Australian Law Students' Association
The Australian Law Students' Association (ALSA) is the peak representative body of law students from Australia. The ALSA facilitates communication between the law student societies of each Australian law school; it acts as a conduit for intervarsity dialogue and intercourse; it represents students to government, universities and the public; it authors numerous educational and careers publications; and it hosts an annual conference and two additional council meetings each year.
ALSA is a not-for-profit association run by law students elected annually for the benefit of all law students nationally. ALSA's membership comprises all law students in Australia, and their universities' law student societies. Representation to ALSA is facilitated by these societies, whose delegates sit on the ALSA National Council. The organisation's functions are overseen by an Executive and Committee. The ALSA Executive and Committee (ALSA Main) should not be confused with the ALSA Conference, which is run by a separate body (from the host university) and which is supported by ALSA Main.
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[edit] Members
- Adelaide University Law Students' Society
- Australian National University Law Students' Society
- Bond University Law Students' Association
- Charles Darwin University Law Students' Society
- Deakin Law Students' Society (Melbourne Chapter)
- Deakin Law Students' Society (Geelong Chapter)
- North Law Society (Edith Cowan University)
- Flinders Law Students' Association
- Griffith University (Gold Coast) Law Students' Association
- Griffith University Law Society (Nathan Campus)
- James Cook University Law Students' Society
- La Trobe University Law Students' Association
- Macquarie University Law Society
- Melbourne University Law Students' Society
- Monash Law Students’ Society
- Murdoch University#Murdoch Student Law Society|Murdoch Student Law Society
- University of Notre Dame Australia|Notre Dame Law Students' Society (Fremantle)
- University of Notre Dame Australia|Notre Dame Law Students' Society (Sydney)
- Queensland University of Technology Association of Law Students
- Royal Melbourne Institution of Technology (RMIT) Law Students' Society
- Southern Cross University Law Society
- Sydney University Law Society
- Tasmania University Law Society
- Isaacs Law Society (University of Canberra)
- University of New England Law Students’ Society
- University of New South Wales Law Society
- University of Newcastle Law Students’ Association
- University of Queensland Law Society
- University of South Australia Law Students' Association
- University of Technology, Sydney Law Students' Society
- The Blackstone Society (University of Western Australia)
- University of Western Sydney Law Students' Association
- University of Wollongong Law Students' Society
- Victoria University Law Students' Society
[edit] Presidents
Presidents of the Association are elected by the ALSA Council, with each Member university exercising two votes each. The President's term runs from 1 August to 31 July each year. Past Presidents have come from a variety of universities:
| Year Elected | Name | University |
|---|---|---|
| 1978 | Terence Connolly | University of Adelaide |
| 1979 | unknown | unknown |
| 1980 | Michael Lishman | University of Western Australia |
| 1981 | Alistair Wyvill | University of Queensland |
| 1982 | Cecilia Parrant | University of Auckland |
| 1983 | John Richardson | University of Sydney |
| 1984 | Stewart Diamond | Monash University |
| 1985 | Elizabeth Vardon | Australian National University |
| 1986 | Stuart Shepherd | University of Western Australia |
| 1987 | Fiona McLeod | University of Melbourne |
| 1988 | Janet MacDonald | University of Adelaide |
| 1989 | Lachlan Carter | University of Melbourne |
| 1990 | Gareth Sage | University of Sydney |
| 1991 | Brad Husband | University of Melbourne |
| 1992 | Brad Husband | University of Melbourne |
| 1993 | Penny Moore | Murdoch University |
| 1994 | Simone Burford | Macquarie University |
| 1995 | Amber Cerny | Macquarie University |
| 1996 | Emanouel Gaganis | Flinders University |
| 1997 | Geraldine Chin Moody (then Geraldine Chin) | Australian National University |
| 1998 | Jesse Clarke | University of Sydney |
| 1999 | Georgia King-Siem | University of Tasmania |
| 2000 | Jason Roufogalis | Macquarie University |
| 2001 | Joanna Davidson | University of New South Wales |
| 2002 | Daniel Murnane | University of Canberra |
| 2003 | Ivan Rubinstein | Deakin University |
| 2004 | Elizabeth Hundt | University of Technology Sydney |
| 2005 | Katrina Dunn | Murdoch University |
| 2006 | Faraz Maghami | University of Western Sydney |
| 2007 | Paul Gordon | Flinders University |
| 2008 | Verity Doyle | University of Queensland |
| 2009 | Jonathan Augustus | University of Melbourne |
| 2010 | Matthew Floro | University of Queensland |
| 2011 | Geoffrey Winters (incumbent) | University of Sydney |
The University of Melbourne has supplied the most number of ALSA Presidents - five times since 1978. Nineteen ALSA Presidents have been male, while fourteen have been female.
[edit] ALSA Annual Conferences
Traditionally an annual conference is held each year by ALSA, with council, general and competing delegates attending from the majority of Australia's law schools. Competitors are also invited from New Zealand's five law schools, and from the National University of Singapore. The conference allows students to compete against fellow member universities in mooting, negotiation, witness examination, paper presentation and client interviewing. Each competition allows the student to apply their legal training, skills and knowledge in a practical sense.
Bidding rights to host the conference are determined on the basis of a two-tiered classification system. ALSA-affiliated Universities are first divided into two groups by geography: Eastern (made up of Universities in Queensland, NSW, ACT and Victoria) and Other (made up of Universities in South Australia, Northern Territory, Western Australia and Tasmania). This makes up the first tier, with hosting rights rotating in a three-yearly cycle between Eastern, Eastern and Other.
Within each tier is the second tier, which divides Universities further into geographical classifications as follows:
| Eastern | Other |
|---|---|
| Victoria | South Australia |
| NSW-Regional & ACT | Northern Territory |
| Queensland | Western Australia |
| NSW-Sydney | Tasmania |
Therefore, after the first tier is confirmed for any given year, the right to make a bid will fall on the next regional classification along, e.g. if it is an Eastern year and the last Eastern bid was from Victoria, then the right to bid will fall on NSW-Regional & ACT. If no University in the region which has the bidding rights that year makes a bid to host the conference, the next region along in that group will have the right to make a bid.
NSW-Sydney did not bid for the 2010 conference. The opportunity to bid therefore passed to South Australia as the bidder next in line. South Australia's decision to bid for 2010 means that it will not be eligible to bid for 2011 (for which it was originally scheduled to bid), and the bidding rights for 2011 will pass to Eastern (Victoria).
| Year | Location | Tier 1 Region | Tier 2 Regional classification | Hosting universities |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2005 | Perth | Other | Western Australia | Joint hosts: University of Western Australia, Murdoch University and University of Notre Dame Australia |
| 2006 | Melbourne | Eastern | Victoria | Joint hosts: University of Melbourne, Deakin University, Monash University and La Trobe University |
| 2007 | Canberra | Eastern | NSW-Regional & ACT | Joint hosts: Australian National University and University of Canberra |
| 2008 | Hobart | Other | Tasmania | University of Tasmania |
| 2009 | Brisbane | Eastern | Queensland | Joint hosts: Griffith University - Nathan and Queensland University of Technology |
| 2010 | Adelaide | Other | South Australia | Joint hosts: Flinders University, University of Adelaide, and University of South Australia |
| 2011 | Sydney | Eastern | New South Wales | University of New South Wales |
| 2012 | Melbourne | Eastern | Victoria | Joint hosts: Monash University, University of Melbourne, La Trobe University, Deakin University, Victoria University, and RMIT University |
The 2011 Conference will be held at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, NSW. Bids for the opportunity to host the annual conference are heard two years in advance at the ALSA conference itself. No bid was present at the 2010 conference in Adelaide for 2012, meaning that the bid process continued to October 2010 council meeting in Brisbane. At the October council meeting the six universities from Victoria presented a combined bid to secure the 2012 conference for Melbourne.
[edit] 2007 Conference
The 2007 ALSA conference was held in Canberra from 2–8 July 2007, jointly hosted by Australian National University and the University of Canberra and sponsored by Mallesons Stephen Jaques. The Corrs Chambers Westgarth opening night gala ball was held in the Great Hall of the Australian Parliament and the closing night dinner at the National Museum of Australia. The mid-week sponsors' cocktail function was held at the Australian War Memorial. All functions catering was contracted out to the Park Hyatt Canberra.
In the Grand Finals:
ALSA Mooting: Before a four-judge panel in the Supreme Court of the ACT, Macquarie University was unanimously declared the winner against University of New South Wales
Witness examination: National University of Singapore's Vanathi Subramaniam beat the University of Auckland's Scott Leith before Justice Drumgold in the Federal Court of the ACT.
Negotiation: Macquarie University beat Monash University in the Federal Court of the ACT.
Client interviewing: Notre Dame University (WA) defeated the University of New South Wales in a 2-1 decision by the three-judge panel.
IHL Mooting: Monash University was unanimously declared the winner by a three-judge panel in the ACT Supreme Court, beating University of Adelaide.
Paper Presentation: Making it three trophies to take back to Ryde, this was won by Macquarie University.
Kirby Cup: The Cup was taken out by Australian National University (ACT) who defeated Murdoch University (WA) and the University of Sydney (NSW) [1]
[edit] 2008 Conference
The 2008 ALSA conference was held in Hobart from 7–13 July 2008, hosted by the University of Tasmania. The opening night gala ball was held at the Sandy Bay Wrest Point complex, also the designated accommodation provider for delegates. For the first time, in addition to the traditional themed party nights and the mid-week sponsor's cocktail function, Hobart 2008 introduced Breakfast With the Governor, where delegates were offered the opportunity to dine with Tasmanian Governor Peter Underwood, a former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Tasmania.
ALSA Moot: The University of Western Sydney was declared the winner of the competition before Sir Anthony Mason (former Justice of the High Court of Australia).
Witness Examination: Marcus Agnew from the University of New South Wales defeated Jimmy Bai from the Australian National University before Justice Blow (Supreme Court of Tasmania) Tim Ellis SC (Tasmanian DPP), and Brian Morgan (barrister).
IHL Moot: The winner was the University of Adelaide, defeating Macquarie University in a replay of the 2007 Grand Final.
[edit] 2009 Conference
The 2009 ALSA conference was held in Brisbane from 12–19 July 2009, jointly hosted by Queensland University of Technology and Griffith University (Nathan). For the first time, the conference schedule introduced a Rest Day in between the preliminary and knockout rounds of competitions, with the break not being announced until the evening of the Rest Day. This allowed all delegates to have a day off in between the preliminary and knockout phases of the competition.
ALSA Moot: The winner was University of Adelaide - Hannah Canham, Georgia Goldsworthy and Rachael White. Before a panel of judges including High Court of Australia Justice Susan Kiefel. Hannah Canham University of Adelaide was judged the best speaker of the competition.
IHL Moot: The winner was University of Sydney - Alice Zheng and Matthew Kalyk.
Witness Examination: The winner was Victoria University of Wellington - Yogesh Patel.
Client Interviewing: The winner was University of Canterbury - Guy Carter and Julia Whitehead
Negotiation: The winner was University of Otago - Roshni Kaur and Mitch Singh
Paper Presentation: The winner was Murdoch University - Jessica Rusden
Kirby Cup: The winner was University of New South Wales - Ella Kucharova and Rebecca Zaman
[edit] 2010 Conference
The 2010 ALSA conference was held in Adelaide from 12–19 July 2010, jointly hosted by University of Adelaide, Flinders University and University of South Australia. The conference saw over 500 law students attend the Opening Gala Dinner, Cocktail Night, Themed Night, and Closing Gala Dinner. The national Law Competitions grand finals were held on Sunday 18 July in the Federal Court of Australia, Adelaide.
Mallesons Stephen Jaques ALSA Moot: The winner was Macquarie University - Ayowande McCunn, Mona Mbogua and Mary Huang. David Jordan of Adelaide University was awarded Best Speaker in the preliminary rounds.
Red Cross International IHL Moot: The winner was The Australian National University - Kendra Fouracre and David Bomball. Georgia Boyce from The University of Melbourne was awarded Best Speaker for the preliminary rounds of the competition.
Witness Examination: The winner was The University of Melbourne - Julian Law.
Client Interviewing: The winner was Macquarie University - Nicholas Ferrari and Reece Corbett-Wilkins.
Allens Arthur Robinson Negotiation Championship: The winner was University of Auckland - Alison Dunn and Christopher Jenkins.
Paper Presentation: The winner was Murdoch University - David Herbert.
[edit] 2011 Conference
The 2011 ALSA Conference was held in Sydney from 8–15 July 2011, hosted by the University of New South Wales. The two premier sponsors of the Conference were the University of New South Wales and Clayton Utz.[1]
A Competitions Subcommittee was set up in late 2010 to reform the ALSA Competitions rules. The results of this process were announced in June 2011, including:
- the addition of a fourth preliminary round,
- streamlining all rules for consistency,
- updating the score sheets,
- providing a mechanism for competitors to request their score sheets after the Conference,
- using the standard deviation of margins instead of the aggregate of margins as the secondary determinant to rank competitors,
- prescribing questions for judges to ask clients in Client Interviewing,
- altering the composition of the Appeals Review Board in the Appeals By-Law.
Other proposals, including the introduction of a power-pairing or Swiss system, were deferred to the medium and long term.
ALSA Moot: The winner was Otago University - (names). (Name) of (University) was awarded Best Speaker for the preliminary rounds of the competition.
Red Cross International IHL Moot: The winner was the University of Melbourne. Domenico Cucinotta of the University of Sydney was awarded Best Speaker for the preliminary rounds of the competition.
Witness Examination: The winner was Auckland University - Peter Syddall.
Client Interviewing: The winner was (Otago University) - (Rob Clarke and Alex Boock).
Negotiation Championship: The winner was Macquarie University - Reece Corbett-Wilkins and Nicholas Ferrari.
Paper Presentation: The winner was Flinders University - Jemma Arman.
[edit] References
[edit] External links
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This article relies on references to primary sources or sources affiliated with the subject, rather than references from independent authors and third-party publications. Please add citations from reliable sources. (April 2007) |
