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.