This dissertation uses the latest development in consumer protection law in Vietnam (the adoption of the Consumer Protection Law of 2010 to regulate transactions between consumers and traders) to test key claims in competing legal transplantation theories. This research investigates comparative law debates about the legitimacy, usefulness and possibility of legal transplantation in law reform in developing and transitional countries. Alan Watson and his proponents believe strongly in the possibility of legal transplants, but fail to provide a clear and concrete methodology for producing effective and efficient laws. On the other hand, Robert Seidman and Ann Seidman openly reject the legitimacy of legal transplants, but offer a comprehensive methodology for effectively conducting law reform projects. They believe that, by following a problem-solving institutionalist legislative theory, legal drafters and law-makers in charge of law reform projects can easily produce effective and efficient laws. This dissertation argues that the nature of the reform of laws regulating consumer transactions in Vietnam is much more complex than Watson’s theory imagines. It also shows that, although the reception of foreign legal models is part of this law reform project, past legal transplants as well as the local law-making culture may filter or even inhibit the reception of foreign legal solutions. This research also reveals that current consumer law reform in Vietnam tends to follow the problem-solving approach, although it deviates somewhat from the legislative methodology proposed by the Seidmans. This dissertation attempts to clarify these deviations and explain the reasons for them. / Graduate

La plupart des systèmes pénaux dans le monde ont recours à la détention d’une personne soupçonnée d’avoir commis une infraction avant que son jugement soit définitif. Néanmoins, l’intensité de cette mesure dépend du régime politique démocratique ou autoritaire, du modèle de la procédure accusatoire ou inquisitoire. Le fondement de la privation de la liberté avant le jugement se justifie par la nécessité de préserver la société contre des actes qu’aurait commis le suspect en liberté. Mais comment apprécier ce risque, cette éventualité alors que sa culpabilité reste à être déterminée par une autorité compétente ? La détention d’une personne innocente est un mal irréparable, une atteinte grave aux droits fondamentaux. Quel que soit le modèle politique ou procédural, le régime de détention provisoire doit répondre à un équilibre à la fois d’efficacité de la répression et de protection de la liberté individuelle. Nous analysons la question de détention provisoire sous l’angle du droit comparé des deux systèmes pénaux (français et vietnamien) qui s’opposent en apparence à tous les niveaux : géographique, politique et culturel mais cherchent tous deux des mécanismes pour limiter la détention provisoire abusive. L’exigence de la vraisemblance de culpabilité avant le placement en détention provisoire et tout au long de la détention provisoire reste la règle essentielle de ces mécanismes. Mais cela ne résout pas tous les problèmes de la détention notamment dans un contexte où l’efficacité et le rôle de l’ensemble du système carcéral sont remis en cause / Most penal systems in the world have recourse to the custody of a person suspected of having committed an offence before final sentencing. Nevertheless, the intensity of this measure depends on the political regime – democratic or authoritarian- as well as the type of procedure: accusatory or inquisitorial. This deprivation of freedom before sentencing is based on the necessity to protect society from the offence which the suspect would have committed during his/her freedom. However, how can one determine this risk, this eventuality, whilst the suspect’s guilt remains to be determined by a body competent to do so? The detention of an innocent person is an irreparable wrong and a serious breach of one’s fundamental rights. Whatever the political or procedural model, the regime of pre-trial detention must strike a balance between the efficacy of the measure and the protection of fundamental rights. We will analyse the question of pre-trial detention from the Comparative Law perspective of two penal systems (French and Vietnamese ) which are seemingly contrasting at all levels: geographical, political and cultural; but which both seek measures which limit the abuse of pre-trial detention. The requirement of the likelihood of guilt before remanding the suspect in custody (as well as throughout the pre-trial detention) remains an essential rule of these systems. However, this does not solve all the problems regarding detention, notably in a context where the efficacy and the role of the entire prison system are being called into question.

This thesis describes the accounting's and auditing's systems in Vietnam. The Vietnamese regulations and legilations are particularly emphased in great details as the important components of the accounting and auditing systems. On the other hand, it, also, focuses on the financial statements for the business and its audit as well as the struture of equity and types of investments for allied companies.

What makes real life contractual arrangements? How does the law influence real life contractual arrangements? These are everyday questions for businesspeople and commercial lawyers. The traditional ‘imperative’ view of law assumes that business people contract ‘in the shadow of the law’ and contractual arrangements conform to what the law says. But empirical studies on contract practice suggest that contract law may, in fact, play a very insignificant role in real life contractual arrangements. This thesis provides a sociological view of the role of contract law in real life contractual arrangements in the context of the Vietnamese market. Specifically, this thesis applies an institutional law & economics approach to investigate how social structures of the market influence contractual arrangements to marginalize contract law in the Vietnamese market. Drawing on two surveys of contract behaviour in the Vietnamese market, this thesis finds that real life contractual arrangements respond to the institutional structure of the market as a whole, rather than only ‘the shadow of the law’. Institutional changes in the Vietnamese market suggest that there exists a merchant law system, constituted of traditional moral norms and social structures in the market. This merchant law system continues to order contractual arrangements in the market, despite the introduction of a transplanted contract law system. Disagreeing with the imperative approach, this thesis claims that contract law reform should conform to the institutional structure of the market to reduce transaction costs of contracting and to provide an effective framework for real life contractual arrangements.