Synergy #33 Spring edition 2003 - European Law Students ...

18
Magazine of The European Law Students’ Association
Irena Bojadzievska
Vice President Seminars & Conferences
ELSA International
S&C -a
synonym
for:
- Motivation – well, if you have a look at the Synergy
articles in the previous editions of our magazine, it’s very easy
to see that people who wrote a column expressing their
excitement of attending a seminar, in one of the next editions
show up as authors again. Only this time they are acting not as
participants but as a member of an organising committee. Seems
like joining our events is an experience, which turns into an
ambition to reconstruct the feeling in your own city.
- Commitment - a great number of the international
events organised within the network, especially our law schools
and the institutional study visits are accomplished in co-operation
with the European Institutions or they are done under a hot
topic related to Human Rights, which is one of the fields our
association is committed to. Moreover, it was proved once
again that our key area is the perfect opportunity to implement
the International Focus Programme. Namely seeing that a few
months after the new IFP topic has been selected, there are
many seminars and even a law school being organised in relation
to it.
- Challenge – well at least I would call it so. The events
we organize give us the opportunity to learn from people with
great academic accomplishments. The academic level of the
events organised is impressing and puts us one step ahead. So,
is it a challenge attending our events? Mmmm, let me see,
what more can any student wish for then getting tutored by
the top legal minds?
- Creativity – no need to be modest. We are law
students after all, modesty is not our strong point but only by
joining our events will you see how creative people turn out to
be when it comes to the social programme. At the parties we
share a part of our culture by introducing our national drinks to
each other. Standing there trying to pronounce the name of
the drink you are having you realize that it’s not just any crowd
but a crowd of 20 different nationalities 20 different cultures
and 20 different languages. It makes you realize how important
it is to have not only academic knowledge but also cultural and
social skills.
- Tradition – When I was in primary school, I remember
my physics teacher saying: “If something happens once, there
is a chance that it never happens again, but if it happens twice,
then for sure it will be happening in the future again”. So what
is the connection between S&C and physics? Well the network
is a good jury. The good news about a quality and successfully
organized event is easily spread around the network. And then,
we have plenty of our members who are just looking forward to
the same event and plan their trip ahead. The organising group
just has to look through the files from last year and learn from
the experiences made – good and bad. This is the way our
most successful events turn into annual projects, becoming a
part of the ELSA tradition.
Charlotte Tvede Andersen
Head of OC
Business as
usual
… or is it?
As every year we started to prepare for the summer seminar.
We came up with a topic: International Trade Law and the
Environment - The Regulation of Trade in an Environmental
Perspective.
The globalisation has created a greater coherence and
dependency between decisions made by international players. The
derived effect of both economic and political decisions made by
States and other international players, e.g. multinational companies
and nongovernmental organizations, have diverted and perceptible
effects in other parts of the world. Relations which sovereign
States could earlier regulate on their own are now being heavily
influenced because of the international context.
Earlier trade politics were merely a question of tariff rates
and importation quotas. However the development has shown a
need to involve more issues under the trade agenda. Issues which
as a starting point are not trading political - but are important for
the interplay of the international trade, e.g. labour law, nutrition
security, consumer law and last but not least environmental topics.
The environmental issue has gained more attention both national
and international. It has been recognised that an effective protection
of the environment cannot be attained without international
collaboration. At the same time it has been questioned whether
environmental regulation, or the absence of such, could be an unfair
competition advantage for both free trade and the environment.
The World Trade Organisation, WTO, is the centre of the
global trade negotiations and deserves a closer look and
examination. This is one of the tasks of the seminar.
Enough said about the topic. I hope this has caught your
interest.We are preparing and planning everything. And the only
thing we need now is participants. That is were you come into the
picture. We need you. As former “social team” responsible (yes,
I was in charge of the parties the last two years, and now I am
responsible for the whole seminar, so don’t tell me that dreams
don’t come true) I can assure you that the social programme will
be beyond every expectation, too.
Because we are among friends I will give you ELSA Copenhagen’s
recipe for a successful seminar:
60 happy law students
5 great parties
3 exciting lectures
2 exciting workshop
A lot of sun and summer
And last but not least a big amount of Gammel Dansk (You can’t
expect to come to Denmark without getting a lot of that).
And we promise you that you will have a lot of good stories to tell
your grandchildren. All this takes place from the 29th of
July to the 3 rd of August in Copenhagen. For further information
see www.elsa.dk or contact copenhagen@elsa.dk