Legal lecture «The Loseby Lecture 2026»

   A sitting Justice of the UK Supreme Court is coming to Hanoi to explain how English commercial law became the working language of global finance — and what that experience means for a country now building its own international financial centre. If you handle cross-border deals, arbitration or security over assets, this is a conversation about your daily practice.

   The lecture series carries the name of Frank Loseby, the Hong Kong solicitor who took on the defence of Nguyen Ai Quoc — the future Ho Chi Minh — after his 1931 arrest, and kept him from being handed over to the French colonial authorities in Indochina. That history is why the event sits somewhere between a legal seminar and a diplomatic occasion.

   It is hosted by the British Chamber of Commerce Vietnam (BritCham Vietnam) with the British Consulate General in Ho Chi Minh City and Dragon Capital Vietnam Fund Management. Lord Richard Snowden, Justice of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom, delivers a condensed version of the Loseby Lecture on the development of English commercial law and the role of common law in international finance and commerce. Andrew Oldland KC follows with an overview of legal frameworks for International Financial Centres — how they have evolved over the past thirty years and what defines them. He will also introduce Resolution No. 222 and the Law on the Specialist Court, strictly for information and without recommending any model for Viet Nam.

   A panel discussion closes the afternoon, covering five questions:

• — common law and civil law systems side by side;
• — coordination between the Specialist Court and the national courts;
• — Vietnamese real property used as collateral inside an IFC;
• — building legal capacity to apply common law principles;
• — how the Specialist Court will work with the new International Arbitration Centre.

   The organisers have in mind lawyers and in-house counsel, banks, financial institutions and financial service providers, business and banking leaders, policymakers and government representatives, the wider financial community including VIFC stakeholders, and academics and staff from universities and law faculties.

   Places go on a first-come, first-served basis, and registering is only half of it — you also need the organisers' confirmation. Incomplete applications may be declined, as may registrations from people who neither practise nor study in law or a closely related field. Photography and filming run throughout; tell the organising committee in advance or at the registration desk if you would rather stay out of frame.

   The venue helps: the Metropole sits one block from Hoan Kiem Lake in the heart of the old French quarter, an easy walk from most of central Hanoi. Come with questions — the panel exists for them.