The journey 'from South to North' in training legal human resources of veteran female lecturers

The journey "from the South to the North" of a female professor

Graduating from University of Law in the former Soviet Union, in the fall of 1978, Ms. Hoang Thi Kim Que went to work at the School of Court Officers, after merging with Hanoi University of Law (now Hanoi Law University). Noi).

Implementing the policy of strengthening legal officers seconded to the southern provinces, in 1985, Minister of Justice Phan Hien appointed her to work at the University of Law Branch in Ho Chi Minh City (now Ho Chi Minh City University of Law). ) in the position of Head of the Department of Theory - Administration - State.

While working at the University of Legal Affairs, she participated in teaching law students and legal intellectuals of Saigon in the past, providing professional training for judges, court clerks, and legal reporters. of Ho Chi Minh City and many southern provinces. She has also participated in the work of disseminating and educating the law in the provinces of the Mekong Delta, the Central South, and the Central Highlands...

In the late 1980s, she left for the former Soviet Union as a graduate student. After successfully defending her doctoral thesis and receiving a Doctor of Laws degree in the former Soviet Union, she returned to her country to continue to contribute and pursue the "path" of teaching and researching jurisprudence.

Her journey "to the South, to the North" continued until 1996, when she officially transferred to the Faculty of Law - Hanoi National University (VNU) and has been with the Faculty of Law ever since. At the Faculty of Law - VNU, she was assigned to hold the following positions: Head of the Department of Theory, State History and Law, Vice Dean of the Faculty of Law.

Thus, the reason for jokingly saying "journey from the South to the North" is because her life as a lecturer is closely associated with her career of participating in training legal experts for the country at 3 leading establishments in both the South and the North: Ho Chi Minh City University of Law, Hanoi Law University, Faculty of Law - VNU (now University of Law, VNU).

She has participated in compiling textbooks, monographs, reference books, and documents related to many subjects and programs on Theory of State and Law; Rule of law, Sociology of law; History of State and Law; Legal culture; Ethics and the law, the law protects vulnerable social groups; History of political and legal doctrine; Customary laws, local conventions and laws...

She has actively participated in scientific research activities, developed and criticized policies, laws, and laws on women and children, chaired ministerial-level scientific projects, and participated in scientific projects. State level education; Wrote a large number of scientific articles published in domestic and international magazines and scientific conferences...

As a member of the Vietnamese Women's Intellectual Association, she also actively contributes to the development of legal documents, especially legal documents on women, children, and vulnerable subjects. other. She and her colleagues proposed ideas and successfully organized many scientific talks and seminars.

Professor Hoang Thi Kim Que (fourth from left) and delegates attending a conference organized by the Ministry of Justice. (Photo: NVCC)

The most memorable were the seminars: Vietnamese State and Law on the threshold of the 21st century; Public service; State and Law of ASEAN countries; Vietnamese legal culture from tradition to present; Legal theory; Legal sources; Access to legal and cultural fields: in legislative, executive, judicial activities, in state management...

When asked about the career she has been pursuing and dedicating for more than 40 years, she sincerely confided: "Every career needs to have necessary qualities such as a sense of responsibility, discipline and integrity." Honest and diligent with assigned work. The legal teaching profession is no exception. Law lecturers must participate in both teaching and scientific research, and at the same time participate in social activities, building and implementing policies and laws."

In a conference organized to express gratitude for Professor Que's contributions, Associate Professor Dr. Nguyen Hoang Anh - leader of the Department of Theory and History of State and Law (University of Law, VNU) shared that Professor Que is A lecturer and scientist who has worked with responsibility, enthusiasm, and passion for the profession of teaching and scientific research throughout her tireless dedication, she has always received the trust and affection of her colleagues. , student. Professor Que is also the person who has developed and taught a number of new subjects and orientated and helped lecturers take on a number of new subjects and directions such as Sociology of Law, State and Law of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. ASEAN countries…

In addition to doing a good job of teaching basic subjects such as Theory of the State of Law, History of the State of Law, Sociology of Law, History of Political-Legal Doctrines and State and Law In ASEAN countries, Professor Que also made many contributions to scientific research in the direction of integrating legal philosophy and legal theory. In particular, Professor Que's in-depth research works have created a unique impression, which is on the relationship between law and ethics, legal culture and sociology of law implementation.

Interests and concerns about the country's laws

While working as a manager at the Faculty of Law - VNU, Ms. Que guided and brought many volunteer students to provide legal aid to the community in the Northern mountainous provinces. The Faculty of Law's volunteer legal aid program has explained and disseminated laws on marriage and family, land, traffic... to people, working with mediation teams.

Professor Hoang Thi Kim Que spoke at the Conference on Legal Science, State, Ethics and Culture. (Photo: PV)

An interesting point was when she participated in field surveys on legal awareness, the implementation situation of the Central Highlands people, Ede and M'nong customary laws and current laws.

At that time, comparing the Civil Code with the customary laws of the Ede and M'nong people, she was very surprised because there were many provisions of these customary laws that, although the names were still in rhyme form, stipulated many important contents. Reference value, inheritance in construction, implementation of civil law, marriage and family, environmental law... such as regulations on invalid contracts, honesty, not breaking trust in practice current contract/contract, adoption conditions; Protect the environment, keep water sources from being polluted...

In particular, due to beliefs and matriarchy, according to the above customary laws, the issue of divorce is very limited - discord between husband and wife is brought to the Customary Court (arbitration, witnesses, mediation is very strict, reluctant to divorce and in case of divorce, the man leaves with empty hands).

Over the years, we have also attached great importance to conciliation, and recently established a dialogue and conciliation institution at the Court. This means that in the civil sector alone, everyday transactions have a historical flow that follows each other. Even though space and time are different, they are still similar and also shows that customary law may be outdated but can still be exploited. in today's civil life.

Another interesting detail is that when going to Don village (Dak Lak), her fieldwork team asked people if a dispute arose, whether it would be resolved according to State law or customary law. The answers she received from people were very innocent and honest: "Wherever it's cheap, I'll go there." That answer raises the issue of compliance costs, calculating reasonable economic benefits, as well as the issue of disseminating legal education to people, which must take into account specific factors. Thanks to that, she guided graduate students to successfully carry out a project on legal education for people in Dak Lak.

Due to the nature of her teaching job, even though she retired in June 2020, she still actively participates in teaching and scientific research with the school to continue contributing to the cause of training legal officers. Conduct scientific research, guide students, and share experiences with young lecturers in the Faculty of Law - VNU and a number of other law training institutions across the country. She highly appreciates the current team of young lecturers for their dynamism, professional qualifications, eagerness to learn, eagerness to learn, and constant innovation every day and every hour.

In recent years, law training institutions have added some types of training such as double degrees, dual degrees... For Ms. Que, participating in these types of training, the lecturer will not be responsible for teaching. simply, but on the contrary, they also learn and experience more of the students' life experiences. That requires lecturers themselves to reflect and adjust teaching methods and content, considering learners as living realities of life to exchange with them rather than passively imparting legal knowledge.

According to Professor Que, our country's current legal system has achieved many important achievements, and her lectures every time she attends class are also more lively because of the country's achievements in building the law. However, she still has some concerns. That is, she wishes to focus more on law enforcement, including administration and monitoring of law enforcement by agencies, organizations, and individuals, especially administrative agencies. .

Therefore, she supports the development of a law on monitoring law enforcement proposed by the Ministry of Justice because through a survey of 5 provinces that enforce traffic laws, she discovered the coincidence that in all 5 localities, there are 65 traffic laws. -70% violators admitted that even though they knew the provisions of the Law, they felt they were not being handled, so they easily continued to violate them. "Law that is not enforced is worse than no law at all," she cited the concept of Western countries...

For young people, Ms. Que believes that there should be investment from the professions to research and educate young people to prevent law violations in the face of the current phenomenon of rejuvenation of criminals. In her humble position - as she shared, she assigned this small topic to students to research around the problem of violence and forms of violence and she suggested that it be included in lectures and lessons. Train students more regularly to prevent violations and increasing violence.

“Broadly speaking, it means that in the work of disseminating legal education, there should be a breakthrough, the dissemination should be differentiated according to each audience and in the immediate future, it should be especially aimed at young people.”, Professor Que expressed.