My name is Carlos Romero and I am Co-President of the International Law Society for the 2009-2010 year.
I am spending my summer interning in Hanoi, Vietnam for STAR-Vietnam, a USAID sponsored agency that has been working to integrate Vietnamese laws into the greater global economy by giving advice and training on how best to meet international trade requirements set by the World Trade Organization and other trade partners. The summer program here was sponsored by the University of San Francisco School of Law under the guidance of Susan Mendelsohn. It is the third year of having an intern here at STAR and there are two other current USF law students working in Hanoi at the firm Baker & Mackenzie.
It has been an eventful two weeks so far here in Hanoi. For my first two days of work I was joined by Dean Jeffery Brand, Dean of USF School of Law, who stopped into Vietnam after a trip visiting other USF Law interns in Cambodia. STAR organized a series of meetings and lectures for him with different organizations. We traveled and he spoke at several locations; from the Ho Chi Minh Academy that trains government officials to the Diplomatic Academy which trains internationally minded attorneys. Dean Brand focused his lectures on the the differences between US common law versus Vietnamese civil law and his experiences as an administrative judge. He was well received by students and was genuinely impressed by their level of understanding and engagement.
Since then I have worked on a number of projects for STAR. I have researched and written briefs on topics such as: comparative international copyright law and why the current Vietnamese law might not meet WTO TRIP's agreement standards; international trade law dealing with SPS blocks against the importation of Vietnamese basa and tra fish in other nations; historical research on United States Federal codification laws from the 1930's; and International Labour Union case law analysis from different reports.
Besides all the work at the office I've had a great time so far here in Hanoi. I've spent a lot of time in the Old Quarter, which is made up of "36 Streets" that have acted as the commerical hub of the city for a millennium. Hanoi will be celebrating it's 1,000 year anniversary next year and have already got the party started with night time weekly entertainment near Hoen Kiem Lake in the Old Quarter. The food has been amazing so far and I'm looking forward to spending some time out in the countryside one of these upcoming weekends. So it has been a great trip so far and I'll update again on my adventures.
Cheers,
Carlos
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