ABSTRACT
Studies in democratic liberal societies show that law does not just happen when there is a social need, someone or some group generally presses for statutory reform. Pressure groups lobby drafting committees and use electoral leverage to correct or ameliorate social and economic problems.1 As the third working postulate (discussed in Chapter one) intimates, the way lawmakers interact with pressure groups strongly influences the selection and adaptation of borrowed laws. It is possible, for example, that state-owned enterprises and foreign investors in Vietnam may use their political connections to influence lawmakers and regulators to the detriment of politically unconnected domestic entrepreneurs.2 This chapter assesses how entrepreneurial pressure groups influence the meanings given to commercial laws imported into Vietnam.
