To provide a semiconductor light emitting element not hardly damaged or destroyed, even in the case that static electricity is impressed at the time of handling such as a manufacture process and the time of mounting to a circuit board, and a reverse direction voltage accompanying AC driving or the like is applied without enlarging an area as the entire conventional light emitting element and without weakening luminosity.

An element is composed of a light emitting element chip 1 provided with an (n) side electrode 39 and a (p) side electrode 38 on one surface side, and provided with a substrate composed of a material for transmitting emitted light on the other surface side, and a protective element 5 whose two electrodes are respectively connected to the (n) side electrode and (p) side electrode of the light emitting element chip 1 for protecting the light emitting element chip against at least the reverse direction voltage capable of being applied to the light emitting element chip. The two electrodes 55 and 56 of the protective element are provided on one surface side of the protective element 5, and the (n) side electrode and (p) side electrode of the light emitting element chip are bonded so as to be respectively connected to the two electrodes of the protective element directly.