Do Hai Ha

Dr. DO Hai Ha (“Ha”) is an expert on Vietnamese law and society. Ha was trained in law in both Vietnam and Australia, completing a PhD at the University of Melbourne Law School. His dissertation, The Dynamics of Legal Transplantation: Regulating Industrial Conflicts in Post-Đổi mới Vietnam, assesses how foreign and international norms regulating industrial conflicts were transferred to Vietnam between 1994—2013. Ha has co-written and solo-authored a number of pieces of writing on legal changes in transitional socialist Vietnam, with a diverse focus on collective labour law, the legal profession and the doctrinal and constitutional foundation of the legal system. His writing pays a particular attention to the epistemological and institutional legacies of the high socialist era, their transformation and impact on contemporary Vietnam.

Ha had several years working in Vietnam in different capacities, including working as a legal academic, practitioner and development expert (collaborating extensively with the ILO and other foreign donors). Most recently, he was a Research Fellow at the Asian Law Centre at the University of Melbourne Law School where he collaborated with Dean Nicholson to explore the legal profession in Vietnam. Within the CLD project, Ha will explore the Chinese influence on Vietnamese labour law (and law and development, more generally); according to some at least, Vietnam has wrestled the title of ‘factory of the world’ from China. 

CLD Research Brief, 2021: Chinese Disguised Investment in Vietnam