Law Students Told To Avoid Thesis Topics

Fourth-year students at Phnom Penh’s Royal University of Law and Economics (RULE) have been barred from writing their theses on 14 topics, including … Cambodia’s new bourse, according to a letter posted online yesterday. The letter, signed by the university’s research department director Kong Saphon on Feb 2., said that students are not allowed to research 14 topics, including “drug problems in society”, “the organization and working of the Cambodian Red Cross,” or “the resolution of land disputes by Cambodian authorities.” The letter also prohibits writing about about workplace disputes and arbitration, as well as a number of topics related to Cambodia’s new stock market, which launched in July and is expected to start listing its first stocks soon. The prohibited topics include “publicly traded companies,” “first-time printing and sale or publicly owned stocks”, and “the regularization of the stock market.” …