in the future. The conclusion of our efforts was EMC² – a competition performed by teams suc-cessively at several levels towards the global final.

Initially 38 teams from Europe with five National Rounds and two teams from the United States were participating. Today, seven editions later, more than 80 teams have signed up from all continents. EMC² has grown into the largest of its kind. It is now a fact that EMC² is a worldwide success. Never the less, the competition has far greater potential, and so further goals have been set.

The goals for 2009/2010The EMC² has grown to become the largest and most wellknown Moot Court on WTO law thanks to our motivated ELSA mem-bers and regional organisers who have combined efforts with sponsors and partners in all parts of the world.

ELSA’s Moot Court Competition on WTO law

Share your opinion – towards the future of our flagship

The interest from ELSA members to be a part of this wordwide project, that includes both legal education and cultural exchange, has varied over the years. As a newly elected VP AA of ELSA In-ternational, which entailed the title "Head of ELSA Moot Court Competition", I asked myself: Why are there so few people work-ing on the largest project of our association? The answer I dis-covered was simply a lack of knowledge and support. The goals for EMC² 09/10 became clear; (1) to raise the awareness of the competition within the network, (2) to create a guide for EMC² at local and national levels and, (3) working towards an increas-ing support system from ELSA International itself. To achieve these goals ELSA International decided that in order to combat the issues highlighted above there would be a need for a Director for EMC². After some brainstorming the idea of a team focusing solely on promotion within ELSA emerged and in turn, ELSA’s Organising Secretariat was born.

ELSA Organising Secretariat – EOSELSA members are present at approximately 200 universities around Europe and this equals an ultimate but unrealistic goal of 200 teams from the network entering the competition each year. The number of "ELSA Universities" in the EMC² is still to be set but I am sure that we can achieve much more than the 24 teams from Europe today.

Every Tuesday evening since September 2009, six ELSA members from Luxembourg, Georgia, Germany, Greece, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom have met online and stirred around in a pot called "the present and future of EMC²". Together they form the very important team - ELSA Organising Secretariat!

Joëlle Joosten is a member of EOS and will now get you more acquainted with their work.

Moot Court Competition

Joëlle Joosten

VP AA ELSA The Netherlands

Amanda Bertilsdotter

NilssonVP AAELSA International

SynErgymagazine 31

Moot Court Competition

"The name EOS may strike some resem-blance to the former International Organ-ising Committee (IOC), but there are some important differences between the two. The EOS only focuses on ELSA countries and with coaching and advising those groups regarding EMC². Due to the structural changes to the competition, such as the outsourcing of the Final Oral Round, it was time for a change. The former Inter-national Organising Committee, which earlier focused on the Final Oral Round in Geneva is now replaced by the EOS and the International Organis-ing Secretariat (IOS) for the Final Oral Round, this year to be held in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic in cooperation with CO-LADIC – RD, (Latin American Council of Scholars of International and Comparative Law, Dominican Republic).

The first thing we did when starting up our EOS team was to divide the ELSA countries between us in order to create a coaching system similar to that of ELSA International. This way we can focus on our ‘own’ countries and the specific situations within those national groups. The advantage for the countries is that they have one person whom to ask any questions regarding the EMC², who will have the time to give an extensive answer and further support.

The EOS supports the national VP AAs in the promotion of the competition and in organising the national and regional rounds. At the moment we are creating an EMC² guide for national and local groups. The guide will contain information such as the structure and background of the competition but also specific information on mar-keting and promotion of the competition, how to create a team and details on the panelists and academic supervisors of the competition.

Professors and academic staff are very important when trying to create a team for the competition and getting a university to back them up. It is therefore important to keep in touch with them from one edition to another. Due to the fact that the ELSA boards change every year, it can be difficult to keep those contacts. The EOS is trying to create a database with all the names and contact details of these people."

Strategic GoalsELSA is now in the phase of implement-ing the Strategic Goals for 2013. Legal Education and International Events are two of these goals. The EMC² is a per-fect example of contribution to Legal Education whilst being an International Event.

I was a part of the creative working proc-ess and involved in the final decision of ELSA’s Strategic Goals at the Interna-

tional Council Meeting in Lisbon 2008. It is important for me to use the tools and experience we reached during that process. The implementation of these Strategic Goals will prove useful for the long-term planning of ELSA's largest project which today stands without any written goals.

By setting up concrete goals for the competition and by review-ing the organisational part of EMC², I believe that we can reach an even broader success within ELSA. All members of ELSA should be able to proudly present the largest competition within WTO law and say; this is ELSA’s competition. So, to quote Ieva Zebryte, the writer of the article in 2003, "professionalism in the organisation is yet to be attained", but this time we are very close to achieving it.

We need to understand why ELSA started EMC² and want to keep EMC² as one of its core projects. By the EMC², ELSA contributes to the Legal Education of law students, not only in Europe, but all over the world, and by its international regional rounds international academic events are created.

The EOS, the director for EMC² and myself are now preparing the first stage of the Strategic Goals for EMC² to be presented and discussed at the ICM in Malta. I encourage all of you to join the discussion and share your opinion on the future of EMC². This is not only a project of ELSA International but also a project of ELSA and our 30,000 members. Join the global challenge and work together for our flagship!

32

In the second half of the 1990’s, the WTO was, like the European Economic Com-munity in the 1980’s, a fashionable subject for the private sector. Companies thought it would change the face of their marketing strategies and greatly increase their trade po-tential. Lawyers saw the emergence of an in-ternational legal system in which they could

practice extensively. Law firms made investments in specialized new departments and recruited highly paid lawyers with experi-ence in the trade field. There was limited literature on the WTO itself, other than the traditional and overly quoted books and articles dealing with the GATT. None of the brilliant case law of the early years of the WTO had been produced. The Berlin wall had recently fallen and the world was ready to engage in a great period of cooperation and prosperity. A promising and exciting period was ahead. Everything had to be invented.

Fifteen years later, when one talks about the WTO in snobbish legal circles, a smile appears in the face of lawyers who have made millions of dollars in merg-ers and acquisitions and finance. There is sometimes the hint of condescension towards those firms that invested in trade law departments and made efforts to come to grips with a complex new legal system that did not produce the same cash flow and profits as the traditional areas of corporate and contractual law. Companies are not great users of the multilateral system, which remains largely State-to-State, despite the fact that they benefit greatly from it. With a few ex-ceptions, companies are not ready to invest in the type of legal action the system requires. As a result, many international law firms lost interest in their WTO practices and some of them even closed their trade law practices. There was no point to speculate on their profitability any longer.

Furthermore, the WTO itself has lost clout. The Doha round is development-oriented and yet developing countries realize they will not reap the expected benefits from it in the short term. In part this is because they realise that their economic development is also tied to policies that go beyond international trade – includ-ing, investment policies, education, labour and tax policies, as well as governance issues. Today, the WTO has reached its cruis-ing altitude and yet tariffs remain high in certain sectors and the world is full of non-tariff barriers to trade. Extensive case law has been produced. Many formerly ambiguous areas are now clear and while legal commentators may be able to suggest technical improvements, important and difficult political decisions are required to move the system forward. Without these decisions, the world will remain divided and unfair and multilateralism will remain under challenge by the growing number of bilateral and plurilateral trade agreements.

In this context then, why would one still be interested in the WTO and invest time to participate in the WTO Moot Court Competition, whether as student, organizer or panelist? Well, ac-tually, notwithstanding the current stalemate, the WTO is a great success from the perspective of public international law and inter-national cooperation. The existing WTO rules are a great example of how a negotiated balance of market access rights and obliga-tions is protected. The WTO constitutes the common ground of trade policies worldwide. All preferential trade agreements must be compatible with WTO rules, which shape their structure and

Why Organize a WTO Moot Court Competition in 2010?

A Trade Lawyer’s ViewDavid Luff is an international trade lawyer, founding partner at the law firm "Appleton Luff" with offices in Brus-sels, Geneva, Sao Paolo, Singapore, Warsaw and Washington D.C.. He has been practicing international trade law at both European Commission and WTO levels for eighteen years and he is one of the panelists in EMC².

Moot Court Competition

David Luff Partner Appleton Luff - International Lawyers

Practitioners get the real picture by practicing law. Students obtain insight by participating in moot court competitions.

SynErgymagazine 33

a treaty to be interpreted according to its terms in their context? Yes, but the reality is more complicated. There is a system, there is politics, there is reality and there is common sense.

Practitioners get the real picture by practicing law. Students obtain insight by participating in moot court competitions. As panelists, we check whether the system and the underlying legal framework are understood. Although many of our questions are prepared in advance, many more are improvised, based on our intuition and understanding of the case and how it is presented by the participants. Maybe, in the succession of national, regional and then final rounds, we succeed in bringing participants to a higher level of understanding and helping students to complete their academic education. Eventually, almost all panelists discov-er that many ELSA participants perform technically and stylis-tically better than we expected. With limited tools and money, they manage to reach a high level of understanding due to their hard work and passion. What a lesson! What an honour to be involved in this achievement!

There are therefore many good reasons to participate in the ELSA Moot Court Competition. The excellence achieved, the stimulat-ing issues addressed and the multinational atmosphere all dem-onstrate why it is good to be a trade lawyer. We study, learn about the world and its regulations, discuss and debate, interact, travel, and take intellectual pleasure in life.

interpretation. Domestic laws and regulations must also conform to WTO rules. The WTO is the algebra of international trade cooperation and the geometry of international economic govern-ance. In other words, it is essential. Furthermore, the WTO does provide tools and ammunition to private companies that are well informed and capable of developing sophisticated market strate-gies. If well used, it is also a great tool for poverty alleviation, and one of the very few international organizations with structure and teeth. Notwithstanding the legitimate development-related concerns, even the remotest countries see the potential economic and political benefits and want to join. Finally, like in any area of law, there is plenty of decently remunerated work for passion-ate practitioners and much room for creativity to improve the system’s operability and impact.

When I was first asked to be an ELSA panelist, I felt flattered as I believed this was a form of recognition of competence in the area. I studied the mock case extensively, reviewed all possible arguments and prepared questions in order to ensure that my recently acquired reputation would not vanish by the inanity of my contribution. I keep doing this of course, but over the years I realised there is more to the exercise. It relates to the place of law in global governance and the way it is taught in universities. It goes beyond the subject of the WTO itself. I was trained in university to read the law, and to understand it in light of case law and the writings of scholars. In a few cases, the training ex-tended to the application of the law to given facts. Professors proposed some great legal reasoning and the conceptual gymnas-tics was fascinating and even powerful. Such work also provided great pleasure. Most continental law schools still focus on such a positivist approach. Few however put the law into perspective. Fewer still train students on the formation of the most suitable law (or contract) in a given situation. Legal engineering is still not an academic discipline.

While it is not the purpose of a moot court competition to engage in the creation of law, I gradually understood that moot court competitions have the potential to demonstrate to students the real role of law, the importance of law and the limitations of law. In a legal argument before a judge, law is essential, but it is not alone sufficient. Loopholes still exist, particularly in international legal systems. Arguments must be provided to create the adequate case-law. This is legal engineering. The "smell test" is also impor-tant. It conveys to the judge the impression that the opposing party is not behaving according to the spirit of the law. But what is the spirit of the law? Should not law be interpreted according to objective rules? In public international law, such as WTO law, does not the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties require

Moot Court Competition

34

ELSA Delegation

The Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights

ELSA delegates in the headquarters of WIPOELSA sent a delegation to the latest session of the Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights, held in Geneva from 14th to 18th December 2009.

Hanne Rose AndersenVP STEPELSA Denmark

The World Intellectual Property Organ-ization (WIPO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations, and it has stand-ing committees dealing with different areas of the broad field of intellectual property law.

The Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights has for the last couple of years been discuss-ing limitations and exceptions to copyright regarding education, libraries and persons with disabilities, particularly visually-im-paired persons. It has been proposed that a new WIPO treaty is agreed upon concerning this topic.

ELSA has the honor to have an Observership status in WIPO along with other non-governmental organizations. This Decem-ber, I and three other ELSA members went to Geneva to partici-pate in this very interesting session.

The session was opened by a presentation of four law professors who had been given the task of investigating the different juris-

dictions in the areas of all UN countries. From the presentations of each of the four professors one could clearly see that most countries have regulations to some extent concerning exceptions or limitations to copyrights for educational use or for libraries and visual-impaired persons. Only very few countries have simi-lar regulations, and mostly the presentations showed how differ-ently the question is handled in different nations.

The fact that this is an important question was proven by how many international and national NGOs were present at the ses-sion. There were some visually-impaired people from distant countries present, as well as a wide range of right holder organi-zations. When a Spanish author writes a book and it is published in the EU and he gives permission to translate the book into Braille writing, this Braille book can only be sold to other EU countries and not to countries in i.e. South America were they also speak Spanish. The same is the problem for many African countries were they speak French and therefore would have great advantage if they could buy Braille books from France. The largest problem

SynErgymagazine 35

ELSA Delegation

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is in developing countries where the production of Braille and other tools for impaired citizens is very limited due to financial restrictions. The same is the case with educational material.

On the other side is the right holder, who has an interest in pro-tecting his ideas and products from being spread uncontrolled across borders. From right holder organisations, a most expressed argument against treaties with exceptions and limitations is that it will be the beginning of a "slippery slope" to other exceptions and the beginning of undermining copyright law.

At the session many good arguments were heard from both sides. All agreed that something must be done concerning a visu-ally-impaired person´s access to books, educational material etc. However both sides were unable to decide upon an agreement. The session was ended with a conclusion of the discussions that had taken place during that week as well as some suggestion as to how to proceed in the forthcoming summer.

It was a great week, with lots of interesting discussions and new acquaintances. I recommend all members to take the chance of being part of an ELSA delegation; it is an incredible experience.

36

ELSA Delegation

Report from ELSA Delegation

UNCITRAL Working Group I on Procurement in ViennaFrom 7th to 11th December 2009, five committed ELSA members from all directions in Europe gathered in Vienna in order to represent ELSA as an observer to the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL).

Niels BaetenPresidentELSA Belgium

Ruslan AlyamkinTreasurerELSA Ukraine

high relevance. Imagine for instance, that government procure-ment accounts for 14 % of the European Union’s gross domestic product. The meeting itself lived up to its promises as from the first day, and we were part of lively invigorating discussion among the most distinguished procurement experts regarding the draft Model Law. The majority of statements were supported by exam-ples from extensive practice and national legislation. It was most interesting to see the delegates argue from their particular legal tradition and to discover the contrasting political sensitivities for the Delegations. We were able to fully explore the networking opportunities by organising meetings, lunches and ‘coffee breaks’ with diplomats and legal experts from all over the globe while continuing to spread ELSA’s mission and activities.

Our participation in the UNCITRAL session became an unfor-gettable experience for many reasons. While taking seat next to observers such as the European Union and the World Bank, we soon realised that this is not a "Model United Nations" but ’the real game’. It is not only very enriching for your legal studies

but also an eye-opener and true learning experience to see how international law is made in prac-tice. Finally, there is no need for explaining to ELSA members that spending a week with likeminded people full of ELSA spirit from all over Europe is an unforgettable ex-perience in itself. We therefore only have one advice: go for it, apply for a position as an ELSA Delegate and give an extra touch to your involve-ment in ELSA!

The delegation consisted of Karina Sultanova (ELS member and ITP train-er), Niels Baeten (ELSA Belgium), Ruslan Alyam-kin (ELSA Ukraine), Olga Terefenko (ELSA Ukraine) and Andrei Ga-vril Suse (ELSA Roma-

nia). All delegates had the privilege of participating in the 17th Session of UNCITRAL’s Working Group I on Procurement.

The sixty UNCITRAL Members have been negotiating since 2004 the revision of the 1994 UNCITRAL Model Law on Pro-curement, in the light of the nowadays widespread use of elec-tronic communications. Although this Model Law only contains a suggested pattern for national legislation, its importance can hardly be underestimated as it is a globally agreed framework which is being implemented and applied in several countries throughout the world.

Our Delegation was entrusted with the task of representing ELSA through participation during in the meetings, contribution to the stimulating discussions and the es-tablishment of contact with other delegations. Prior to arrival, we con-ducted research regarding procure-ment regulation and soon discov-ered that what sometimes appears to be a "dry" field of international law is in reality a thrilling example of "multi-level regulation" and of

SynErgymagazine 37

Regional Trainers' Pool

in opinions and attempting to answer questions that were raised during deep discussion. Gratefully both networks eventually reached a consensus and an implementation of the core rules and values have been put in place via the international agreement be-tween ELSA Czech Republic and ELSA Slovakia.

The Czechoslovak Trainers' Pool is pretty similar to the Inter-national Trainers´ Pool, with a few differences through specific conditions between our countries. Candidates who choose to be-come a part of this project apply for a particular area of training in which they are specialised, such as Project Management, ELSA Knowledge, Soft Skills, Fundraising, IT, Transition and Strategic Planning, Book Keeping and Budgeting, as well as Teambuild-ing and Leadership. Each candidate needs to present the skills and knowledge required for the position in order to qualify as a trainer during a proposal for the training session, motivation letter and any prepared materials that will be used during the training. Then the application form will be sent to all local groups in both countries to give them a chance to express their opinions regarding potential candidates. When the national board makes its decision as to whether it should appoint a prospective candi-date as a trainer, everyone’s opinion counts.

We hope the project of the Czechoslovak Trainers´ Pool will, to-gether with the International Trainers´ Pool, create a stable sys-tem of education that will offer a diverse range of training to sat-isfy the needs of our members. The very first chance to test our combined efforts is the joint Czech and Slovak Training Days taking place in March 2010.

Everybody is aware of the importance of train-ing within the ELSA net-work. Training sessions enable ELSA members to remain motivated and of course continue being

prepared for the work they are responsible for within ELSA. In the end this process of educating our members brings us higher efficiency of our work. Despite this fact it was never very usual in the Czech Republic to hold trainings for members or even to have a strategy for educating members in the past. Trainings generally are conducted by older and more experienced ELSA members during National Council Meetings. Eventually, these members graduated and started their careers, still full of eagerness to share their depth of knowledge amid the deep hearted ELSA Spirit.

With the knowledge that there are many experienced and tal-ented alumni and even non-active members in both the Czech Republic and Slovakia who would like to remain in touch with ELSA, our current national boards were faced with difficult task. How to involve these people again and use their potential? In what way can we approach non-active members and entice them to become more involved with our activities and how can we ensure that these people will pass their ELSA knowledge onto our younger members? Finally all these questions were solved by the brilliant idea of initiating a project which aimed to deepen the mutual relationship between Czech and Slovak ELSA, and found a Czechoslovak Trainers' Pool in which there would be joint co-operation with the alumni of ELSA Slovakia and ELSA Czech Republic.

It is easy to discuss and create ideas for future tasks, however making it a reality is another. We spent long hours debating the workings of the system and worked hard to resolve any conflicts

Czechoslovak Trainers' Pool

Passing on ELSA experience to the younger generations

Nela TisonováSecretary GeneralELSA Slovakia

Karolína KroupováSecretary General ELSA Czech Republic

38

If you happened to see a group of people either conducting some strange body move-ments or trying to free themselves from 'the human knot' at the ICM Sinaia, but didn't really know how to explain those situations, you should find the explanation in this ar-ticle.

Those 'icebreakers' as the games are called, are usually a part of a training session, given by an ITP trainer. Some of you are quite familiar with the term 'ITP training', others not. In a few sen-tences, ITP is an abbreviation for International Trainers' Pool, a group of 35 former active ELSA members. It was set up in Au-tum 2000 with the aim of consolidating the ELSA Network. The ITP supports ELSA groups on all levels by providing training on different topics. It is managed by the Secretary General of ELSA International. The International Board appoints a Director for training, who is responsible for being the link between the Network and the trainers.

But what does that mean in practice? Eve-ry trainer was once an active member of the Network, experiencing a term in of-fice in one of the seven board positions at either local, national and/or international level. After concluding the active status, that person joined the ITP where he or she was trained on how to give training sessions and share their knowledge and ex-perience with the Network. As the train-ers were presented in picture and word in the last edition of Synergy and since there

are 35 of them from all over Europe, I will not list all their names and preffered training topics again.

ELSA is aware of countless techniques regarding the transfer of knowledge – workshops, lectures, presentations etc. The ITP only gives training sessions and the training is used to preserve and develop the knowledge in ELSA, to support and strengthen the Network and to help evolve the skills of an individual or a group. People, who participated in an ITP training can confirm that a training is a very active experience, full of knowledge, practical advice, useful hints, mock presentations, group work, answers to questions and motivation. However, as there is a tendency to adapt each training to suit the purpose of the event where the training is taking place and the group requesting the training, it is hard to write about how a training for your group would look like.

Project management, team building, negotiation skills...

T.R.A.I.N.?The Director for Training guides you through the tools for internal improvement.

International Trainers' Pool

Ana VoukDirector for TrainingELSA International

SynErgymagazine 39

International Trainers' Pool

The Network uses trainers for a variety of situations – some groups want to have training on their events, training is present at NCMs and ICMs and occasionally, training sessions are re-quested by groups who want a trainer to help them and give them the tools to resolve their problems in a certain area. Throughout the years, groups have gotten pretty imaginative how to benefit from trainings: - they organise special sessions for freshers to get new human resources or to have seperate training simultaneously for freshers and officers. The wishes of the group also determine the length of the training – it can take from 3 hours up to several days. The training top-ics range from General ELSA knowledge, Spe-cific ELSA knowledge (meaning area knowl-edge, EMC² etc.) to developing/enhancing soft skills (project man-agement, team building, negotiation etc.). The number of topics is cur-rently 31 and if a group cannot decide which topic(s) to request, they can always contact the Director for Training for advice and help.

When you ask for a trainer, there are some things that are certain: an ITP trainer will always give a training in the universal language of ELSA – English. The trainer will travel to the ELSA group. The training itself is free, but the group requesting the training has to cover the travel and accommodation expenses for the trainer. But don't worry, the trainers are well aware of the budget limitations the treasurers always face, so they don't expect five star hotels.

If you are enthusiastic to present your board with the idea to get a trainer, I should dedicate a paragraph to the process of requesting a trainer. It is simple and quick.

The first step is to decide, what do you expect from a training session and why would you request it. That information will help the person who will be in charge of fulfilling the Pre-Training Questionnaire. The PTQ can be downloaded from ELSA Online or forwarded to you by the Director for Training (available on the email address training@elsa.org). This year, I am the one an-swering emails from that address and as a Director for Training, I can also help you with any questions you may have about ITP. When you fill in the PTQ, you send it to the same official email

and wait until a trainer is appointed. The PTQ should be sent at least 6 weeks prior to the event. The trainer or trainers for your country will be appointed depending on who is available, the training topic and location as there is always a wish to minimize the expenses of the group. You can apply for more than one train-ing session at one event.

Since this article should give you the most information on ITP and help you overcome any hesitations about trainings, I cannot forget to mention the possibilty of EDF. Your treasurer is prob-

ably familiar with ELSA Development Founda-tion, a financial support you can apply for by fulfilling the EDF form. The form is available on ELSA Online and has to be sent to the treasurer of ELSA International at least 3 weeks before the event. EDF can cover travel and/or accommo-dation costs.

There is a similar ab-breviation to ITP in the ELSA community – some countries have

what is known as NTP, a National Trainers' Pool. The concept is similar, but while ITP joins trainers from all over Europe, NTPs consist of trainers from the country where NTP is established. Some trainers are involved with both their home NTP and ITP. The main differences between ITP and NTPs are: internation-ality, trainings only in English and the possibility of requesting funding from EDF.

From the year 2000 onwards, ITP has proven to be a big suc-cess. Many ELSA groups are surprised how much motivation, knowledge and new ideas they get from attending a training and trainers are even more motivated after a great training session. While training isn't a quick fix to a problem, it gives you the tools to help find the solution to any obstacle you might encounter in your board, OC and future professional life. At the ICM Malta, a new ITP manual will be presented to give you more information and make ITP easily accessible.

In the end, let my last words be the explanation of the title: Training Resolves All Internal Needs. Good to remember, right?

40

Network activity

ELSA Georgia

The way from Dream to RealityDuring the International Council Meeting in Sinaia, autumn 2009, ELSA Georgia was approved full membership status by the Council of ELSA.

Do you know what feel-ing one has, when you are standing in front of the representatives of the world’s largest law stu-dents’ association? As they attentively watch the

video in which is shown the beautiful nature, culture and tradi-tions of your country and the result of your efforts conducted throughout the year. It is comparable to an examination. The representatives of National Groups are in the professors’ role and you feel yourself as a student who is in need of passing an ex-tremely important exam – the result of which has vital impor-tance for your future career. You must demonstrate and prove to them that you deserve the confidence they gave you exactly one year ago in order for them to vote in favor of ELSA Georgia, to become a part of the world’s biggest and friendliest family called ELSA. Furthermore, you are happy and proud that you are a par-ticipant of this glorious and historical moment when your dream becomes reality This was the last part of our fairy tale, for before that very moment was the collective ideal to establish ELSA with-in Georgia in which there would be a full year of ELSA events with plenty of ELSA Spirit!

Before detailing the progress of ELSA Georgia, we wish to give you some general information about a Georgian legacy. There is a historic legend, that when God finished sharing the territo-ries among his people, along came handsome, joyful people who asked God to give them a territory in which to inhabit. How-ever, among the nations and borders of the earth there was no more place for them. God commanded of them to answer why they were late. They answered in truth, they were feasting and were giving praise to God, that was the reason for their lateness. God liked the beautiful, kind spirited and wise people and thus gave them a place which he had kept for himself. It was likened to Eden. After this day the people who called themselves Geor-gians have been living there and this ‘garden of Eden’ is known as Georgia. Georgia is situated at the juncture of Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is bordered to the west by the Black Sea, to the north by Russia, to the south by Turkey and Armenia, and to the east by Azerbaijan. Georgia covers a territory of 69,700 km² and its population is 4.3 million. Georgia has rich culture and traditions. The Georgian alphabet is one of the 14 alphabets in the world.

The European Law Students Association is the way to success. When Georgian law students heard about this organisation, the

Irakli Samkharadze PresidentELSA Georgia

Zinaida Chkhaidze VP S&CELSA Georgia

SynErgymagazine 41

Network Activity

idea of becoming members of it occupied us and our friends at the same time. We began work-ing hard in order to make the dream a reality, but the path to ELSA was not easy. Initially (like all potential ELSA groups), we had to submit the application in order to become an observer. Unfortunately there was a ter-rible period for Georgia and in all Georgian’s lives. When the aggression against Georgia was ceased it turned out that it was too late to submit the application for observership. As a result of hard work it was decided that if it would be approved by the representatives from each member country, Georgian students would be allowed to apply observership during the LIV NCM in Nuremberg, Germany. Five students from Tbilisi State Univer-sity decided to attend the ICM Nuremberg to make the first steps towards full membership of ELSA. The issue as to whether or not ELSA should have taken our late application into consideration was unanimously approved by the representatives from the 35 member countries. However our main goal to become observers was still hanging in the balance. There were some problems with the charter of the future ELSA Georgia. The representatives from the various National Groups were kind and worked with the ini-tiators group in order to fix any potential problems. The question as to whether ELSA Georgia would exist was to be decided dur-ing the final plenary at the ICM. It was a most important day of our legal (and ELSA) careers. Finally, our dream was fulfilled as law students from Tbilisi State University were unanimously welcomed by the representatives from the ELSA member states to join the ELSA family. We were overjoyed! But it was the begin-ning of the hard work we would need to undertake in which to show the entire network that we deserved to become full mem-bers of ELSA and they had not made a mistake in voting for us.

Following the ICM we had to accumulate human and intellec-tual-technical resources in which to create a strong network. We had our first National Council Meeting on 19th March 2009. The great Secretary General of ELSA International 2008/2009 Antti Husa attended the event. The first national board was elect-ed during the NCM and ELSA Georgia begun organising the following projects: a Conference in EU Law, Conference regard-ing Labour Law, "the Jury"(a moot court competition whereby 116 students from 8 Universities throughout Georgia took part), seminars on WTO law, a moot court in the field of Intellectual Property, debates in the field of human rights, and we success-

fully organised the bilateral study visit with ELSA Czech Republic in August 2009. It was the first international event for ELSA Georgia. But the most important ICM was still ahead, the ICM in which ELSA Georgia could apply for full membership of ELSA. The time passed quickly and soon the "to be or not to be" moment came upon us all in Sinaia. Every member of the Georgian delega-tion felt the huge responsibility

we had towards our organisation, its members, ourselves, our universities and lastly to our country. The ICM was unforgetta-ble like all ELSA events. The workshops were bustling, academic programs were rife and the social programs full of ELSA Spirit.

During the plenary ELSA Georgia made its video presentations detailing our events and progress. Then the voting began and at last, the dream came true. The entire network voted unanimously in favour of ELSA Georgia becoming full member of the Eu-ropean Law Students’ Association. Words can not describe the feeling we had at that moment. There were tears of joy. It was the moment which is predestined to be unforgettable, which would be one of the happiest moments of your life you and one which thou shall never forget. We can assume that it was a successful step made by Georgian law students towards the integration of Georgia into Europe. It is a great feeling when people see your desire, devotion, hard work and properly estimate it. It gives you the motivation to continue working in order to show anyone that you can mirror the confidence they instil upon you and you are ready to meet this suitably.

ELSA Georgia wishes to thank the whole network for rewarding our devotion and for giving us the chance to become members of the ELSA family. We want you to know that we really appreciate your belief in us and that our ELSA spirit will lead us to become one of the most active and worthy members within the ELSA network.

And last but not least, do you know what the secret of the Geor-gian ELSA Spirit is? We are sorry if our answer will disappoint you, but there are no special prescriptions for our Spirit, only one ingredient is vitally important for this spirit and it is love. Yes Love, Love and once again Love. We love our country, we love each other, we love our friends, we love ELSA and the entire ELSA network. That love makes our ELSA Spirit truly special.

42

Nowadays, young people are keen on being treated as adults, getting a full-time job in order to support themselves and following planned steps towards a profitable posi-tion in a multi-national company. However there is something that is usually neglected: the actual process of growing up and shap-ing the rough edges of one’s character. Char-

acter is the very best thing that defines us as individuals. In my opinion, shaping character before earning money is where you have to start in order to be everything else one can see in accom-plished people… and even more. And I think there is no better place to start ascending on this path than in a non-governmental student organisation. Here you have the chance to play by your own rules, to come up and implement the management solutions you think are best for your project, learn and develop all kind of skills and find yourself in new and unpredictable situations you have to deal with in order to reach the point when your decision making process is flawless. And, best of all, you do all these without the costs assumed in real life as an employee. You manage to get a preview of what it is like to run a team, a company, a newsletter, a promotional campaign and how responsibilities grow once you want to make something more complex.

Of course, I don’t believe that putting your time and effort in working in a company is something bad. What I want to say is that one should explore the power of the youth, have initiative, an open heart and aspire to be better so that through the communication chan-

nels of the projects the message can be reached by many people. Maybe through a chain of events it can change something in the society we live in. My theory is that once you saw how big the implications of a project are and you transverse this trial period, I feel you can get a better grip of how things should be handled or run at a much bigger scale – for example in a million-dollar company.

This is how I feel as I pass in my fourth year as a member of ELSA and this is what I believe having organised the biggest interna-tional event of our association: an International Council Meet-ing.

The figures and practicalities for this event are quite impressive, but something else lies at the core of organizing such an event: the will power of young students to aspire in doing something extra-ordinary; to manage to pull themselves out from a pre-scheduled activity while in university and project their own ideas, feelings, beliefs and wit in a project they choose to accomplish.

Post International Council Meeting revelations

Embrace the power of your youthFrom October 25th until November 1st 2009, the 56th International Council Meeting took place in Sinaia, Romania. A couple of months later we hear the thoughts of Valentina Pavel, Head of the Organizing Committee of ICM Sinaia.

International Council Meeting

Valentina Pavel Head of OCICM Sinaia

SynErgymagazine 43

This was the case for 40 members of my local group, ELSA Bu-charest. We put our heads together and for one year and a half everybody contributed with ideas of improving our traditional event in order to turn our statutory meeting into something ex-citing, challenging, meaningful…unforgettable.

This is the story of how an extraordinary team gave life to some-thing that most people didn’t believe possible, especially bearing in mind the delicate political, social and economical situation from Romania’s present time. Yet, somehow we managed to pass on our enthusiasm to people will-ing to help us financially in order for what we carefully planned for so long to actually take place right in front of our eyes.

It was an immense joy to raise the standards of this type of event by introducing some new elements such as: making a promotional theme movie for the ICM with a directorial crew, investing a lot in the event’s website to look great and to have all the useful facts, ed-iting a survival guide with tourist information, fun things to do and useful tips about Bucharest and Sinaia – the place where the event took place, good materials provided in the welcome package, a dream like Gala Ball with a cello and piano concert opening it and other small details like providing sandwiches during sightseeing and organizing a tradi-tional Romanian evening or a surprising sports party.

The academic programme caught the attention of the 267 partic-ipants; the conference on national minorities and the workshop on sexuality law were also very valuable for the final evaluation of the event. The participants rated the academic programme to be above expectations with a percentage of 71%.

Our speakers for the conference were Gabrielle Guillemin – rep-resentative of the European Court of Human Rights and Marius Jitea – public manager at the Program Implementation Unit of the Secretariat of the Romanian Government, and for the work-shop on sexuality law we invited Iustina Ionescu from the Center

for Reproductive Rights. Other presentations, like the ones held by Mr. Cyril Ritchie, the President of the Expert Council on the NGO Law speaking about the work of the Expert Council "Creating an enabling legal environment for NGOs in Europe", Daniel Schreyer and Thomas Reinberger from Content 5 talking about the company and future cooperation opportunities with ELSA, Horea Popescu, partner of the Bucharest office of CMS Cameron McKenna presenting the work and priorities of the Corporate Partner of the Association and Ms Ramona Pavel, rep-resentative of the Romanian Chamber of Commerce presenting

the institution and the major role arbitration plays in solving na-tional and international disputes helped us enlarge our academic programme.

Another great aspect about the 56th edition of the ICM was that a delegation of five members of the Asian Law Students’ Associa-tion attended this event and this can only mean interest to share future experiences within the two organisations. We are very hap-py we could host them and look forward to further strengthening our co-operation with our ALSA friends.

I would like to thank all the members present at the event for being so supportive and for the very rewarding feedback the or-ganising committee received at the end: 9.14 for the OC’s work and rating the whole event with 8.39.

Always trying to do something different, something apart from the curricula made me who I am today: a more balanced and up-right person, open to all means of learning and ways of develop-ing skills, a person who seeks and questions. This cycle can only lead to a more capable, professional and confident individual and organizing this kind of event leads you half way there.

International Council Meeting

"Have initiative, an open heart and aspire to be better."

44

At the beginning of 2009, ELSA Finland had a vision of bringing together two ma-jor players in ELSA, the International Focus Programme and Human Rights. The match-making would take the form of a large-scale international event, never before seen in Finland. At first glance, the match seemed quite complicated and the organising commit-tee was somewhat puzzled on how to smooth the two over into complimenting each other rather than disagreeing. Indeed, some even questioned whether these two have anything in common at all: "IPR and human rights, what do they have to do with each other?". Find out as ELSA Finland presents the results of the in-ternational conference on IPR and Human Rights organized in Helsinki on 24th – 29th November 2009.

The academic programme of the conference consisted of patent law, copyright, trade-marks and IT law. Since the purpose of the conference was to introduce the conflicts of these aspects of intellectual property law with human rights, all topics were to in-troduce a human rights issue. In some fields of IP law, it is relatively easy to find points of contact with human rights issues, for example patent law where patentable technolo-gies can have a major effect upon developing countries and the personal rights of in-

digenous people. Furthermore, in Europe the European Patent Office has taken the role of a gatekeeper to monitor the ethics of granted patents denying patent rights for unethical in-ventions. The ethical perspective to patent law

alone provides a fruitful base for human rights discussion with regard to patents.

While patents are perhaps the easiest theme in intellectual prop-erty to link with human rights, when it comes to copyright a bi-polar position with regard to human rights has emerged. On one hand, copyright is seen as the protector, on the other as an inhibi-tion to human rights. The conflicting human rights are the eco-nomic rights of the copyright holder verses the freedom rights of

the consumer of copyrighted material including, for in-stance, the right to receive in-formation as an integral part of freedom of speech. The human rights link is evident, but the varying viewpoints of the producer and consumer of copyrighted material bring more flesh to the discussion.

As pointed out, human rights links to patent and copyright law can be rather easily found, although the deliberation be-tween the conflicting human rights is far from easy. During the conference, however, less apparent and established hu-

Intellectual Property and Human Rights

What does one have to do with the other? An international conference following the current IFP topic was held in Helsinki from the 24th to 29th November 2009

International Conference

Katarina LundahlPresident ELSA Finland 2009

Joni HatanmaaPresdient ELSA Turku 2009

A mechanism to protect human rights in the same way as criminal law.

SynErgymagazine 45

man rights perspectives to intellectual property were found. This is true especially with regards to trademarks, geographical indi-cations or even to protection of integrated circuits. The human rights issues in trademarks draw from ethical considerations; ac-cording to the Paris Convention of 1883 trademark applications that are deemed contrary to morality and public order are to be refused. Conflicting rights thus range from freedom of expression to protection of private life.

With the information society era, new issues have arisen in the field of intellectual property bringing along also new considera-tions to human rights. In order to cover this development, IT law was included in the academic programme of the conference. The topic as such is wide and covers a great deal of varying intellec-tual property rights. The conference dealt with topics including human rights and internet-related trademark issues and virtual property, which turned out to be the most thought provoking lecture for many of the participants. The new and constant de-velopments within IT law provide an ever-growing battlefield for intellectual property rights and human rights issues.

As outlined in this article, there are many human rights consid-erations within intellectual property law. The issues are not solely revolving around the conflict between freedom of expression and protection of property, but are in many cases more complex and provide difficult considerations drawing from ethics and moral-ity -for example with regard to trademarks and patents. Some of the lectures included in the academic programme were techni-cally focused and demanded advanced knowledge of IP law from the participants. In some lectures, an analysis of the themes lead to the conclusion that there is in fact no human rights conflict involved. This was the case during the lecture on open source

software, in which the lecturer (a corporate lawyer), concluded that open source software in fact aims in the exact same direction as human rights.

The aim of the conference was to point out and discuss the vari-ous conflicts between intellectual property and human rights. Various conflicts were found as outlined above. Surprisingly, the conflict approach was also proven wrong in few instances. Firstly, human rights are in some cases actually pointing to the same direction as intellectual property rights and no conflict, but rather a symbiosis exists. Secondly, the conclusion that sums well the wide range of human rights and intellectual property rights, which makes the field of possible conflicts extensive and difficult to piece together was drawn by a university lecturer. Intellectual property rights cannot necessarily protect a specific human right itself, but it is in fact a mechanism to protect human rights in the same way as criminal law. Which ever standpoint to intellectual property protection one decides to take, human rights can always be used as an argument for both expanding and reducing the protection of intellectual property rights.

International Conference

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46

To start talking about ELSA EX YU, we must take a look at the past. After the decline of the former Socialistic Federal Republic of Yugosla-via, six new countries emerged in the terri-

tory - all of them having economical, military, and diplomatic difficulties with their sovereignty. All of them introduced democ-racy and free market economy which should be a clear distinction from the past, however, the conviction that things were better before is still widespread in many of these countries (the defini-tion of the term Yugo-nostalgia). History moves on and we are reaching present time. Well, a time not so long ago.

The ELSA EX YU idea is just another way of re-establishing EX YU connections, adequate to modern times. Within ELSA, one step was made in Novi Sad, Serbia, two years ago, when law stu-dents from Novi Sad University came to the idea of organizing a conference where all Balkans countries would be represented by their ELSA members. The idea then was called "ELSA Balkanic", which was likely one of the most ambitious projects in the history of ELSA Serbia, but was cancelled due to a lack of participants who either weren’t acquainted with the event or weren’t interested in it.

Nevertheless, the idea lived on. One could say that the ELSA EX

YU initiative was truly born at the ICM in Budva, upon agree-ment by representatives of ELSA in the EX YU territory. For some of us, this was our first ICM and we didn’t get along with everything right away. Some of us attempted to grip what ELSA is really about for the first time in Budva. In any case, the social programme was an inevitable situation for EX YU ELSA’nians to come together through song, jokes, debates and parties. It is understandable considering the languages (and music) are similar or at least comprehensive due to family, tourist and other cultural links between the countries. One thing led to another and the idea of connecting ourselves within ELSA was re-animated. At once, we defined the initiative and its scope: An international event, aimed primarily at EX YU law students, i.e. EX YU na-tionals and others with origins linked back to the territory that is organised annually by a local group from the territory! Pur-pose? To create a strong ELSA regional network, thus enhancing a more optimistic common future.

The events history in mind, ELSA Novi Sad was ‘granted’ the organisation due to the fact it is extremely motivated and situ-ated in a multicultural region of Vojvodina (which was another benefit), and some of its members taking part in the ICM Budva

OC. After Budva, a fruitful de-bate among EX YU ELSA’nians was held on Facebook in order to find an acceptable date and an in-teresting topic – just by the way, the name ‘ELSA EX YU’ arose. One of the ideas for the topic was also ‘Youth reconciliation’, but was brilliantly dismissed by the argument that young people don’t need to reconcile, since they do

ELSA EX YU

It’s not about nostalgia, it’s about perspective.From 12th to 15th November 2009 a conference under the title "Human rights of apprehended persons (prisons on the territory of Ex-Yugoslavia)" was held in Serbia with the purpose of strengthening the bonds between Ex-Yugoslavian countries.

Regional Conference

Jernej KosecPresidentELSA Slovenia

Dušan ObradovicPresidentELSA Novi Sad

SynErgymagazine 47

not start any conflicts nor participate in them. In the end hu-man rights – ELSA’s precious thought, was agreed to be the most appropriate theme for the conference. Of course, spiced with a regional point of view.

After several months of hard work and a huge commitment ELSA Novi Sad was finally ready to welcome students from Re-public of Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Slovenia and Serbia. Unfortunately our Montenegrin friends could not join us due to exams. The conference took place from 12th to 15th November in a brand new hotel, "Aurora", located on the banks of the river Danube, offering a lovely view over the famous Petrovaradin fortress. There were more than 70 participants from neighbouring countries as well as our colleagues from Denmark, Spain and Slovakia, all of them originating or dwelling in the territory. The main topic throughout the conference was "Human rights of apprehended persons (prisons on the territory of Ex-Yu-goslavia)".

ELSA EX YU was ready to officially begin. The Vice-President of the Regional Government of Vojvodina, Ms. Maja Sedlarević, welcomed the participants by giving an opening speech. The conference continued with the opening of a panel discussion. The lecturers: Ms. Sanja-Kužić Jašarević (Assistant Minister for Human Rights in the Government of Serbia) and Mr. Stevan Arambašić (Deputy Provincial Ombudsman) gave us an interesting lecture about human rights of apprehended persons and their po-sition in the prisons in Serbia. The discussion received largely positive reaction from students, who actively took part in it by asking questions and giving inputs on how this issue is regulated in their own countries.

On the third day, the OC organized sightseeing events, which included a visit to the Regional Government of Vojvodina where students were informed about its history and cultural impor-tance. Sightseeing also included the beautiful Petrovaradin For-tress, which is one of the symbols of Novi Sad and Vojvodina. After lunch, Prof. Dr. Miodrag Ivković (the Serbian Information Society) gave a lecture on Democracy: Challenges for South East Europe", which gave us an insight regarding how today’s mod-ern technologies can affect people’s everyday life. Prof. Ivković especially emphasized the role IT nowadays plays within legal systems and especially the importance and ever-growing interest in Cyber Law.

Throughout the conference, aside from a very interesting aca-demic programme, there was a (as the OC was told – a very satis-

Regional Conference

fying) social programme organised for the guests. Every evening there was a different event going on. However, what attracted the most attention was the traditional Vojvodinian night at Salaš (typical Vojvodina's ethno restaurant), with great music by an ex-perienced band playing the traditional Serbian instruments (not to mention the delicious home-made food).

To conclude, the initiative is moving on and ELSA Ljubljana will host the next conference in 2010, which will most likely take place in November with the topic Human Rights on the terri-

tory. The OC has begun its work and is currently determining the (sub)title, date and location. Their aim is not only to achieve the organisational level from Novi Sad, but also to create cooperation with ELSA members from all EX YU countries and to consoli-date. Other means of regional cooperation are to be agreed, still, an annual organisation of a conference would be enough to give life to the initiative. Good news for the future comes from ELSA Bosnia and Herzegovina which is interested in all forms of coop-eration within ELSA EX YU.

However, the initiative remains focused on ELSA EX YU mem-bers, meaning all participants at the conference should know one of the six EX YU languages – for academic and social purposes. This is not a way of segregating ELSA members, it is a way of strengthening the connection between those, who want to con-nect on a specific basis: it’s not about nostalgia, it’s about per-spective (a regional way of pronouncing the ELSA philosophy statement).

So, if you are an EX YU ELSA’nian (national or speaker), don’t miss your chance in Ljubljana.

48

As in previous years, ELSA Copenhagen is convening its annual summer semi-nar, where suitably quali-fied Danish and European law students as well as graduates explore a sub-

ject chosen by our ‘Seminars and Conferences Committee’. The seminar is aimed at students and graduates who have an interest in discussing legal and social issues that go beyond the syllabus and wish to use their education across borders.

This year’s theme is "Maritime Piracy – Legal Perspective". The seminar will take place August 10th – 15th, 2010 in the Danish capital city of Copenhagen.

We have chosen this subject be-cause it has social relevance at this time, not only from a Danish point of view with Danish boats having experienced piracy at close hold in Somalia, but also from a European and global point of view. There are many issues that can be touched upon when focus falls on piracy, nationally as well as regionally and internation-ally. We will cover different angles at this year’s seminar to give the participants an all-round insight on the legal and geopolitical aspects of piracy.

Summer seminar 2009Last summer in Copenhagen, the chosen subject of the seminar was "Counter-terrorism and Human rights"; a relevant topic that rose many interesting and important issues. We had long dis-cussions on the definition of terrorism and had lectures in the Danish counter-terrorism legislation, the minimum standards of protection of human rights in criminal trials and extradition of foreigners from Denmark. Apart from this, the lectures also gave

perspectives from other countries, among other things the issue of the special advocates in the Canadian and British legal systems and on renegade airplanes and the Polish post 9/11 legislation. We also had a lecture on the protection of human rights while combating terrorism by a co-Secretary to the Council of Europe’s Committee of Experts on Terrorism (CODEXTER). In addition, we conducted visits to the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Danish Institute for Human Rights and had lectures there among others things on criminal profiling and the significance of EU terror lists.

The organizers had made up a program that covered different an-gles of the issue of human rights and counter-terrorism. Thus the outcome was a week of indispensable knowledge and a great basis

for pursuing further knowl-edge on our own.

Apart from the academic pro-gram, there were a lot of so-

cial activities that helped make the week unforgettable. We went sightseeing in the beautiful city of Copenhagen by foot and by sea. A necessity was of course was a visit to the Danish Supreme Court and Parliament. However there was also room for other, less serious Danish cultural experiences, such as a trip to the fa-mous Danish brewery of Carlsberg where the participants had the opportunity to do some subliminal beer tasting. Besides these activities we had a week of fun with a visit to the amusement park Tivoli, dinners, theme parties, karaoke night and of course the traditional gala ball with live music as a perfect ending to a great seminar.

Throughout the summer seminar we realised that multiple na-tionalities and diversity is an essential virtue. Students came from all over Europe to Copenhagen gathered by a mutual interest to meet new people and acquire knowledge.

ELSA Summer Seminar 2010 in Copenhagen

Maritime Piracy – Legal PerspectivesEach year ELSA Copenhagen arranges a summer seminar and for summer 2010 it will be held from 10th to 15th of August.

International Conference

Tahira SheikhDirctor for S&C ELSA Copenhagen

Ida Miranda Director for S&C ELSA Copenhagen

"Multiple nationalities and diversity is an essential virtue."

SynErgymagazine 49

Summer seminar 2010The theme of the summer seminar 2010 "The Threat of Piracy: Legal and Geopolitical Perspectives", is of current importance because of the many controversial issues on this area. We will focus on the causes and con-sequences of the exponential growth of piracy attacks and other assaults against the transport industry in re-cent years. Furthermore, the seminar will center on the inadequacy of leg-islation and counter-threat initiatives within this area, nationally as well as internationally.

Subjects that will be touched upon are, among others, the legal status of and consequential jurisdiction over captured pirates, extradition proce-dures, detainment and human rights compliance, how the indus-try at present protects itself in the absence of legislation and fi-nally the potential need for supra-national norms or agreements. In brief, we will examine what is being done at national, Euro-pean and global levels to combat sea-borne piracy and to what extent it affects international trade. To achieve the highest level of academic excellence in the seminar a number of the lectures will be delivered by eminent professors as well as international jurists with many years of experience in transportation law and international law.

In addition, we have made plans to conduct visits to the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Danish Maritime Authority and a major Danish shipping company. The Council of Europe will, in its capacity as ELSA International’s permanent partner, put at our disposal an international expert with specialised knowledge in the field. Furthermore, by way of extramural activities, the seminar will contain a number of social events, designed to provide varia-tion during the day, whilst also giving the participants opportuni-ties to get to know each other across national boundaries.

The summer seminar is a unique opportunity to develop new friendships across borders and concentrate on a subject of social relevance and importance, and to develop your knowledge on the chosen subject of the seminar.

See you in Copenhagen 10th – 15th of August!

For further information, visit www.elsa-cph.dk

International Conference

50

The Law School on International Arbitra-tion offers participants knowledge on a va-riety of sub-topics in international arbitra-tion – including arbitral institutions, rules & laws, practical issues and the legal & pro-cedural aspects of International Commer-

cial Arbitration. Being one of the popular topics in contemporary law, the Law School on International Arbitration has a strong academic programme including lectures and workshops given by specialists in this field.

Provided that you have an enjoyable time with site visits through-out the day and festivities at night, we guarentee you will enjoy yourself. Besides, the programme includes a weekend trip to one of the many stunning parts of Turkey. In our first year, we took all our participants to Cappadocia, a natural wonder of the modern world! In 2009, we were in Alanya. It is needless to say that there was no shortage of sun, sand and fun!

So if you’d like to participate in the train-ing of a field of significant importance, meet friendly people and also have great time, get ready for a whole week of fun!

"Great thanks to all of the organizers of this awesome event and our lecturers there for the irreplaceable knowledge about ICC and UNCITRAL rules. Thanks to all of the par-ticipants of the Law school on International Arbitration - 2009 for the great time spent together and indelible memories that I will always keep in my mind. A piece of my heart will stay forever in Turkey with you, my new friends. Hope to see you soon."Vitaliy Khilko, Ukraine

Summer Law School in Turkey

International ArbitrationELSA Ankara is pleased to invite you all to the Law School, Ankara for "International Arbitration III Edition", which will take place between 23rd – 29th August, 2010.

Law School

"As an originally Turkish student living in Austria, it was a great expe-rience to visit the Law School on International Arbitration in Ankara and get to know students from all over Europe. The lectures gave me a first insight into the arbitration rules, and the social part afterwards also gave me a very positive insight into the Turkish student life. For all this and even more I want to thank ELSA Ankara and hope to see all the delegates again."Mehtap Yıldız, Austria

"My overall impression was very nice. I am now looking back at the in-spirational lectures, discussions and meetings throughout the whole visit. I must admit, that I was a little bit sceptic at the beginning, but my expectations were highly exceeded with regard to this Law School (espe-cially the educational part). All in all, my trip during those seven days was in fact a lasting memory and an overwhelming exposure one. And all the new friends I have made during the visit shall be cherished in my life always. Thank You all for this unforgettable experience!"Alla Kuznetsova, Estonia

In front of the Turkish Grand National Assembly

Mustafa Kemal KarahanVP S&C ELSA Ankara

SynErgymagazine 51

Another interesting experience was our visit to a Swiss Court. The visit illustrated very well the cultural and legal differences between our two countries, but also the similarities. Compared to a Dutch court it was far more informal. In the context of a re-cent discussion in the Netherlands regarding the "all rise" debate within our courts, it is nice to see there are other ways in which to practice law.

Together we had a wonderful study visit in Switzerland and we would like to thank ELSA Luzern for making it happen. Both in legal and cultural activities and early in the morning through to the late nights we experienced many great opportunities that the ELSA network has to offer. Currently we are preparing the anticipated visit of ELSA Luzern to Amsterdam. We can’t wait to meet again!

Study Visit

ELSA Amsterdam went abroad

Study visit to SwitzerlandThe 11th - 15th November 2009 ten students from ELSA Amsterdam left by train for Luzern, Switzerland to meet the local group of ELSA Luzern.

Suddenly: an e-mail from ELSA Luzern, "Let’s organize a study visit!". Without hav-ing met anyone of the Luzern Board and without having the slightest idea of whether it would be fun or not, we agreed. We hoped

this would be an excellent opportunity to experience the network again after a period of focusing on regional activities in the Neth-erlands. After a long trip by train and with great expectations we finally met the Luzern Board.

It was great! Together with ELSA Luzern, we have had a won-derful visit with the profound ELSA combination of interest-ing activities and great fun. Let’s for example have a look at our program on Thursday. We planned to visit the UN in Geneva. Firstly, all of this meant we had to get up at 6 am, indeed, it is very early. However, a visit to the UN is an experience a true law student will not forget very soon. Having learned so much about treaty law, human rights, resolutions etc. it was very exciting to enter the very same buildings and rooms where all this happens.

That was the legal part of the day, and of course it did not end there. Luzern’s VP STEP Boris is the best guide one could possi-bly wish for. Together we walked through Geneva – and the next day through Luzern – for hours and during his stories we got to know a lot about Swiss history and culture.

Besides the legal and cultural program, we must not forget the "evening program". After the long trip from Geneva back to Lu-zern we practically continued dining and dancing in Luzern im-mediately. Some members of ELSA Luzern and Board members of ELSA Switzerland joined our dinner and night program and together we had a very pleasant experience of the Swiss party life, together with Swiss ELSA members.

Jorian HamsterVP AAELSA Amsterdam

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