European and Vietnamese scholars met in Hanoi on February 5 to discuss how to integrate foreign law perspectives into domestic law.

Addressing the international seminar “The Challenges and Practices of Legal Transplant in Vietnam: Sharing European Experiences”, Chairman of the National Assembly’s Law Committee Phan Trung Ly said Vietnam is improving its legislative policies by referencing to foreign laws, known as legal transplants.

Legal transplant in Vietnam is still new, poorly understood, and has not drawn adequate attention thus far. Moreover, there remains some incompatibility in the Vietnamese legal system with available rules of legal transplant in the world, he added.

Delphine Malard, First Counsellor and head of the Political, Press and Information Section of the European Union (EU) Delegation to Vietnam, said sharing European experience in this issue can be highly valuable for Vietnamese legislators, especially in the context of the need to adapt Vietnamese legislation to the new Constitution.

Professor Helen Xanthaki from the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies at the University of London presented on European legal transplant policies and practices of legal transplantation in the parliaments of EU member states.

Professor Norbert Reich from Germany’s Bremen University presented theoretical issues for legal transplant and current practices of legal transplantation in several Asian nations.

Meanwhile, Professor Higuchi Yoichi from the University of Tokyo shared Japan’s experience with transferring foreign laws into their legal system.

Co-hosted by the Office of the NA and the EU Delegation to Vietnam, the event was part of the EU-Vietnam Framework Agreement on Comprehensive Partnership and Cooperation, under which the EU has a strategic objective to enhance political, economic and cultural cooperation with Vietnam.-VNA