ABSTRACT
Before considering contemporary legal borrowing into Vietnam, it is necessary to understand the past. A theme underlying this chapter is that contemporary mental habits and perceptions are ‘the end product of repeated action in the past, of prolonged behaviour in the past’.1 Thus the historical patterns of legal transplantation have a bearing on the way contemporary lawmakers think about legal borrowing. The purpose here is not to attempt the impossible and present the legal history of Vietnam in a chapter, but rather to introduce the main ideas and processes that have contemporary relevance.
