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Professors John Hill and Max Huffman traveled to Vietnam National University University of Economics and Law in Ho Chi Minh City to teach during a summer school organized by the American Law Center. Professor Hill taught American Tort Law, and Professor Huffman taught Consumer Law.

IU McKinney has a cooperation agreement with VNU UEL that provides for opportunities for professors at both schools for travel and scholarship.

The classes were taught in English, four hours per day over five days, and the students were interested in U.S.-style teaching, so faculty utilized the Socratic method.

"They were really wonderful students!" Professor Hill said.

Half of the class was comprised of law students, while the other half were faculty at other law schools, including two deans. Students were from Indonesia, Malaysia, and other cities throughout Vietnam. "They were sophisticated, engaged, and asked probing questions," Professor Huffman said. Several of the students in his class were experts in Vietnamese consumer law, and he plans to collaborate with them, he said.

When the class wasn't in session, students traveled to visit the sights. (Professor Hill is with his students on such a trip in the photo at right) Professor Hill said his most memorable visit was to the Reunification Palace in Ho Chi Minh City, where the president of South Vietnam lived during the war. "I am old enough to remember those stunning television scenes from April 1975 as the last American helicopters, loaded with people while others tried to climb on, took off from the roof of the palace as the North Vietnamese crashed the gates during their final onslaught," he said. "It sent a shiver down my spine."

Students in Professor Huffman's class also did some sight-seeing, and took a particularly memorable bike tour (in the photo at left) around Ho Chi Minh City.