New Amendments to the Law on Laws 2015 in Vietnam

The National Assembly passed some amendments to the Law on Laws 2015 on 18 June 2020 which will become effective on 1 January 2021 (LPLD 2020). Below are summaries of the new amendments:

Two more types of documents are considered as “law” in Vietnam. They are (1) Joint Resolutions between the Standing Committee of the National Assembly, the Government, the Management Board of Central Committee Vietnamese Fatherland Front, and (2) Joint Circulars between Executive Judge of the People’s Supreme Court, the Chief Procurator of the Supreme People’s Procuracy, the State Auditor General, Ministers, Heads of ministerial agencies.
The new amendments clearly prohibit the promulgation of Joint Circulars between Ministers and Heads of ministerial agencies. The Law on Laws 2015 does not list joint circulars between Ministers and Heads of ministerial agencies as legal documents. This leads to the fact that despite various arguments on the legitimacy of this type of joint circular, many joint documents have still been enacted by Ministers or Heads of ministerial agencies.

Rules of interpretations of Vietnamese law contracts

Under Vietnamese law, the rules of interpretation of contract are mostly provided under Article 404 of the Civil Code 2015. According to this provision, the order of priority in interpreting a contract seems to be (1) “mutual intention” (ý chí chung) of the parties; (2) contract wording; and (3) each party’s intention and customary practice. In particular:

Mutual intention has priority over contract wording, and therefore the top priority in contract interpretation. This is because according to Article 404.5, in case of conflict between the “mutual intention” of the parties and the wording used in a contract, the mutual intention of the parties will be used in order to interpret the contract.

Unlike common law principles, under the Civil Code 2015, determining “mutual intention” of the parties is a subjective exercise (as opposed to an objective exercise using reasonable person’s standard), which requires examination of the parties’ intention before and at the time of execution and performance of the contract. Therefore, it would be difficult to determine “mutual intention” of the parties without concrete evidence of the same.

Vietnam Covid-19 Outbreak - The Legal Secrets of Vietnam’s Success

Undoubtedly, Vietnamese people can be proud of the society’s collective success in combating Covid-19 outbreak (less than 300 confirmed cases and no death after three months since the first confirmed case). Newspaper reports have attributed Vietnam’s success to many things including Government’s decisive and consistent policy, comprehensive quarantine and contact tracing, and high-level of awareness and cooperation by Vietnamese people. However, not much has been said about the legal framework that underpins Vietnam’s success. In this post, we will describe the legal framework which deals with infectious disease and epidemic such as Covid-19 in Vietnam. This post is written by Nguyen Hoang Duy and edited by Nguyen Quang Vu.

Law on Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases 2007

The Law on Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases 2007 was issued by the National Assembly in 2007. Laws issued in Vietnam are not always perfect. However, the fact that there is a law issued by the highest authority in Vietnam about pandemic a long time ago (probably after the SARS outbreak in 2003) demonstrates that Vietnam has given serious thought about how to deal with a pandemic.

A Brief Introduction on Vietnam Legal Framework

A copy of my book “A Brief Introduction on Vietnam Legal Framework” is now available for download for free here. Although the book was written a long time ago (in 2012), we believe it still contains useful information on Vietnam Legal Framework (especially for foreigners who have limited knowledge about the topic). Hope this could help you to kill some time when working from home during the coronavirus outbreak.

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Vietnam Business Law

Law on Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases 2007