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.

• To address the conflict situation between new law and existing laws, the new amendments provide that a new law must list the specific provisions of existing law which contravene to the new law but still need applying. This new amendment requires the drafting agency to determine which law should be applied when there are multiple rules being applicable for the same issue.

• The new amendments limit the scenarios where a new law could amend multiple existing laws including (1) when it is necessary to implement an international treaty, (2) when the existing laws to be amended are closely related to each other, and the proposed amendments are necessary to ensure consistency between various laws, and (3) when it is necessary to implement the approved plan to simplify administrative procedures. This is a helpful amendment since in practice, there are circulars of which titles do not show the purpose of making any amendment but include provisions amending other ones, which gives rise to the difficulty in researching.

• The new amendments allow a law-issuing authority to amend law which is found to be illegitimate, inconsistent, expired, or no longer relevant to current socio-economic situations.

• The new amendments allow the implementation of a law to be suspended to protect the interests of the State, legitimate rights and interests of organisations and individuals instead of solving new socio-economic issues. However, it is not clear who and how to determine whether a law has an adverse impact on the interest of the State (who issues the law itself) or other organisations or individuals. There is no time-limit on the suspension period.

• The new amendments continue to remain silent about the validity of a law which is not published. Under the Law on Laws 2008, an unpublished law will not be effective.

• The new amendments require any amendment to administrative procedures promulgated before 1 July 2016 not to include any new administrative procedures or prescribe additional documents, requirements or conditions or extend the time limit for handling the applicable administrative procedures.

This post is written by Luong Thi Thu Uyen and edited by Nguyen Quang Vu.