The future possibilities and perspectives of clinical legal education in Vietnam

ABSTRACT

This paper discusses various possibilities and perspectives for the future of Vietnamese CLE. Informed by the Vietnam Empirical Research and based on the current status of CLE in Vietnam, the paper has made suggestions for various directions for Vietnamese law schools to follow in addressing the challenges that face the adoption and incorporation of CLE in law curricula. These include choosing appropriate CLE models; designing CLE programs as accredited subjects in law curricula; and improving clinical supervision. In the current Vietnamese legal education system with various challenges, the Vietnam Empirical Research generally affirmed CLE as an appropriate educational strategy for the future. As the global advancement of CLE progresses, this opinion is widely and increasingly held among different legal education stakeholders in Vietnam. However, the success and long history of CLE elsewhere will not necessarily guarantee a similar result in Vietnam, given the differences in social, political, and legal systems. The future of Vietnamese CLE therefore will depend on how law schools, central government, relevant national agencies, and other legal education stakeholders in Vietnam regard and adopt clinical approaches in teaching law.

Acknowledgement

The author would like to thank Associate Professor Ross Hyams and Professor Adrian Evans from Monash University Faculty of Law for their thoughtful comments and corrections on the earlier version of the research paper from which this paper has been drawn. The author is grateful to the various participants who have contributed to the empirical research that has created a significant foundation for this paper. The author would also like to thank the reviewers and editor(s) from the International Journal of the Legal Profession for their valuable comments and suggestions that have assisted in revising and improving the paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Correction Statement

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.