Opinions of the Government of Vietnam on the Draft Law on promulgation of legislative documents (amended)

Opinions of the Government of Vietnam on the Draft Law on promulgation of legislative documents (amended) (Image from the internet)

On September 22, 2024, the Government of Vietnam issued Resolution 148/NQ-CP on the specialized session on law-making for September 2024.

Opinions of the Government of Vietnam on the Draft Law on promulgation of legislative documents (amended)

The Government of Vietnam highly appreciates the Ministry of Justice of Vietnam for leading the initiative, cooperating with relevant ministries and agencies to prepare the proposal dossier for law-making, and presenting it to the Government of Vietnam in accordance with the Law on the Promulgation of legislative documents.

The Government of Vietnam agrees on the necessity to amend and supplement the Law on the Promulgation of legislative documents to institutionalize the policies and guidelines of the Communist Party regarding the work on law-making, improving the legal system; perfecting the mechanism for issuing legislative documents to ensure professionalism, scientific integrity, promptness, feasibility, and effectiveness; addressing challenges and obstacles in law-making and promulgation in recent times; meeting increasing demands and expectations for the progress and quality of institution-building, and quickly proposing and issuing legislative documents to address urgent and emerging issues, creating mechanisms to attract resources, contributing significantly to the socio-economic development and enhancing the people's quality of life.

The Government of Vietnam assigns the Ministry of Justice of Vietnam to lead, in cooperation with relevant ministries and agencies, to research and perfect the proposal dossier for the Law on Promulgation of legislative documents with the following requirements:

- Promptly and fully institutionalize the policies and guidelines of the Communist Party regarding law-making and perfecting the legal system, especially the requirements in Resolution 27-NQ/TW on continuing to build and perfect the socialist rule-of-law state in the new period and Regulation 178-QD/TW on preventing and combating corruption and negativity in law-making. Innovate the thinking in law-making; strictly regulate the procedures for crafting and promulgating legislative documents, but allow room for creativity for the people and those involved in law-making.

- Review and ensure consistency with the Constitution and organizational laws (Law on the Organization of the National Assembly, Law on the Organization of the Government, Law on the Organization of Local Government); monitor the process of amending and supplementing laws on organizational structures.

- Enhance decentralization and devolution in law-making, linked with emphasizing the responsibility of leaders; minimize unnecessary procedures that delay the drafting and promulgation of legislative documents; control power in state management and law-making specifically.

- Study and stipulate the authority of the Standing Committee of the National Assembly to approve the law-making program; the principle of drafting legislative documents must ensure specificity for immediate implementation on clear, stable issues, and flexibility to quickly adjust issues that are dynamic and unstable, requiring adjustments during the application of the law; the legal language must be simple, clear, easy to understand, and avoid multiple interpretations.

- Thoroughly evaluate the impact of policies, add policy options and solutions to ensure the proposed policy is reasonable, feasible, and effective.

- Actively refer to international experiences selectively and appropriately to Vietnam's political institution and organizational model.

- Actively consult with experts and scientists; promote policy communication to create consensus; effectively cooperate with ministries and central authorities and relevant agencies.

- On Policy 1: Strengthen the leadership of Party committees at all levels, add principles on power control in drafting and implementing legislative documents; narrow and clearly define the authority to issue legislative documents.

The Government of Vietnam generally agrees with the objectives and content of the policy; the Ministry of Justice should study the suitable form of legislative documents of the Government (Decree and Resolution of the Government), ensuring full legal basis for the Government to issue legislative documents to decide on specific policies in some necessary, urgent cases arising in practice.

- On Policy 2: Continue to reform and perfect the process of drafting legislative documents in a professional, scientific, and prompt manner; clearly define the roles, authorities, and responsibilities of participants in drafting and promulgating legislative documents.

The Government of Vietnam generally agrees with the objectives and content of the policy; the Ministry of Justice should review to further cut down complex, inappropriate, and unnecessary procedures. Innovate the process of drafting and promulgating legislative documents in military, security, and cryptographic fields, ensuring promptness and suitability to the particularities of the armed and cryptographic forces. To ensure the quality of legislative documents and the requirements of power control, anti-corruption, and negativity in law-making, the Ministry of Justice should study and ensure a strict process in drafting and promulgating legislative documents, especially in drafting laws; at the same time, continue to study and perfect the streamlined process to ensure flexibility and promptness; study and stipulate that the person competent to issue legislative documents decides to apply the streamlined procedures without needing approval from higher authorities and other agencies as currently required for seeking the Prime Minister's and Ministry of Justice's opinions on the application of streamlined procedures when drafting ministerial circulars.

- On Policy 3: Continue to perfect some regulations on the implementation of legislative documents; strengthen the inspection and handling of illegal legislative documents; ensure resources, renew the mechanism for allocating and effectively using funding for law-making and implementation.

The Government of Vietnam generally agrees with the policy's objectives; assigning the Ministry of Justice to continue researching and supplementing content on organizational structures, enhancing human resources and funding for law-making, and content on implementing legislative documents; clarify the content of policy impact assessment, especially resources and conditions to ensure law implementation (building a "smart" legal database, applying artificial intelligence and funding for hiring experts and independent consultants in law-making...) to create legal mechanisms and frameworks for organizing and implementing laws to bring them into life soon.

- On the two issues consulted with the Government of Vietnam:

+ On the Government's authority to issue legislative documents:

The Government of Vietnam issues a Resolution as a legal document to handle specific cases, with a narrow scope, for a certain period.

The Government of Vietnam agrees to retain the provisions in Clauses 1 and 2, Article 19 of the Law on Promulgation of legislative documents; add the authority for the Government to issue decrees to pilot certain contents different from existing decrees applicable to specific subjects and cases for a certain period; the drafting of decrees can combine detailed regulations and implementation guidance into one decree to simplify procedures and ensure practicability.

For the decree stipulated in Clause 3, Article 19 of the Law on Promulgation of legislative documents: This is the legal basis for the Government of Vietnam to proactively issue decrees regulating necessary issues under the authority of the National Assembly and its Standing Committee but are not yet mature enough to form a law or ordinance, meeting state management, economic management, and social needs. The Government of Vietnam agrees to retain the provision in Clause 3, Article 19; assigning the Ministry of Justice to study simplifying the process and shortening the drafting and promulgation time.

+ On applying the 02-stage process (policy formulation and drafting) in drafting and promulgating legislative documents: the Government of Vietnam generally agrees with the Ministry of Justice's proposal; consider applying the 02-stage process only for new law projects. The Ministry of Justice should continue researching and adding cases where streamlined procedures can be applied and clearly defining the procedures for streamlined processes for laws, ordinances, and resolutions.

More details can be found in Resolution 148/NQ-CP issued on September 22, 2024.

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