The European Law Students’ Association (ELSA) was founded in Vienna, Austria, on 4 May 1981, by five students coming from Austria, Hungary, Poland and West Germany. Today, it has sections in over 200 university cities and 39 European and non-European countries, from Finland to Macedonia, from Portugal to Kazakhstan.

ELSA is an international, independent, non-political, non-profit making organization run by and for students and recent graduates.
Thanks to its work and commitment at international level, ELSA was granted consultative status with several international organizations: the Council of Europe, the United Nations Economic and Social Council (UNECOSOC), the UN Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL), the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO). It also cooperates with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
The Trento section was established in the spring of 2005, and became part of the ELSA network at the 35th National Assembly (Lecce, 4 - 7 May 2006), when all members voted unanimously in favour (for the second time in the history ELSA Italy).

ELSA offers:

• Academic activities: among the strengths of ELSA are career guidance interviews, that is meetings with qualified legal professionals; language courses; legal research groups (LRG, groups of law students and young lawyers carrying out research on a specified topic of law, supervised by professors and researchers form faculties of Law); the Moot Court Competition, in which teams of students and recent graduates confront each other in a simulated national or international court proceedings, in front of a qualified jury.
• The Student Trainee Exchange Programme: which gives students and recent graduates the opportunity to acquire a working experience in a legal field in a foreign country in companies, banks, universities, legal firms, public administrations. Internships vary in length from a minimum of two weeks to a maximum of eighteen months.
• Seminars and conferences: meetings with law students from other countries and round tables on law topics with professors and legal professionals are also part of the activities organized by ELSA’s sections.