Communist Review - Law formulation and enforcement play a crucial role in institutionalizing and implementing Party's guidelines. Over the past time, this work has achieved significant results, but it also revealed some limitations and inadequacies that need to be fully identified, clearly analyzed. Due consideration should be given to determining direction, tasks and solutions to continue innovating, creating strong transformation in the coming time, contributing to successfully implement the Resolution of the 13th Party Congress.

Law formulation and enforcement

In the context of accelerating the building and improvement of the socialist rule-of-law State of Vietnam, law formulation and enforcement is of significant importance, directly contributing to socio-economic development, national defense and security. Aware of this importance, over the past time, the Communist Party of Vietnam has issued different documents related to the law building and enforcement. The political report submitted to the 12th Party Congress indicated: “In the coming years, it is essential to step up law improvement in association with law enforcement in order to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the socialist rule of law state.  Law enforcement constitutes a tool for the State to govern society and for the people to master, supervise and control state power. The country must be governed by the rule of law while due consideration should be given to building moral values”(1). The resolutions, directives and conclusions of the Central Committee, the Politburo and the Secretariat also clearly define the goals, directions, tasks and solutions for law formulation and enforcement in order to build a synchronous, unified, stable and transparent Vietnamese legal system.

After 5 years of implementing the Resolution of the 12th Party Congress, 15 years of implementing Resolution No. 48/NQ-TW, dated May 24, 2005, of the 9th Politburo on “Strategy of building and perfecting Vietnamese legal system to 2010 with vision to 2020”, 10 years of implementing the “Socio-economic development strategy 2011-2020”, law formulation and enforcement work has obtained huge achievements.

First and foremost, the building and perfecting of legal system is carried out towards right goals with top priority to effectively implement the 2013 Constitution.  Institutionalize the Party's guidelines on organizational structure, downsize the staff, and improve the performance of public agencies; strengthen national defense and security; respect and protect human rights and citizens' rights; proactively integrate into the world; step by step perfect the socialist-oriented market economy institution, remove legal obstacles for investment and business activities; accelerate administrative and judicial reforms, fight against corruption. The National Assembly has promulgated a large number of laws, including the mainstay laws of the country, such as the 2013 Constitution, Civil Code, Criminal Code, Civil Procedure Code, Criminal Procedure Code, Labor Code, Investment law, Law on Enterprises, etc. Up to now, nearly all areas have been regulated by legal documents. The quality of legal documents has been clearly improved. In general, they are coherent, feasible, transparent and accessible to public.

Secondly, the process of elaborating and promulgating regulations has been renovated. It is generally prescribed strictly at both central and local levels by the 2015 Law on the Promulgation of normative Documents, which was amended and supplemented in 2020 to ensure the quality of legal regulations, reduce the form of documents and restrict the authority of localities in law promulgation. Focus on developing and assessing the impact of policies, separate the policy formulation stage from the preparation of draft documents. Strengthen publicity, transparency, collect people’s opinions, especially those who are directly subjects to legal documents.

Thirdly, the organization of law enforcement has been given priority and achieved important initial results. Public awareness in respecting the rule of law has been raised. Government and the Prime Minister have drastically directed the promulgation of documents guiding laws, ordinances and resolutions with many synchronous solutions, so there was a positive change, the lack of regulatory documents has been gradually handled. Law dissemination and education has been renovated in terms of content and form; policy and legal dialogues have been reinforced; technological applications have been used to meet real-life requirements. The organization of law enforcement has been more closely linked with the building and improvement of law; institutional obstacles and “bottlenecks” have been removed to promote investment and business activities, ensure social welfare and promptly respond to epidemics and natural disasters. In 2020, the Prime Minister directed a comprehensive review of normative documents in terms of public governance in a bid to detect and handle overlapping, contradictory, inadequate regulations which restrain national growth. Some inadequate regulations recently promulgated by the National Assembly, the Standing Committee of the National Assembly, the Government, the Prime Minister, ministries and ministerial-level agencies have been promptly handled. The 13th Party Congress affirmed: “The legal system has been basically improved. The role of law and law enforcement is increasingly taken into account in the organization and operation of the State and social life”(2).

Some weaknesses and limitations

Beside above success, the law-making and enforcement work in recent years also revealed limitations. The institutionalization of the Party's guidelines in some areas is not up to par and incomplete. The legal system remains cumbersome, complicated and multi-layered; Its predictability and stability are not good; some regulations are overlapping and contradictory; there are many regulations which are not clear, leading to different interpretations; They are not able to quickly adapt to real- life changes, especially to the Fourth Industrial Revolution or to respond promptly to natural disasters and epidemics. The legal process is rigid, there is still a lack of close connection between steps. Policy making, policy assessment, collecting people’s opinions are not really effective. Rules and discipline in law formulation and law enforcement are sometimes not strictly respected in some localities. The organization of law enforcement has not been paid due attention, not really linked with law-making. Law awareness of a part of officials and citizens is still limited. “There has some inconsistent regulations that have not met real-life needs. Compliance with the law is generally not strict; Some individuals and localities neglect the rule of law

The above-mentioned shortcomings result from subjective and objective factors of which subjective factors are the main ones. Awareness of the role and importance of law-making and enforcement of some organizations and Party committees is not really good. They do not pay much attention to mobilizing sufficient resources; Leadership is not really effective. Although law making and enforcement involves different agencies, entities and individuals, their coordination is not really effective. They focus mostly on administrative procedures and lack of initiative and flexibility. Conditions to ensure the law building and enforcement are not conducive. Human resources specialized in legal work in ministries, branches and localities are insufficient; At local level, most of them take on concurrent position so they do not have the same professional knowledge. The reality shows that a part of cadres, civil servants and public employees do not deeply understand legal regulations as well as principles of law, so the law enforcement in completing assigned tasks is still rigid. Some people so called hypengyophobia fear taking responsibility and avoid responsibilities. There has not been an adequate mechanism to attract the wide involvement of organizations, individuals, experts, scientists and professionals in law building and enforcement.

Orientation and key tasks in law building and enforcement to successfully implement the Resolution of the 13th Party Congress

Resolution of the 13th Party Congress sets a goal that by 2045, Vietnam will become a “developed, high-income country”(4). After more than 35 years of renovation and from international experiences, it is noticeable that, to achieve this goal, the creation of quality institutions holds an important place. Therefore, the 13th Party Congress reaffirmed that development of quality institution is one of three strategic breakthroughs with new connotations and requirements; Moreover, it set out some major and inclusive orientations in law - making and enforcement: “the focus must be on building a complete, timely, synchronous, unified, feasible, accountable, accessible, transparent, stable legal system, giving top priority to legitimate rights and interests of people and businesses, promoting innovation for rapid and sustainable growth”(5). “Harmonize law-making and law enforcement organizations. Conduct a drastic leadership, mobilize adequate resources to improve the effectiveness of law enforcement organization, inspection and handle of law violations”(6). The Summary Report on the implementation of the Socio-Economic Development Strategy 2011-2020 and the Strategy 2021-2030 has added a goal to build a legal system to gain competitive advantage internationally.

In order to successfully implement the Resolution of the 13th  Party Congress, the law building and enforcement work in the coming time needs to be renewed and focus on the following key tasks:

Firstly, comprehensively, accurately and timely institutionalize the Party's viewpoints and guidelines stated in the Document of the 13th Party Congress; resolutions, directives and conclusions made by the Politburo and the Secretariat of the Party Central Committee. Continue to concretize regulations to effectively implement the 2013 Constitution. During law making process, particular priority should be given to sector such as the organization of the state apparatus; the regime of public service, civil servants and public employees; administrative reform, judicial reform; human rights, civil rights; technological development; quality of human resources. Improve the market economy institution to raise the national competitiveness and ranking in global innovation index. Fulfill international commitments; build a legal framework to create an environment conducive to national integration into the Fourth Industrial Revolution and digital transformation; establish a legal framework for new business models. In the immediate future, it is necessary to remove legal and institutional obstacles to fulfill the double goals of containing the spread of the coronavirus disease and promoting economic growth.

Secondly, in the relationship between law making and law enforcement, it is essential to highly focus on organizing law enforcement, ensuring the coherence between law formulation and improvement and effective law enforcement. Continue to strictly implement the 2013 Constitution, laws, ordinances and resolutions of the National Assembly and Standing Committee of the National Assembly; promptly promulgate normative documents guiding laws and ordinances in order to avoid delays in promulgating legal documents, and soon bring law to life. In law enforcement organizations, it is necessary to strengthen monitoring and guiding the implementation of law, early detect and timely handle problems in practice, promptly amend inadequate regulations. In particular, in law enforcement, it is vital to respect principles: “Everyone is free in conducting a business in areas that are not prohibited by law” (Article 33, 2013 Constitution) and “The State is organized and governed by the Constitution and law. It governs society by the Constitution and law” (Clause 1, Article 8, 2013 Constitution). Due consideration should be given to law dissemination and education and public accessibility to law. Raise law awareness, ensure that citizen and civil servants respect law.

Thirdly, strengthen and renew the Party's leadership in law building and enforcement. Institutionalize the Party's undertakings and guidelines into policies and laws; build a contingent of qualified cadres and civil servants who are competent in organizing the implementation of policies and laws. The renovation of Party's leadership in term of law-making and law enforcement needs quality improvement of legislation; timely orient important, complicated and sensitive policies and laws. Strengthen the supervision of law making and enforcement; punish organizations and individuals for incomplete tasks.

Fourthly, gradually renovate approaches in elaborating regulations to meet criteria of stability, predictability and adaptability to real-life problems while ensuring the socialist legal principle and also creating a creative work environment for a tectonic Government with integrity, action and development as well as for the flexible application of law of the court system to defend justice. Clearly define conditions, contents, procedures and competent authorities to elaborate and implement an experimental institutional framework to actively participate in the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Continue to study and improve the legislative and regulatory processes in a substantive and effective manner. Use technological advances in legislation.

Fifthly, clearly define rights and responsibilities of relevant actors on law formulation and enforcement. Improve discipline and responsibility of the heads of party committees, agencies and entities, and strengthen inspection and evaluation. Strengthen coordination between organizations and individuals in law making and enforcement, especially in elaborating, editing and submitting law projects, collecting opinions, supervising in order to speed up law-making process and improve its quality. Enhance the substantive and effective involvement of organizations and individuals from all walks of life in elaborating regulations. Promote social supervision and criticism of the Vietnam Fatherland Front and socio-political organizations. Gathering opinions must be conducted in a logical, practical and diverse manner that is appropriate to specific actors. The analysis of these feedback must be made properly. It is needed to give clear explanations for opinions that are rejected.

Sixthly, improve the system of supervision over regulations and normative documents, consider this an important solution to ensure the constitutionality, and legality and consistency of the legal system. The supervision should focus on assessing the suitability and level of institutionalization of the Party's lines and policies, the constitutionality, legitimacy, uniformity and consistency with the legal system, the feasibility of regulations as well as their impact on socio-economic life. Voices raised by supervisors must be listened carefully by legislators. This must be an important information channel for competent authorities to refer to during the process of regulations elaboration and promulgation.

Seventhly, invest adequate resources for law formulation and enforcement. The National Assembly, the Government, the Prime Minister, central and local authorities should allocate funds to ensure effective law building and enforcement. Give priority to training, fostering and improving the capacity, political bravery, professional qualifications and expertise of officials in law building and enforcement. Adopt policies to attract and encourage qualified and experienced experts, scientists, and professionals to ensure an effective law building and enforcement. Implement solutions to ensure the quality of legal services, judicial assistance; Formulate specific policies to expand the network of professional organizations in this sector and improve their quality. Focus on receiving and handling complaints and suggestions of people and businesses, strengthen dialogue, and promptly handle problems arisen from the implementation of policies and law.

Only by synchronously implementing solutions and making great efforts and determination can we achieve the goal of building a complete, synchronous, unified, timely, feasible, stable, accountable, transparent legal system associated with effective and strict law enforcement to ensure that “all the lines of the Party, policies, laws and activities of the State are for the benefit of the people, people's happiness is a goal to strive for”(7) as General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong emphasized. The law belongs to the superstructure, if we can build a legal system that fully meets the requirements as defined in the Document of the 13th Party Congress and implement strictly legal regulations, we will build an important “soft” infrastructure for national rapid and sustainable growth in the future.

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(1) Document of the 12th National Congress, Office of the Party Central Committee, Hanoi, 2016, p. 176

(2), (3) Document of the 13th National Congress, National Political Publishing House, vol. I, p. 71 - 72, 89

(4) Document of the 13th National Congress, ibid, vol. II, p. 327

(5), (6) Document of the 13th National Congress, ibid, vol. I, pp. 175, 179

(7) Nguyen Phu Trong: “Some theoretical and practical issues about socialism and the path to socialism in Vietnam”, Communist Review, No. 966, May 2021, p. 9

This article was published in the Communist Review No. 979 (Deccember 2021)