USAID’s Governance for Inclusive Growth Program is supporting Hanoi Law University, a leading public higher education institution in Vietnam, to develop a syllabus and teaching curriculum on the use of precedent as part of its masters’ degree program. As part of this assistance, USAID hosted U.S. Federal District Court Judge John Houston and Professor of Law Speedy Rice, both experts in the areas of Access to Justice and Anti-Corruption. Recently, Judge Houston and Professor Rice worked with Hanoi Law University and Vietnam National University to start to design, structure, and build the curriculum of the degree program, which will begin Spring 2019. USAID will continue this work throughout the fall semester to finalize the curriculum and mentor law professors on its deployment.

So What? Having a curriculum focused on important issues such as precedent will ensure that current and future lawyers and judges will be well equipped to modernize the Vietnamese court system.