Provided is a semiconductor light emitting element wherein generation of an open failure of the light emitting device can be eliminated by ensuring a current pathway when disconnection is generated in a transparent electrode layer. A semiconductor light emitting element (10) is provided with: a first semiconductor layer (12) on a substrate (11); a light emitting layer (13) on the first semiconductor layer (12); a second semiconductor layer (14) on the light emitting layer (13); an insulator layer (15) provided with a hole portion (19) in a partial region on the second semiconductor layer (14); a transparent electrode layer (16) covering the upper surface of the insulator layer (15) and the second semiconductor layer (14) without covering the hole portion (19); and a second pad electrode (18) brought into contact with the second semiconductor layer (14) through the hole portion (19) and faces the insulator layer (15) with the transparent electrode layer (16) therebetween. Contact resistance between the second pad electrode (18) and the second semiconductor layer (14) is set larger than that between the transparent electrode layer (16) and the second semiconductor layer (14).