Professor Vernon Palmer Contributes to Cambodia’s Legal Reform Effort

Tulane Law Professor Vernon Palmer was recently invited by Cambodia’s Permanent Deputy Prime Minister, Vongsey Vissoth, to participate in the Symposium on Cambodia’s Legal System, hosted by the country’s Legal Reform Committee. 

The symposium brought together legal scholars and policymakers to examine legal systems around the world and explore the historical development of Cambodia’s own system. Insights from the gathering will inform a new “Conceptual Framework for Building Cambodia’s Legal System,” a roadmap guiding the royal government’s ongoing legal reform and strengthening future international cooperation. 

The symposium included research presentations and moderated panel discussions on three central themes: major legal systems across the globe, the history of Cambodia’s legal system, and efforts to define its contemporary identity. Professor Palmer presented a comparative law analysis of Cambodia's civil law, highlighting the French and Japanese influences on the Cambodian Civil Code enacted in 2011. 

Addressing the attendees, Palmer shared his perspective on Cambodia’s evolving legal system: “The truth is there is no modern legal system to my knowledge which has not accepted or borrowed other people's laws.  One should not worry about mixedness.  Total purity is a myth. Functionality is far more important. Judicious mixing is a strength and an efficiency.” 

A leading authority in comparative law and European and French civil law, Professor Palmer is uniquely suited to contribute to this international dialogue. Over his five-decade career, he has published extensively on mixed legal systems, making his expertise especially relevant as Cambodia seeks to articulate its own legal identity.