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Author	Prof Thi Nha Nam Bach
Organisation/Institution	University of Economics and Law, VNU Ho Chi Minh city
Country	VIETNAM
Panel	Children and Law
Title	When Justice Stays at Home: Feminist Legal Reflections on Gender, Power, and Child Protection in Vietnam
Abstract	Sexual violence against children remains one of the most underreported and misunderstood crimes in Vietnam. According to UNFPA (2022), over sixty percent of cases occur within families or among people familiar to the victims, yet fewer than ten percent are officially reported. This silence reflects not only stigma and economic dependence but also the law’s complicity in domesticating justice—keeping it “at home” and away from public scrutiny. This article examines two recent criminal cases in which fathers or stepfathers were accused of raping their daughters, but legal institutions initially resisted or inadequately addressed the allegations. Through a feminist legal lens, it explores how Vietnam’s criminal law and judicial reasoning construct sexual violence within the family. Drawing on Catharine MacKinnon’s radical feminist critique (1989) and socio-legal feminist perspectives (Smart, 1989; Charlesworth, 1995), the paper argues that such cases expose the structural limits of “gender-neutral” law. By privileging physical evidence—especially the hymen test—over power relations, coercion, and psychological harm, the law reproduces patriarchal assumptions about consent and credibility. Methodologically, the study employs judgment analysis—a close reading of two anonymized trial judgments—combined with feminist critique to reveal how gendered hierarchies are embedded in judicial language, evidentiary standards, and sentencing logic. These findings are situated within broader Southeast Asian debates on gender-based violence and feminist jurisprudence. By showing how the justice system’s supposed neutrality masks patriarchal bias, this study contributes to feminist legal scholarship on sexual violence in the Global South. It argues that when justice remains confined within patriarchal family boundaries, it becomes complicit in silence rather than resistance. True feminist justice, therefore, demands exposing and reimagining the legal narratives that keep suffering unseen and justice “at home.”
Biography	Dr. Thi Nha Nam Bach is a law lecturer at the Faculty of Law, University of Economics and Law, Vietnam National University, Ho Chi Minh City, and holds a PhD in Law from Griffith Law School, Griffith University, Australia. Her teaching and research interests include Vietnamese legal history, gender and property law, and the interaction between customary norms and statutory law in transitional societies. Her recent scholarship examines how Vietnam’s evolving legal system reflects broader questions of justice, and social transformation in postcolonial contexts. She is particularly interested in how gendered power relations shape legal development and how women’s rights, property, and family relations are negotiated between traditional norms and modern state law. Dr. Bach’s current research investigates feminist legal responses to sexual violence within the family and the pursuit of substantive justice in patriarchal legal systems. By highlighting how law both reflects and reinforces gender hierarchies, her work contributes to regional and global conversations on feminist jurisprudence, justice reform, and the pursuit of equality in transitional societies.