Profile
Viet Tran

Viet TRAN

PhD Researcher in International Law
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Spoken languages
English, French, Vietnamese

 

Profile

Viet Tran is a PhD candidate at the Geneva Graduate Institute and a research assistant for the SNSF project “The Crisis of Consent: Consensualism in an Era of International Regulatory Agreements”, which is hosted by the Global Governance Centre and led by Professor Fuad Zarbiyev. Within the project, his doctoral research explores the tension between state consent and the evolving content of treaty commitments in international trade law, asking how far adjudicatory and other independent mechanisms may carry those commitments beyond the consent that gave them juridical birth.

Viet previously worked at the World Trade Organization (WTO) as a consultant in the Trade Policies Review Division (2026) and as a Young Professional in the Trade in Services and Investment Division (2025). He also gained experience in international adjudication as an intern at the Legal Office of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) (2024). Before relocating to Switzerland in 2019, he spent over five years in private legal practice in Viet Nam (2014–2019), working on matters concerning foreign investment, corporate finance, and commercial dispute settlement.

Viet holds an Erasmus Mundus Joint Master’s Degree (EMJMD) in International Law of Global Security, Peace, and Development (2023), which was jointly delivered by the University of Glasgow, the Barcelona Institute of International Studies (IBEI), and Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB). He also holds an LL.M. in International Dispute Settlement (MIDS) from the Geneva Graduate Institute and the University of Geneva (2020). He obtained his LL.B. in International Law from the Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam (DAV) and graduated as salutatorian in 2014.

 

Research interests:

  • Public international law
  • International trade law
  • International investment law
  • International tax and financial law
  • Law of the sea and maritime law
  • Law and development

 

Academic work experience:

  • Guest lecturer, Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam (Fall 2018; Winter 2026)

 

Other work experience:

  • Consultant, WTO - Trade Policies Review Division (2026)
  • Young professional, WTO - Trade in Services and Investment Division (2025)
  • Legal intern, International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) - Legal Office (2024) 
  • Intern, WTO - Trade in Services and Investment Division (2021)
  • Intern, OECD – DAC Network on Governance - Anti-Corruption Task Team (2020-2021)
  • Earlier private legal practice in Viet Nam (2014-2019)


Relevant publications:

WTO–World Bank Handbook on Good Regulatory Practices to Facilitate Trade in Services (WTO, 2025) (with Elena Bertola and Markus Jelitto)


Fellowships, Grants and Awards

  • Second Runner-Up, International Bar Association–International Criminal Court Moot Court Competition (IBA ICC MCC) (2023)
  • EMJM Scholarship, funded by the European Union (2021–2023)
  • MIDS Scholarship, funded by Hans Wilsdorf Foundation (2019–2020)
  • External Programme of The Hague Academy of International Law (2018)


Affiliations

  • Ha Noi Bar Association
  • Vietnam Bar Federation