Transplanting Commercial Law Reform

Dr John Gillespie is Professor at the Department of Business Law and Taxation, Faculty of Business and Economics, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia. He teaches, researches and writes about law and development and legal change in East Asia. John has consulted widely with international donor agencies in law and development projects in Vietnam, Indonesia and Laos. Prior to entering academic life he worked as an attorney in an international law firm.

• Contents: Introduction - law reform by legal transplantation; Developing a legal transplantation theory; A brief history of legal transplantation into Vietnam; Transforming socialist legal ideology; Party leadership: the separation of party and state; Discursive and strategic lawmaking; Implementing imported laws; Non-state pressure groups and legal borrowing; The rule of law and Vietnamese relational transactions; Conclusion; Bibliography; Index.

'This is an empirically rich and theoretically framed analysis of changes - and continuities - in Vietnam's legal system as the country moves into a market economy. Contrary to what many foreign observers might expect in a Communist Party dominated political system, one of Gillespie's overarching findings is that interaction between law makers and interest groups significantly influences the process through which imported laws and ideas are considered and adapted.' Ben Kerkvliet, Australian National University, Australia 'Transplanting Commercial Law Reform makes an invaluable contribution to scholarship on Vietnamese law, and to orienting donor activities toward the rule of law in Vietnam and well beyond. Professor Gillespie integrates history, theory, the stages of Vietnamese legal reform and the particulars of commercial law reform into a fascinating and important study of how a country with a complex legal tradition, including a strong socialist legal orientation, can effectively adapt and transform its legal system to face the future characterized by globalization, economic integration and the need for law to serve social justice as well.' Mark Sidel, University of Iowa and Harvard Law School, USA '...a timely book. It adds to our understanding of how law and legal change influences the way we understand and conceptualize legal transplantation...The great contribution of this book is that it exposes the inadequacy of any deterministic model of legal transplantation. At the same time, the book challenges the conventional understanding about convergence and legal systems.' Law and Politics Book Review 'At a time of increasing globalisation and the benchmarking of legal competitiveness, Transplanting Commercial Law Reform is a timely book. It adds to our understanding of how law and legal change influences the way we understand and conceptualise legal transplantation.' Iwan Davies, School of Law, Swansea University, Wales