Thang Nguyen-Dang

LLM Public International Law

Vietnam

Class of 2005/06

Before going to Nottingham to read for an LLM degree in Public International Law, I had worked as a legal expert in the International Law and Treaties Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Vietnam for five years. Strongly committed to the career of an international lawyer, I was then looking for a law school with a good international law curriculum. In this regard, Nottingham University School of Law was particularly appealing to me, first because of the fact that the school professors boast two leading casebooks on international law (Cases & Material on International Law). The school was also famous for the high quality of teaching and the wide range of courses for LLM students. This was augmented by the huge collection of law books in the University Library, which can quench the thirst for knowledge of any serious law student. Finally, as an overseas student, I was very attracted by the diversity of student nationality within the LLM programme, which demonstrated the openness of legal education in Nottingham and provided a favourable academic environment for frank discussion and the exchanges of views on legal issues. I have never regretted doing my LLM in Nottingham. And with hindsight, if only I could go there earlier. 

Immersing myself for one year in the intensive LLM programme of the Nottingham University Law School, I had acquired an up-to-date knowledge of international law, which was later instantly and effectively applied in my work in the International Law and Treaties Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs upon my return to Vietnam. But more importantly, the programme consolidated my legal background and aroused my interest in doing research in order to become an expert in a particular field of international law. Thus, after two years working in Vietnam, I am now back in England, pursuing a PhD project in a city not far from Nottingham, Cambridge.