Vietnam Legal Reform Assistance Project

Lead Researcher: William A. W. Neilson and Helen Lansdowne

Time frame: March, 2003 - March, 2008

Website: LERAP Website

Starting in March 2003, CAPI was a key partner in the $5 million CIDA-supported Vietnam Legal Reform Assistance Project (LERAP).  
The Project was focused on strengthening the professional capacity of the Vietnamese Ministry of Justice to handle three significant legal change issues facing Vietnam:

(1) the legislative compliance realities exacted by Vietnam's increasing regional and international economic integration;

(2) the pressing need, common to many transitional economies, to improve civil judgment execution, thereby encouraging a greater confidence in the justice system; and

(3) the connected need for an improved capacity in comparative law analysis to ensure that foreign law models are properly analyzed for their suitability and adaptability to Vietnam's legal conditions.

CAPI's former Director and Law Chair, Bill Neilson, managed the comparative law analysis part of the project, co-managed the civil judgment aspect and served overall as the chief legal services advisor to the Project.   CAPI Assistant Director, Helen Lansdowne, assumed senior management responsibilities, and other UVic colleagues including Associate Law Librarian, Caron Rollins, UVic Law Professor, Gerry Ferguson, and CAPI Executive Committee member, Law Professor and Canada Research Chair in Law and Society, Jeremy Webber were also principal contributors to the comparative law part of the project.