undergraduate

On January 11th DTU, students from Vietnam National University in HCMC met with DTU Economics and Law students. Assistant Professor. Le Vu Nam, DTU Dean of Law and Dr. Vo Thanh Hai, DTU Vice-Provost attended.

 

  

 

Assistant Professor Nam said: “DTU offers many high-level student exchange programs in the Central region. I admire your creativity and dynamism and your achievements of the past twenty first years. So we have decided to choose DTU as a student exchange partner. Today’s meeting marks the beginning of a long-lasting relationship between our two universities. This event will be held annually to help broaden our students’ minds”. 

Students discussed the issue of why the State Bank of Vietnam took over the Vietnam Construction Bank for nothing, which was a well-publicized topic since late 2015. 

 

  

The State Bank of Vietnam also acquired the Global Petrol Bank and the Ocean Bank because liquidity concerns, and, in doing so, the SBV acquired all their equity, automatically terminating rights of shareholders and converting them into limited companies.

At the meeting, the Economics and Law students from both universities jointly held a mock hearing. According to the plan, the students took the roles of members of the jury at the Hai Chau District People’s Court. 

 

The case was as follows: At around 10 pm on August 4th, 2015, after drinking, Nguyen Huy Vu is coaxed into street racing by his friends. Inebriated, Vu gives in to his friends’ cajoling. During the race, Vu notices he is trailing behind and accelerates, swerving through traffic to get to the front. 

 

Unable to control his speed, he causes an accident, knocking Mr. and Mrs. B. down. Vu does not stop to help but keeps going. Brought to the emergency department in time, Mr. and Mrs. B.’s lives are not endangered, but Mr. B. suffers wounds to 50% of his body and Mrs. B. 35%.

 

At the hearing, the prosecution argues that the defendant was aware of his actions, that he is a student living in a healthy environment, but that he still scorns the law and thinks lightly of other people’s lives. The defense lawyer argues that his client did not participate in the street racing due to disregard for human life, but because he needed to get away from the despair of his parents’ divorce. He therefore petitions the judges to reduce the sentence. The fact that Vu ran away after the accident was not because he was ignoring the consequences, but because he was afraid, proved by the fact that he later turned himself in to the police. 

 

After considering the circumstances, the judges concluded that the 22 year-old defendant was aware of his actions and that he had abused the law, in spite of being a student. The defendant knew well that street racing and swerving through traffic could cause accidents, but he still disregarded the law. Nonetheless, the defendant was judged to be a good person in difficult circumstances and the panel sentenced Nguyen Huy Vu to five years in prison.

 

Nguyen Le Thanh Thanh of the University of Economics and Law explained: “This is the first time we have held a mock hearing at the university. It took us two weeks to prepare and we learned a lot”, while Pham Bao Tram, a DTU student, said: “We gained valuable experience from this fictitious trial, which improves the quality of our studies and provides us with a stronger foundation for our future careers”.