The Official Gazette (Công Báo) publishes legal instruments (văn bản quy phạm pháp luật) issued in accordance with the Law on Law. However, the Official Gazette also has a section which publishes “other legal documents” (Văn bản pháp luật khác). It is not clear if these “other legal documents”, which are not legal instruments, will have the force of law.

The Law on Legal Instruments (or Law on Laws) defines a legal provision (quy phạm pháp luật) to mean a general rule of conduct, with universal binding force, applied repeatedly to agencies, organizations, and individuals within the entire country or a specific administrative unit, as prescribed by a competent state agency in this Law and ensured by the State. A legal instrument (văn bản quy phạm pháp luật) is a document containing legal provisions issued in accordance with the Law on Legal Instruments and must be published on the Official Gazette. The Law on Legal Instrument prohibits the issuance of documents which are not a legal instrument but which contain legal provisions. Since the “other legal documents” published on Official Gazette are not issued in accordance with the Law on Legal Instruments, they should not contain a legal provision and should not have the force of law.

On the other hand, the Constitution 2013 authorises the Government, the Prime Minister and Ministers to issue “legal documents” (văn bản pháp luật) to exercise its authorities and duties. The Law on Organisation of the Government also provides that the Government issues legal documents to implement the Constitution, Laws of the National Assembly. The Constitution 2013 uses the term “legal documents” instead of legal instruments. Accordingly, one could still argue that “other legal documents” which are issued by the Government should also have the force of law. Otherwise, it is not necessary for the Government to publish these documents on Official Gazette.

This post is written by Nguyen Quang Vu.