The Hồng Đức Clerkship. Recognizing that an international perspective will greatly enrich and broaden a law student’s legal education and experience, VABAW’s Hồng Đức Clerkship, founded in 2007, provides a law student with the opportunity to clerk at an international law firm in Vietnam for a maximum of three summer months. The student will have the unique experience of learning the local cultures and customs while living in Vietnam and learning international and comparative law working at a major law firm. The Clerkship will award up to a total of $5,000 with approximately $2,000 applied to a round trip airfare ticket to Vietnam and $3,000 paid directly to the award recipient for living expenses.
What does “Hồng Đức” mean? VABAW’s Hồng Đức Clerkship is named after the fifteenth century legal code created by Emperor Le Thanh Tong. The Hồng Đức Code became the country’s governing body of law for more than 300 years and is considered to be the most important legal document in Vietnam’s legal history. Although based on Chinese law, it included distinctly Vietnamese features and contained advanced legal concepts that are comparable or equivalent to those in modern Western law. Contrary to Chinese customs, the Code recognized the higher position of women in Vietnamese society than in Chinese society by granting daughters equal inheritance rights with sons. Further, the Code recognized modern concepts such as statutory rape, spousal immunity, a prohibition against ex post facto law, a statute of limitations, incapacity of minors to contract, adverse possession, and easement. It also recognized the rights which Americans today regard as "fundamental civil liberties." VABAW recognizes the Hồng Đức Code as a significant achievement of the Vietnamese legal tradition and a reflection of the spirit and traditions of the Vietnamese people.
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To read about the recipient of our 2009 Hồng Đức Clerkship, please click here. Our 2009 Hồng Đức Clerkship Recipient spent the summer of 2009 at Baker McKenzie's Ho Chi Minh City office.
To read about the recipient of our 2008 Hồng Đức Clerkship, please click here. We also invite you to view a video presentation about the 2008 Hồng Đức Clerkship at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=neqCNEQ9k48 (or by searching “VABAW Hong Duc”). Special thank you to Prolumina Trial Technologies for the video presentation. Our first Hồng Đức Clerkship Recipient spent the summer of 2008 at Lovells’ Ho Chi Minh City office.