On October 29th, 2021, the University of Economics And Law and The Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung Southeast Asia organized the international virtual conference on Feminism, Gender and Law via online platform. The conference was actually  a forum created for scholars, specialists, policymakers, and other engaging participants in feminist legal theory and relevant areas to dis/se/mi/nate their research results, exchange ideas, share experience and meet with the world-leading speakers.

The Feminist legal theory does not only promote gender equality issues or fight for the rights of women but helps gain our perception of the important role of women’s perspective in law enforcement as well. Jurists, who choose to work on this theory, have to enquire into fields of law through the viewpoint of women and must wonder whether the patriarchy is setting the legal standard or not. With the internal structure of law, the issue of balancing rights between men and women will take the next step forward and contribute enormously to the equal society building process. 

Speaking at the opening of this conference, Associate Professor Ph.D Nguyen Tien Dung, Rector of University of Economics and Law (UEL), declared that the feminist legal theory mentioned above has four main goals:

• Developing lecturers’ research capacity at UEL as well as at other law schools in Vietnam on feminist approaches to law through international talks and seminars;

• Broadening knowledge of this theory through an international conference about Feminism, Gender and Law organized by UEL with the participation of many scholars and policy makers.

• Publishing more research materials about this theory to lecturers, researchers and law students by supplying academic books to the UEL library and translating some of those into Vietnamese in order for the feminism legal theory to be widely disseminated.

• Raising full awareness of feminism, gender and law issues through media activities about the conference.

In her opening speech, Miss Do Thi Thu Thao, vice-president of the Vietnam Women’s Union (VWU) confirmed that VWU had applied the feminist legal theory in analyzing, evaluating, identifying gaps in regulations; moreover, VWU had also proposed many ideal solutions with the aim of improving gender equality, which is the first priority of VWO nowadays, in every field ranging from economics, politics to social.

Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the “Feminism, Gender and Law” international scientific conference was held online, with a total of 6 discussion sessions.

• Session 1: Violence against women and sexual harassment;
• Session 2: Women’s rights in private law;
• Session 3: Women’s approach to dispute settlement; 
• Session 4: The feminism and gender legal theory;
• Session 5: Gender equality, especially focusing on potentially vulnerable groups;
• Session 6: Women’s participation.

  Discussion in these sessions varies from the theory of feminism and gender trend in scientific research to women’s participation; from gender equality for those vulnerable groups to violence against women and sexual harassment; from women’s approach in dispute settlement to woman’s rights in private law.

The “Feminism, Gender and Law” international scientific conference has gained considerable support from top jurists working on the feminist legal theory. And keynote speakers at the conference are specifically from England, America, Australia and Vietnam.

As a research university, UEL always strives to create an open and diverse academic environment for lecturers, researchers, undergraduate students and postgraduate students. With the active participation of Rosa-Luxemburg Foundation, we had the chance to widely spread out high values through the “Feminism Legal Theory” which was inspired by the Gemany feminist, socialist leader, Rosa Luxemburg.