Website www.nzlsa.co.nz | ||
Institution Law schools in New Zealand Members Law Students' Societies | ||
The New Zealand Law Students' Association / Te Roopu Tauira Ture o Aotearoa (NZLSA) is the overarching representative body for law students in New Zealand. The members of the NZLSA are the Law Students' Societies (LSSs) of each New Zealand law school, along with individual New Zealand law students (as student members).
Contents
The main operational organ of the NZLSA is the Council, which consists of the President of each LSS, an Executive consisting of the NZLSA President, the Administrative Vice-President, the Education Vice-President, the Competitions Vice-President, Marketing Vice-President and the Treasurer. The Lex Magazine editor is an ex officio officer.
The NZLSA also has two representatives on the New Zealand Council of Legal Education, which is an independent statutory body whose general activities concern public interest and regulatory matters and centre on the Council's responsibilities for the quality and provision of legal training within New Zealand. The Council of Legal Education oversees the LLB curriculum at all NZ universities and regulates professional studies providers. The NZLSA representatives promote student views and are ex officio officers of the NZLSA Council.
The primary goals of the NZLSA are:
Members
The Current Members of the NZLSA are:
At the September 2010 Council meeting of the NZLSA in Dunedin, the AUT University Law Students' Society (AUTLawSS) confirmed its intention to affiliate to the NZLSA and become a Member in January 2011.
NZLSA Conference
Each year the NZLSA holds its annual conference at a different New Zealand law school. The right to host the conference is rotated equally amongst the law schools, with the host LSS taking responsibility for the conference.
While the majority of conference delegates are competitors in the National Championships of the NZLSA competitions, the conference also hosts Council members, incoming Presidents of the LSSs and general delegates. The 2010 conference, hosted by SOULS and the University of Otago, was the first NZLSA conference to welcome general delegates from Australia and from the AUT Law Students' Society (AUTLAWSS).
NZLSA Competitions
One of the core functions of the NZLSA is to facilitate the regular legal skills competitions that are offered to students in each law school (with the LSS winners representing their university at the National Championships). The current competitions are the NZLSA Bell Gully Mooting Competition, the NZLSA Minter Ellison Rudd Watts Witness Examination Competition, the Russell McVeagh Client Interviewing Competition, and the Buddle Findlay Negotiation Competition.