NOVELTIES OF THE LAW ON PROMULGATION OF LEGAL NORMATIVE...

NOVELTIES OF THE LAW ON PROMULGATION OF

LEGAL NORMATIVE DOCUMENT 2015

Trần Văn Lợi

Deputy Head of Legislative Division, GALD

The Law on Promulgation of Legal Normative Documents was adopted by the 13th

National Assembly at its 9th pleanary meeting on 22/6/2015 and will take effect as from01/7/2016. The Law on Promulgation of Legal Normative Documents 2015 comprises 17chapters, 173 articles and will replace the Law on Promulgation of Legal NormativeDocuments 2008 and the Law on Promulgation of Legal Normative Documents ofPeople’s Councils and People’s Committees 2004. Below are the novelties of the Law onPromulgation of Legal Normative Documents 2015:

1. Consolidating the two current laws on promulgation of legal normativedocuments

The Law on Promulgation of Legal Normative Documents 2008 and the Law onPromulgation of Legal Normative Documents of People’s Councils and People’sCommittees 2004 have provided a legal basis for the establishment of order anddiscipline in the development and promulgation of legal normative documents work ofboth the central level and local level, contributing to the development and perfectioningof the legal system. However, despite the co-existence of the two laws that regulatetogether the activity of development and promulgation of legal normative documents,these two laws have revealed a number of inconsistent or even contradictory provisions.

To address this issue, based on the heritage and further development of the twocurrent laws, the Law on Promulgation of Legal Normative Documents 2015 is aconsolidated law that will be applied thoroughly and consistently for the developmentand promulgation of legal normative documents of agencies, institutions and individualsvested of power to promulgate legal normative documents at both the central level andthe local level.

2. In regard to legal normative documents and the definition of legal norms

The definition of “legal normative document” was provided for the first time in theLaw on Promulgation of Legal Normative Documents 1996, then remains in the 2008Law and 2004 Law. The provision on definition of legal normative documents serves asbase for the competent authorities to distinguish between legal normative documents,administrative documents and legal application documents, which would contribute tosubstantially limit the number of administrative documents containing legal norms.However, due to the fact that the provided definition in the two Laws are too much of an

NATIONAL LEGISLATIVE DEVELOPMENT PROJECT (NLD)

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academic nature and not precise on the other hand, a clear determination of whichdocuments are legal normative documents has always been a difficult work.

For the importance of the definition of legal normative documents and in order todeal with the shortcoming in distinguishing the definition of legal normative documentsand ordinary administrative documents and other documents of State agencies that havebeen promulgated so far, the 2015 Law separates the definition of “legal normativedocuments” and the definition of “legal norms”. Details are as below:

1. “Legal norms” are general rules of conduct of generally binding validity which areapplied for repeated times to all agencies, organizations or individuals in the entire countryor in certain administrative areas, and which are promulgated by State agencies orcompetent individuals as prescribed in this Law and the implementation of which isensured by the State (item 1 Article 3).

2. “Legal normative documents” are documents that legal norms and promulgated inaccordance with the competence, forms, steps and procedures prescribed in this Law.

Documents that contain legal norms but are not promulgated in accordance with thecompetence, forms, steps and procedures stipulated in this Law are not legal documents(Article 2).

3. In regard to the competence and types of legal normative documents

Following the direction to continue the simplification of the system of legalnormative documents, the new Law has managed to remove a number of types of legalnormative documents, at the same time provide a clearer, more precise and rigid contenton the promulgation of different types of legal normative documents. Details are asbelow:

3.1. On the types of legal normative documents

Compared to the 2008 Law and 2004 Law, the new Law has reduced the fivefollowing types of legal normative documents: (1) Joint Resolution between the StandingCommittee of the National Assembly or the Government and the central entity of political-social organizations (except Joint Resolution between the Standing Committee of theNational Assembly or the Government and the President Board of the Central Committeeof Vietnam Fatherland Front, (2) Joint Circular between Ministers, Heads of Ministeriallevel agencies; (3) Directives of Provincial People’s Committee; (4) Directives ofDistrict People’s Committees; (5) Directives of Commune People’s Committees. Withrespect to the Joint Resolutions, the only type retained is the Joint Resolution between theStanding Committee of the National Assembly or the Government and the President Boardof the Central Committee of Vietnam Fatherland Front. However, in order to beconformed with 2013 Constitution, the 2015 Law has supplemented a new type of legalnormative documents of Special administrative and economic unit authorities. Inaccordance with Article 3, the system of legal normative documents is composed of 26types to be promulgated by 18 competent entities, including:

“1. Consitution.


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2. Codes and Laws (hereinafter referred to as “laws”), Resolutions of the NationalAssembly;

3. Ordinances, Resolutions of the Standing Committee of the National AssemblyPháp; Joint Resolution between the Standing Committee of the National Assembly and thePresident Board of the Central Committee of Vietnam Fatherland Front;

4. Orders, Decisions of the State President;

5. Decrees of the Government; Joint Resolution between the Government and thePresident Board of the Central Committee of Vietnam Fatherland Front;

6. Decisions of the Prime Minister;

7. Resolutions of the Justice Council of the Supreme People’s Court;8. Circulars of the Chief Justice of the Supreme People’s Court; Circulars of the

Chief Procurator of the Supreme People’s Procuracy; Circulars of the Ministers, Head ofMinisterial level agencies; Joint Circulars between the Chief Justice of the SupremePeople’s Court and of the Chief Procurator of the Supreme People’s Procuracy; betweenthe Ministers, Head of Ministerial level agencies and the Chief Justice of the SupremePeople’s Court, the Chief Procurator of the Supreme People’s Procuracy; Decisions of theGeneral State Auditor;

9. Resolutions of People’s Councils of provinces and central cities (hereinafterreferred to as “provincial level”);

10. Decisions of Provincial People’s Committees;

11. Legal normative documents of the Special administrative and economic unitauthorities;

12. Resolutions of People’s Councils of districts, municipalities, provincial cities andadministratively equivalent units (hereinafter referred to as “District level”);

13. Decisions of District People’s Committees;

14. Resolutions of People’s Councils of communes, towns (hereinafter referred to as“Commune level”);

15. Decisions of Commune People’s Committees”.3.2. On the competence and contents of legal normative documents

On the ground of the 2013 Consitution and Laws related to the organization of theState machine ((amended) Law on the organization of the National Assembly, (amended)Law on the organization of the Government, (amended) Law on the organization of thePeople’s Courts, (amended) Law on the organization of the People’s Procuracies, Law onthe organization of local governments, (amended) Law on the State audit, (amended) Lawon the Vietnam Fatherland Front…), the 2015 Law has re-determined the contents of thepromulgation of legal normative documents of a number of agencies, organizations andindividuals vested with this competence. Details are as below:


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- Regarding Laws and Resolutions of the National Assembly: the new Law provideswith clarity and precision for the contents on which the National Assembly shall adopt alaw and those on which they shall issue a resolution (Article 5). As such, the NationalAssembly will pass a law to stimulate on the organization of the State machinary, on thenational fundamental monetary policies, on the State budget, on the fundamental policieson culture, education, public health, technology, sciences, environment, on human rights,on citizens’ fundamental rights and obligations, on the international relations policies, onthe national defense policies, on the national security, etc; the National Assembly willissue a resolution to provide for the pilot implementation of a number of new policies thatfall into the decision competence of the National Assembly but that have no laws yet toregulate or that are different from what current laws are providing; to temporarily suspendor extend the application term of the entire of a part of a law or ordinance of the NationalAssembly to respond to urgent requirements on development of the economy and thesociety, ensure human rights, citizens’ rights; to stipulate on emergency situations andother special measures to ensure the national defense and security.

- Regarding Ordinances and Resolutions of the Standing Committee of the NationalAssembly (Article 16): in comparison to the 2008 Law, the new Law does not provide a“fixed” position that after a certain time of implementation an ordinance has to besubmitted to the National Assembly for consideration on the decision to adopt a law; onthe other hand, the new Law supplements a number of contents on which the the StandingCommittee of the National Assembly has to issue a resolution, including: (1) totemporarily suspend or extend the application term of the entire of a part of an ordinanceor resolution of the Standing Committee of the National Assembly to respond to urgentrequirements on development of the economy and the society; (2) to repeal an ordinance orresolution of the Standing Committee of the National Assembly.

- Regarding Orders, Decisions of the State President (Article 17): in comparison tothe 2008 Law, the competence to promulgate orders and decisions of the State President isprovided for more clearly, as following: complete mobilization or partial mobilization,declaring or canceling the emergency status in accordance with a resolution of theStanding Committee of the National Assembly; declaring or canceling the emergencystatus in the whole country or in localities in cases where it is impossible to convene ameeting of the Standing Committee of the National Assembly; and other matters fallinginto the competence of the State President.

- Regarding Decrees of the Government (Article 19): the new Law supplements acouple of contents on which the Government shall promulgate decrees: (1) concretemeasures to organize the implementation of the Consitution, laws and resolutions of theNational Assembly, ordinances and resolutions of the Standing Committee of the NationalAssembly, orders and decisions of the State President; (2) the matters in relation to theduties and powers of more than two Ministries, two Ministerial level agencies.

- Regarding legal normative documents of provincial People’s Councils andprovincial People’s Committees: in view to address the unclear and scattered provisions onthe promulgation of legal normative documents of provincial People’s Councils and


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provincial People’s Committees of the 2004 Law, the new Law has made a clear lineseparating the power to promulgate legal normative documents of the provincialauthorities, including: (1) to provide details to matters delegated for; (2) to organize andensure the implementation of the Constitution and laws at their corresponding locality; (3)to decide on specific issues of their locality. The contents of resolutions to be promulgatedby provincial People’s Councils and of decisions to be promulgated by provincial People’sCommittees are provided with precision in the Articles 27 and 28.

In addition, the new Law also restricts the contents on which the following entitiescan promulgate legal normative documents:

- The Standing Committee of the National Assembly or the Government and thePresident Board of the Central Committee of Vietnam Fatherland Front shall promulgateJoint Resolutions to provide detailed provisions on the matters delegated by a law (Article18);

- The Chief Justice of the Supreme People’s Court and the Chief Procurator of theSupreme People’s Procuracy; the Ministers, Head of Ministerial level agencies and theChief Justice of the Supreme People’s Court, the Chief Procurator of the Supreme People’sProcuracy shall promulgate Joint Circulars to stipulate on the coordination and cooperationbetween these agencies in the conduct of proceedings formalities and procedures (Article25);

- District People’s Councils and Commune People’s Councils shall promulgateResolutions and District People’s Committees and Commune People’s Committees shallpromulgate Decisions to stipulate on the matters delegated by a law (Article 30).

4. In regard to the responsibilities of the competent agencies, organizations andindividials in the development and promulgation of legal mornative documents

The 2015 Law has added one article on the responsibilities of the competentagencies, organizations and individials involved in the development and promulgation oflegal mornative documents from the stage of preparing the proposal for development oflegal normative documents, taking the lead, participating in the drafting process,conducting the appraisal, the verification, making revisions, submitting the project or thedraft, to the last stage of promulgating the legal normative documents (Article 7):

(1) With respect to the agencies, organizations and individials who have thecompetence to submit and prepare a project or a draft of legal normative documents:

- The agencies, organizations and individials who have the competence to submit andprepare a project or a draft of legal normative documents shall be responsible for theprogress rate of the submission and for the quality of the project or the draft submitted;

- The agencies and organizations who take the lead in preparing the draft of legalnormative documents shall be responsible to the agencies, organizations and individialswho have the competence for submission or to the agencies, organizations and individialswho have the competence for promulgation of those legal normative documents for thedraftting progress and the quality of the project or the draft they are assigned to prepare.


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(2) With respect to the appraisal, verification agencies; agencies and organizationscontributing opinions and feedbacks:

- The appraisal agencies shall be responsible to the agencies, organizations andindividials who have the competence for submission or to the agencies, organizations andindividials who have the competence for promulgation of legal normative documents forthe appraisal results on the proposal for development of legal normative documents, theproject or draft of legal normative documents.

- The verification agencies shall be responsible to the agencies, organizations andindividials who have the competence for promulgation of legal normative documents forthe verification results on the project or draft of legal normative documents.

- The competent agencies, organizations and individials who are requested to providefeedbacks and opinions on the proposal for development of legal normative documents, thedraft of legal normative documents shall be responsible for the contents of opinions,feedback and timelines of providing opinions, feedback.

(3) With respect to the agencies promulgating legal normative documents:

- The National Assembly, the People’s Councils and other entities and individualswho have the power to promulgate legal normative documents shall be responsible for thequality of the documents that they promulgate.

- The competent agencies and individuals shall be responsible for the latepromulgation of legal normative documents providing details for the implementation oflaws and resolutions of the National Assembly, ordinances and resolutions of the StandingCommittee of the National Assembly, orders and decisions of the State President.

On the other hand, the 2015 Law also anticipates that in the case of the drafts of legalnormative documents suffering from low quality, slow progress, irrespect of theconstitutionality, legality, or consistency of legal normative documents, the head of theagency or organization taking the lead in drafting, the appraisal agency, the submissionagency, the verification agency and the promulgation agency of the legal normativedocuments, within their own scope of duties and powers, shall be responsible for the nonfulfilment of their duties, and it should be subject to the extent thereof that they will behandled in accordance with the laws and regulations on State officials and any otherrelevant provisions.

5. In regard to strictly prohibited acts in the development and promulgation of legalnormative documents

The 2015 Law has added one article that provides for strictly prohibited acts (Article14), including the following acts:

- Promulgating legal normative documents that are contrary to the Constitution, contrary tothe legal normative documents of higher State agencies;

- Promulgating legal normative documents that do not belong to the system of legalnormative documents;


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- Promulgating legal normative documents that do not fall into the right competence, that donot follow the types, steps and procedures provided in the Law on Promulgation of LegalNormative Documents;

- Stipulating administrative procedures in the legal normative documents of the ChiefJustice of the Supreme People’s Court and the Chief Procurator of the Supreme People’sProcuracy; of the Ministers and Head of Ministerial level agencies; of the General StateAuditor; of the People’s Councils and People’s Committees of different levels and theSpecial administrative and ecocomic units, except in the cases specified in the law.

6. In regard to the agenda for development of laws and ordinances

According to the 2008 Law, the agenda for development of laws and ordinances wascomprised of the agenda for development of laws and ordinances in accordance with theterm of the National Assembly and the annual agenda for development of laws andordinances. However, the reality of implementation of these agendas showed that theagenda for development of laws and ordinances in accordance with the term of theNational Assembly was too long, difficult for implementing and subject to regularadjustment in order to adapt to the economic and social conditions and development of thecountry. Therefore, in view to ensure a proactive and flexible mechanism in the legislativework, in conformity with the management practice, the 2015 Law no longer provides forthe agenda for development of laws and ordinances in accordance with the term of theNational Assembly and only keeps the provision on the annual agenda for development oflaws and ordinances. The annual agenda for development of laws and ordinances isstipulated in a way to be integrated with the policy development process with a goodnumber of breakthoughs.

7. Addition of the policy development project

The 2008 Law and the 2004 Law provided for the process for development of legalnormative documents, from the proposal of initiatives, drafting, reviewing to thepromulgation and declaration of legal normative documents, however there was noseparation between the policy development phase and the document drafting phase. As aresult, the new Law has added the planning and policy development process beforedrafting legal normative document in a way to separate the former from the latter. Thepolicy development process will be applied for the development of laws and ordinances, afew types of decrees of the Government and resolutions of provincial People’s Councils.

7.1. Policy development process for the development of laws and ordinances

The policy development process for the development of laws and ordinances isintegrated in the process for preparing the draft annual agenda for development of lawsand ordinances, which comprises the following main steps:

Step 1: Preparing the proposal for development of laws, ordinances

First, the agency, organization or a Deputy of the National Assembly shall conduct orrequest competent agencies to conduct the followings: (1) Summary of the situation of lawimplementation related to the proposal; to conduct surveys and assessment of the actual state


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of the social relations related to main contents of the draft law or ordinance; (2) Scientificstudy on the related issues to support the preparation of the proposal, study information,documents and international treaties to which the Socialist Republic of Vietnam is amember, which are related to the proposal for development of laws, ordinances; (3)Prepare contents of the policies to be included in the law or ordinance projects; solutions toimplement the policies; impact assessment of those policies, solutions and reasons for thechoice of such policies; (4) Estimated resources and conditions to ensure theimplementation of the law or ordinance.

Second, preparing the dossier on the proposal for development of laws or ordinancesin accordance with Article 29, which should include: (1) a statement on the proposal fordevelopment of laws and ordinances; (2) Impact assessment report on the policies intendedin the proposal for development of laws and ordinances; (3) Summary report on thesituation of law implementation or assessment of the factual state of the social relationsrelated to the policies intended in the proposal for development of laws and ordinances; (4)Consolidation together with explanations and taking into account of comments andopinions provided by the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Home Affairs, the Ministryof Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Justice and other organizations and institutions; a copyof the collected comments; (5) Outline of the draft law or ordinance.

The markable point of the policy development process is the responsibility forconducting policy impact assessments. The new Law devotes on article (Article 35) tostipulate on the responsibilities and contents of the impact assessment of the policiesintended in the proposal for development of laws, ordinances. According to thisprovision, the responsibility to conduct policy impact assessments belong to the agency,organization and individual submitting the proposal, the competent entity requested by aDeputy of the National Assembly and the agency proposing a new policy during theprocess of drafting, appraisal, verification, reviewing and giving opinions on the law orordinance projects. The contents of the impact assessment of each of the policiesintended in the proposal for development of laws and ordinances should clearly specify:the issues to be addressed; the objectives of the policy; the solutions to implement thepolicy; positive and negative effects of the policy; costs and benefits of the solutions;comparison between costs and benefits of each solution; choice on the solution(s) of theagency, organization and reasons for this choice; impact assessment of administrativeprocedures and gender impact assessment (if any). To ensure the quality of the impactassessment report, the new Law provides for a mandatory procedure for collectingcomments and constructive critism on the draft report.

Third, organizing the collection of comments from relevant agencies andorganizations on the proposal for development of laws, ordinances; publish the summaryreport on the situation of law implementation, the impact assessment report of the policiesintended in the proposals on the official website of the National Assembly for theproposals made by the Standing Committee of the National Assembly, the Ethnic Council,the Committees of the National Assembly or the National Assembly Deputies, or on theofficial website of the Government for proposals for development of laws and ordinancesto be submitted by the Government, and on the official website of the agencies and


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organizations preparing the proposals. (the publication’s time shall be at least 30 days);consolidate, study and take into account comments and provide explanations; publish thereport on explanation and taking into account of comments on the official websites andportals of the agencies, institutions preparing the proposal.

Additionally, in view to ensure the appropriateness on financial resources, humanresources, the conformity with relevant international treaties to which the SocialistRepublic of Vietnam is a member, the constitutionality, the legality and the consistency ofthe proposal for development of laws, ordinances with the legal system, the Article 36 ofthe Law stipulates on the mandatory inquiry for opinions of the Ministry of Finance, theMinistry of Home Affairs, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Justice.

Step 2: Appraisal of the proposal for development of laws, ordinances (Article 39)

Different from the 2008 Law, the new Law provides for a mandaroty appraisal on theproposal for development of laws, ordinances and assigns the Ministry of Justice the leadingrole in coordination with the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Home Affairs, theMinistry of Foreign Affairs and other relevent agencies and organizations in the appraisalprocess before submission to the Government. The timeline, dossier and contents forappraisal are stipulated in this article.

Step 3: Submission of the proposal for development of laws, ordinances to theGovernment (Article 40)

The agencies preparing the proposal for development of laws and ordinances shall beresponsible to submit the proposal to the Government at the latest of twenty days beforethe date of the Government’s meeting. The submission dossier is composed of thedocuments indicated in Article 37 of the Law: the appraisal report on the proposal fordevelopment of laws and ordinances; the report on explanation and taking into accountcomments on the appraisal results and any other documents (if any).

Step 4: Consideration and approval of the proposal for development of laws andordinances by the Government (Article 41, Article 42 and Article 43)

The Government shall hold meetings to consider the proposals for development oflaws and ordinances and shall issue a resolution on the proposal for development of lawsand ordinances together with the approved policies.

On the basis of the Government’s resolution, the Ministries and Ministerial levelagencies who propose the development of laws and ordinances will finalize the dossier onthe proposal for development of laws, ordinances and send to the Ministry of Justice forthe preparation of the Government’s proposal on the agenda for development of laws andordinances. For the proposals for development of laws and ordinances that are not madeand submitted by the Government, the agency, organization or Deputy of the NationalAssembly who propose the development of these laws and ordinances shall send thedossier on the proposal for development of laws, ordinances and relevant requestingdocument to the Government for comments before submitting to the Standing Committeeof the National Assembly.


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Step 5: Submission of the dossier on the proposal for development of laws andordinances to the Standing Committee of the National Assembly (Article 46)

The new Law keeps the entire provision of the 2008 Law on the deadline forsubmission of the dossier on the proposal for development of laws, ordinances for theconsideration of the Standing Committee of the National Assembly. As such, by the latestof 01 March of the previous year, the proposals for development of laws and ordinancesmust be sent to the Standing Committee of the National Assembly in order to prepare thedraft annual agenda for development of laws and ordinances of the National Assembly aswell as to the Law Committee for verification and review.

Step 6: Verification of the proposal for development of laws and ordinances (Article47)

The Law Committee shall collect and play the leading role in the verification of theproposals for development of laws and ordinances from agencies, organizations and theDeputies of the National Assembly.

The contents of the verification shall focus on the need to promulgate the proposedlaws and ordinances, their governing scopes and applicable entities, their basic policies,the consistence, feasibility and priority, time of submission as well as conditions forensuring the development and implementation.

Step 7: The Standing Committee of the National Assembly shall consider theproposals for development of laws and ordinances in view of preparing the draft agendafor development of laws and ordinances (Article 48)

Based on the proposals for development of laws and ordinances of the agencies,organizations and the Deputies of the National Assembly, legislative initiatives of theDeputies of the National Assembly as well as on the verification findings of the LawCommittee, the Standing Committee of the National Assembly shall prepare a draftagenda for development of laws and ordinances to be submitted to the NationalAssembly for consideration and decision (Article 48).

Step 8: The National Assembly shall consider and pass the agenda for developmentof laws and ordinances (Article 49)

The National Assembly shall consider and vote on the resolution of the NationalAssembly on the agenda for development of laws and ordinances, in which are clearlyindicated the names of the law and ordinance projects and the expected time of submissionto the National Assembly or the Standing Committee of the National Assembly forconsideration and adoption.

7.2. The policy development process in the development of Decrees of theGovernment

The policy development process in the development of decrees of the Government isapplied for the development and promulgation of decrees provided in items 2 and 3 ofArticle 19 and is composed of the following steps:

Step 1: Prepraring the proposal for development of decrees


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The agency proposing the development of a decree shall be responsible to conduct asummary of the situation of law implementation, an assessment of current legal normativedocuments related to the proposal for development of decrees; to conduct survey andassessment on the actual state of the related social relations; to organize the study oninformation, documents and international treaties to which the Socialist Republic of Vietnamis a member, which relate to the development of the decree; to develop the contents of thepolicies intended in the proposal; to conduct impact assessment on these policies; toanticipate the ressources and conditions to ensure the implementation of the decree after thepromulgation by the Government; to organize the collection of comments and opinions onthe proposal for development of the decree (for a period of at least 30 days) and prepare thedossier on the proposal for development of decrees in accordance with Article 87 of theLaw.

Step 2: Appraisal of the proposal for development of decrees (Article 88)

The Ministry of Justice shall take the lead and coordinate with the Ministry of Finance,the Ministry of Home Affairs, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and other relevant agenciesand institutions to perform the appraisal of the proposal for development of decree.

The contents of appraisal shall focus on the following aspects: (1) the necessity ofpromulgation of the decrees; their governing scope and applicable entities; (2) theconformity of the policies with guidelines, directions of the Party and and policies of theState; (3) the constitutionality, legality, consistency with the legal system, the feasibility ofthe policies intended in the proposal and the solutions for implementation of those policies;(4) the conformity of the policies with international treaties to which Vietnam is amember; (5) the necessity, rationality, and compliance costs of the administrativeprocedures; the mainstreaming of gender equality issues in the proposal; and (6) thecompliance with the steps and procedures for development of the decrees.

Step 3: Consideration and approval of the proposal for development of decrees bythe Government (Article 89)

On the basis of the proposals for development of decrees submitted by the Ministriesand Ministerial level agencies, the Government will consider and eventually approve eachpolicy intended in the decree in its meeting in accordance with the provisions of Article 89.

7.3 The policy development process in the development of resolutions ofprovincial People’s Councils

The policy development process in the development of resolutions of provincialPeople’s Councils is applied for the development and promulgation of resolutionsprovided in items 2, 3 and 4 of Article 27 and is composed of the following steps:

Step 1: Prepraring the proposal for development of resolutions

The agency proposing the development of resolutions shall be responsible toconduct the summary of the situation of law implementation and the assessment ofcurrent legal normative documents related to the proposal for development ofresolutions; to conduct survey and assessment of the actual state of the related social


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relations; to conduct studies of information, documents and international treaties towhich the Socialist Republic of Vietnam is a member that are related to the proposal fordevelopment of resolutions; to anticipate the ressources and conditions to ensure theimplementation of the resolutions after promulgation by the People’s Councils; to organizethe collection of comments and opinions on the proposal for development of the resolutions;to publish full the text of the proposal on development of resolutions on the official websiteof provinces and cities under central management (for a period of at least 30 days) to collectcomments and opinions of relevant agencies, organizations and directly effected subjects ofthe intended policies.

Bước 2: Appraisal of the proposal for development of resolutions (Article 115)

The Department of Justice shall take the lead and coordinate with the Department ofFinance, the Department of Home Affairs and related agencies institions to perform theappraisal of the proposal for development of resolutions. The timeframe for performing theappraisal is 15 days as from the date the dossier is received. The appraisal report shouldindicate clearly the opinions of the Department of Justice on the contents of the appraisaland on the proposal for development of resolutions whether it is satisfactory orunsatisfactory to be submitted to the People’s Councils for consideration and decision. Thecontents of appraisal of the proposal for development of resolutions are referred to inaccordance with the contents of appraisal of the proposal for development of laws andordinances.

Step 3: Approval of the policies in the proposal for development of resolutions(Article 116)

- For the proposals for development of resolutions to be submitted by the provincialPeople’s Committees, the provincial People’s Committees shall be responsible to considerand discuss collectively and vote according to the majority principle for the approval ofpolicies in each proposal for development of resolutions.

- For the proposals for development of resolutions to be submitted by other agenciesand organizations, such agencies or organizations shall be responsible to approve thepolicies in the proposal for development of resolutions.

Step 4: Considerations on the proposal for development of resolutions andassignment of drafting leading job to an agency, organization (Article 117, Article 118)

The agencies, organizations who propose the development of resolutions shallsubmit to the Standing Board of the People’s Council the dossier on the proposal fordevelopment of resolutions. The Standing Board of the People’s Council shall considerthe proposal; if the proposal is approved, the Standing Board shall assign an agency tosubmit the draft resolution and decide on the deadline for submission to the People’sCouncil the draft resolution; the submitting agency shall be responsible to assign adrafting lead agency and drafting coordination agencies.

8. Renovation of the processes for development and promulgation of legalnormative documents by few other competent agencies and individuals


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8.1. The process for development and promulgation of decisions of the PrimeMinister, circulars of the Ministers and Head of Ministerial level agencies

In Chapter V, the 2015 Law reserves the whole Section 3 (from Article 97 to Article100) to stipulate on the process for development and promulgation of decisions of thePrime Minister and Section 4 (from Article 101 to Article 104) to stipulate on the processfor development of circulars of the Ministers and Heads of Ministerial level agencies withmany renovations and stricter provisions:

a) With respect to the process for development and promulgation of decisions of thePrime Minister, Article 97 of the new Law provides clearly the duties of the drafting leadagency, the contents of and the dossier on the appraisal of draft decisions of the PrimeMinister.

b) With respect to the process for development and promulgation of circulars of theMinisters and Heads of Ministerial level agencies: in order to address the situation of“inflation” of circulars promulgated, at the same time eradicate the current “close” practiceof promulgating circulars, which should contribute to the improvement of quality ofcirculars that will be promulgated, the new Law has added a number of new mechanismsto better control the quality of circulars. Details are as below:

- During the course of drafting, the Ministries and Ministerial level agencies shallcollect comments and opinions of the directly affected subjects of the intended legalnormative documents, specify the issues on which comments are requested and whichshould be suitable to each group of consultation, also indicate precisely the addresseswhere comments and opinions should be communicated to; consolidate and study thecomments, take into account and provide explanations to the comments and opinions;conduct the impact assessment of the intended legal normative documents, conduct theimpact of administrative procedures that may be generated by the documents in case thedocuments shall provide for administrative procedures.

- With respect to the circulars of which the provisions will have a direct impact onthe rights, obligations and interests of the people and enterprises or that relate to manysectors and areas, the Ministers, the Head of Ministerial level agencies shall set up anAppraisal Advisory Council with the participation of related agencies organizations,experts and scientists for the appraisal of the draft circulars. The contents of and thedossier on the appraisal are provided with details in Article 102.

8.2. The process for development and promulgation of orders and decisions of theState President

The 2015 Law basically inherits from the provisions of the 2008 Law, howeveradds a new clause: “the State President can request the agency proposing thedevelopment of orders or decisions to discuss on the important issues of the draft ordersor draft decisions of the State President (item 3 Article 81).

8.3. The process for development and promulgation of joint resolutions


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A new clause has been added that “before the promulgation, the draft jointresolutions between the Standing Committee of the National Assembly and the PresidentBoard of the Central Committee of Vietnam Fatherland Front must be verified by theEthnic Council and different Committees of the National Assembly; the draft jointresolution between the Government and the President Board of the Central Committee ofVietnam Fatherland Front must be appraised by the Ministry of Justice” (item 3 Article109).

8.4. The process for development and promulgation of resolutions of DistrictPeople’s Councils

A new clause has been addd that “the Bureau of Justice shall be responsible toconduct the appraisal on the draft resolutions of the District People’s Council beforesubmitting to the District People’s Committee” (item 1 Article 134).

9. Amendments and supplementation to a number of provisions on the processesfor drafting, appraisal, verification, consideration and adoption of legal normativedocuments

- Supplementing the responsibilities of the members of the drafting committee forlaws and ordinance projects, resolution projects. As such, it is the duty of the members ofthe drafting committee to participate fully in all meetings of the drafting committee andthey should be responsible for the quality, the constitutionality, the legality and thefeasibility of the contents assigned to them in the draft documents and in accordance withthe expected progress in preparing the draft documents; in the case of not being able to bepresent in the meetings due to objective reasons, contributions of ideas and inputs arerequired in written (item 4 Article 54);

- Amending the contents for appraisal and verification in the direction tosupplement the necessary contents as focus of the appraisal and verification (requiredconditions on financial and human ressources to ensure the effectiveness ofimplementation of the legal normative document; mainstreaming gender issues in thedraft documents, etc.); removing a number of inappropriate and unnecessary contentssuch as apprasing the feasibility of the draft document, the necessity for promulgation,subjects and scope of regulation of the draft document (item 3 Article 58 and Article 65);

- Affirming clearly the legal value of the appraisal and verification reports: not onlyshould the appraisal and verification reports indicate clearly the opinions on the contentsfor appraisal and verification, they should also present precisely the position on whetherthe project of the draft has responded or has not responded to the conditions forsubmission. In the case where the Ministry of Justice concludes that the project or the drafthas not yet sufficiently responded to the conditions for submission to the Government, thedossier should be returned to the drafting lead agency to continue the revisions andfinalization of the project or the draft (item 4 Article 58); in the case where the verificationlead agency states that the project or the draft has not yet sufficiently responded to theconditions for submission to the Standing Committee of the National Assembly or theNational Assembly, they should report this to the Standing Committee of the National


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Assembly to consider returning the dossier to the submitting agency to continue therevisions and finalization of the project or the draft (Article 67);

- Supplementing the process for consideration and adoption of the law project in threemeeting sessions of the National Assembly for the projects of huge scale, containing a greatnumber of complex provisions and items (Article 76). The sequential steps forconsideration and discussion in the first plenary meeting and the third plenary meetingshould be undertaken in accordance with the respective provisions on the sequential stepsfor consideration and adoption of law projects and draft resolutions in two plenarymeetings. During the period between the first plenary meeting and the second plenarymeeting, the agencies, organizations and Deputies of the National Assembly submitting thelaw project shall be responsible to take lead in studying and taking into account thecomments, providing explanations and making revisions to the draft Law, and organizingthe collection of opinions of the people on the law project in accordance with a decision ofthe Standing Committee of the National Assembly (if any);

- Increasing the Government’s role in the process for for consideration and adoptionof the law and ordinance projects, draft resolutions in the meeting sessions of the NationalAssembly and meetings of the Standing Committees of the National Assembly: “in thecase where the agencies, organizations and Deputies of the National Assembly submittingthe projects, the drafts hold a different opinion or where the Government holds a differentopinion as regard to the projects or the drafts not submitted by the Government, theGovernment, the agencies, organizations and Deputies of the National Assembly shallreport this to the National Assembly or the Standing Committee of the National Assemblyfor considerationa and decision (item 7 Article 74, item 3 Article 75, item 3 Article 77).

- The dossier for submission of the project or draft legal normative documents: inview of ensuring the thrift practice and avoiding wastefulness in printing the documents ofthe dossier for submission, the new Law stipulates that the printed copy will only berequired for the statement on the proposal, the draft document, appraisal and verificationreports, the others documents can be sent in electronic copy.

10. Larger open to democracy, enhancement of transparency, publicity in thedevelopment of legal normative documents

The 2015 Law has added a good number of more precise and suitable provisions onthe collection of opinions and comments in order to create favorable conditions for thepople to participate in the process for development of legal normative documents in a nonartificial and more efficient way. This novelty is realised in some of the main points asbelow:

First, with respect to laws, ordinances, decrees of the Government provided in theitems 2 and 3 of Article 19, resolutions of the provincial People’s Councils provided in theitems 2, 3 and 4 of Article 27, the collection of opinions and comments is deemed as amandatory procedure in both the process for proposal for development of policies and thedrafting process. The publication period is at least 30 days for the proposals fordevelopment of policies and at least 60 days for projects and draft documents. With respectto detailing decrees, decisions of the Prime Minister, circulars of the Ministers and Heads


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of Ministerial level agencies, etc. the collection of opinions and comments shall beundertaken once the draft documents are ready (the publication period is at least 60 days).

Second, it is now clearly provided that the agencies, organizations who organize thecollection of comments and opinions must indicate precisely the addresses on which thecomments and opinions are received and published. According to provisions of item 1Article 36, the summary of the situation of law implementation and the impact assessmentreport of the policies intended in the proposal for development of laws and ordinancesshall be published on the official portal/ website of the National Assembly for theproposals made by the Standing Committee of the National Assembly, the Ethnic Council,the Committees of the National Assembly or the Deputies of the National Assembly; or onthe official portal/ website of the Government for the proposals for development of lawsand ordinances to be submitted by the Government, and on the official portal/ website ofthe agencies and organizations preparing the proposals.

Third, apart from collecting comments and opinions of the directly affected subjectsof the intended documents, related agencies, organizations and individuals, the 2015 Lawprovides for the responsibility to mandatory seeking for opinions of the Ministry ofFinance, the Ministry of Home Affairs, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the Ministryof Justice as regard to the proposals for development of laws and ordinances and proposalsfor development of decrees. These Ministries shall be responsible to make comments andprovide opinions in written evaluating the financial and human ressources, the conformitywith international treaties to which the Socialist Republic of Vietnam is a member, theconstitutionality, the legality and the consistency of the proposals and communicate to theagencies, organizations and individuals preparing the proposals (item 2 Article 36).

Fourth, the contents on which opinions and comments are seeked should beappropriate to each subject of whom opinions and comments are seeked and should focuson the main and important policies that would have a direct impact on the people andenterprises. During the time draft laws, draft ordiances and draft resolutions are beingplaced publicly for comments and opinions, if the drafting lead agency makes anyrevisions or amendments to the draft documents that make them different from the oneshaving published previously, the drafting lead agency shall published the updated andrevised version of the draft documents (item 1 Article 57) (khoản 1 Điều 57).

Fifth, various diversified forms of collection of comments and opinions are provided,such as: publication on websites, direct collection of comments and opinions, sending thedrafts requesting comments, organizing workshops, seminars or via social media. Especially,with respect to the proposals for development of resolutions of provincial People’s Councils,the agency proposing the development of the resolution can hold a direct dialogue on theintended policies with the directly effected subjects of the resolution, if deemed necessary(item 2 Article 113).

Sixth, reinforcing the responsibility to provide feedback and explanations tocomments and opinions by adding the provision that the concerned agencies, organizationsand Deputies of the National Assembly shall be responsible to consolidate, study and takeinto account the comments and opinions and provide explanations to these comments and


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opinions; publish the explanatory reports on the official websites/ portals as mentioned initem 1 Article 36, item 3 Article 57 and item 3 Article 86). Besides, the 2015 Law hassupplemented the responsibility to provide feedback and explanations to comments andopinions into one of the principles in the development and promulgation of legal normativedocuments (Article 5).

11. Ensurance of the right to initiatives on laws and ordinances, the right tosubmit law and ordinance projects of Deputies of the National Assembly

In view to concretize the provision of the 2013 Constitution on the right to “submitinitiatives on laws and ordinances and law and ordinance projects” of Deputies of theNational Assembly, the 2015 Law reserves an entire article to stipulate on the right tosubmit initiatives on laws and ordinances, the right to propose the development of lawsand ordinances of Deputies of the National Assembly (Article 33). Details are as follows:

First, the Law provides clearly that the right to legislative initiatives of Deputies ofthe National Assembly includes the right to initiatives on laws and ordinances and theright to propose the development of laws and ordinances; the Law also distinguishes thesetwo rights from each other based on the criteria on the basis for preparation, theprocedures, and the dossier. The requirements for the proposal for development of lawsand ordinances of Deputies of the National Assembly are stipulated similar to those of theother entities having the competence to propose the development of laws and ordinances.Exceptionally with respect to the initiatives on laws and ordinances, the Law provides forsimpler requirements as regard to the basis for preparation as well as the initiave dossier.As such, the initatives on laws and ordinances must be in line with the direction, principlesof the Party and policies of the State; with the requirements for economic and socialdevelopment, ensuring the national defense, security, realizing human rights, fundamentalrights and obligations of the citizens; with commitments in the international treaties towhich the Socialist Republic of Vietnam is a member. With respect to the dossier,Deputies of the National Assembly would only need to prepare the initiative statement, inwhich they should clearly indicate the necessity to promulgate such law or ordinance;subjects and scope of governing of the intended law or ordinance; purpose andrequirements on the promulgation of the intended or ordinance; main points of view,policies and contents of the intended law or ordinance.

Second, the new Law has added the provisions on supporting mechanisms forDeputies of the National Assembly in the initiation of laws and ordinances, as such: (1) Asregard to supports for the preparation of the initiative statement and the proposal fordevelopment of laws and ordinance, the items 3 and 4 of Article 33 of the Law stipulatethat Deputies of the National Assembly can, by themselves, or request the Office of theNational Assembly, the Office of Deputies Delegations and the Institute for LegislativeStudies to provide assistance in the preparation of the initiative statement for developmentof laws and ordinances, the dossier on proposal for development of laws and ordinances.The Office of the National Assembly shall be responsible to ensure the necessaryconditions for Deputies of the National Assembly to exercise their right to initatives onlaws and ordinances, their right to proposals for development of laws and ordinances; (2)


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During the drafting process, item 1 Article 56 provides that Deputies of the NationalAssembly can request the Office of the National Assembly, the Office of DeputiesDelegations, Institute for Legislative Studies and related agencies and organization toprovide assistance for the drafting work.

12. With respect to the fast track procedure for development and promulgationof legal normative documents

- By inheriting the provisions of Article 78 of the 2008 Law, the 2015 Law hassupplemented 3 circumstances where legal normative documents can be developed andpromulgated through a fast track procedure (Article 146) including: (1) emergency andunexpected circumstances in the prevention of natural disasters, epidemics, fires andexplosions; (2) urgent circumstances in order to timely address the arising issues inreality in accordance with a decision of the National Assembly; (3) in order todiscontinue wholly or partly the effect of a legal normative document within a certainperiod of time.

- Regarding the types of legal normative documents for which the fast trackprocedure can be applied, in comparison to the 2008 Law and the 2004 Law, the newLaw does not stipulate on the fast track procedure for the development and promulgationof decisions of District People’s Committees and Commune People’s Committees. Inaddition, the competence to decide on applying the fast track procedure is provided in thenew Law in such a direction so that the agencies who have the competence to promulgatelegal normative documents can also decide on applying the fast track procedure topromulgate that type of legal normative documents.

- The provisions are clearer and more precise in regard to the steps and procedures todevelop, consider and adopt the legal normative documents through the fast trackprocedure (Article 148, Article 149). For example: in the case of organizing the collectionof comments and opinions, the timeframe should not exceed 20 days; the appraisal andverification shall be conducted within 5 working days as from the date draft legalnormative documents are received; the consideration and approval processes shall be thesame as the normal processes for considering and approving such legal normativedocuments.

- The Law also provides for the time legal normative documents promulgated throughthe fast track procedure shall take effect: legal normative documents promulgated throughthe fast track procedure can take effect as from the adoption date or the signature date forpromulgation; at the same time they should be immediately published on the officialwebsite/ portal of the promulgating agency and shall be uploaded on public media, publishedon the Official Gazette of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam or the official gazette of theprovince or city under the central management within 3 days at the latest as from theproclamation date or signature date for promulgation (item 2 Article 51).

13. With respect to the promulgation of detailing documents


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For the purpose of increasing the responsibility of the drafting lead agency as well asaddressing the situation of promulgation of a great deal of detailing documents beingoverdue, the 2015 Law has added many new provisions such as:

- Specifying the responsibility of the related competent agencies and individuals forthe late promulgation of detailing documents (item 6 Article 7);

- Adding the provision: “the draft detailing documents shall be prepared andsubmitted at the same time with the law or ordinance project” (item 1 Article 11);

- Restricting the scope of delegation for promulgation of detailing documents, assuch the 2015 Law does not provide for delegation for promulgation of detailingdocuments as regard to the matters that lack a strong stability.

14. With respect to the publication of legal normative documents in the OfficialGazette, proclamation and publication of legal normative documents in variouschannels

- In comparison to the 2008 Law, the new Law has removed the provision that “legalnormative documents that are not published in the Official Gazette will not be effective forimplementation” because: the responsibility of the Official Gazette agency to publish legalnormative documents on the Official Gazette has been provided for very clearly in thisLaw (item 4 Article 150); in addition, theoretically, the fact that legal normativedocuments are not published on the Official Gazette or late publication cannot beconsidered as a basis to “deny” the effect of legal normative documents that have beenpromulgated by the agencies and individuals stipulated in this Law.

- A provision has been added as regard to the competence and timeframe to proclaimresolutions of the National Assembly and the Standing Committee of the NationalAssembly (Article 80). As such, the Law assigns the General Secretary of the NationalAssembly to proclaim resolutions of the National Assembly and the Standing Committeeof the National Assembly. The proclamation shall take place within 15 days as from thedate the resolutions have been passed, except for the case of resolutions that are passed inaccordance to the fast track procedure (in this case the proclamation should take placewithin 5 days as from the date laws and ordinances are adopted).

- A provision has been added as regard to the publication of legal normativedocuments on the official national legal database portal. Legal normative documentspublished on the official national legal database portal are for official use (Article 157).

15. With respect to the effect of and the rule on application of legal normativedocuments

15.1. Regarding the retroactive effect of legal normative documents (Article 152)

- The new Law provides for more precise cases where the retroactive effect of legalnormative documents can be applicable: “Only in the cases of extreme necessity to ensurethe general interest of the society, to realise the rights and interests of organizations andindividuals that are recognized in laws and ordinances of the National Assembly…”;


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- The types of legal normative documents for which the retroactive effect can beapplicable are now limited. As such, only the legal normative documents of the centralagencies can provide for a retroactive effect; the legal normative documents of People’sCouncils and People’s Committees at different levels, the legal normative documents of theauthority of special administrative and economic units cannot provide for a retroactiveeffect.

15.2. Regarding the discontinuation of effect of legal normative documents (Article153)

In comparison to the 2008 Law, apart from the cases where the legal normativedocuments suffer from discontinuation due to suspension of effect or suspension ofimplementation, the new Law has added a case of discontinuation of effect of legalnormative documents where the competent authority who promulgated that legalnormative document has decided to discontinue the effect of that documents for a certainperiod of time to resolve arising social and/or economic issues. On the other hand, toaddress the shortcomings of the 2008 Law and at the same time ensure the publicity andtransparency, restrain violations of the law, the new Law indicates clearly the time forpublication on the Official Gazette, announcement of the decision on the discontinuationof the documents on the mass media, suspension of implementation and handling of suchlegal normative documents no later than three working days, since the date of issuance ofthe decisions.

15.3. Regarding the cases where legal normative documents are no longer effective(Article 154)

The cases where legal normative documents are no longer effective are stipulated onthe basis of inheriting the provisions of the 2008 Law and the 2004 Law. However, inorder to ensure the consistency of the legal system and increase the responsibility ofvarious agencies in the promulgation of detailing documents, the new Law has added aclause providing that “When the effect of a legal normative document expires, thedetailing document of that legal normative document shall also cease to be effective”.

15.4. Regarding the rule on application of legal normative documents (Article 156)

In view to ensure the conformity with the international practice and the reality ofVietnam, in comparision to the 2008 Law, the 2015 Law has added a clause on theprinciple of priority on application of international treaties in the case where the domesticlegal normative documents and the international treaty to which Vietnam is a memberprovide differently on the same matter. Detail is as follows: “The application of nationallegal normative documents shall not hinder the implementation of international treaties towhich the Socialist Republic of Vietnam is a member. In case a national legal documentand an international treaty to which the Socialist Republic of Vietnam is a member containdifferent provisions on the same issue, the international treaty shall apply, except for theConstitution.”

16. With respect to the conditions to ensure the development and promulgationsof legal normative documents (Article 171)


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- Increasing the professionalism of the officials involved in the legislative work: aprovisions has beed added to stipulate on the responsibility of the State to develop policiesto attract the talents, provide training and complimentory cources to these officials,allocate more personnel to the development and promulgation of legal normativedocuments; modernizing and enhancing the technical equipment and infrastructure neededfor the requirements and duties stated in this Law.

- Ensuring the budget for development and promulgation of legal normativedocuments: the Law indicates clearly the responsibility of the State in ensuring the budgetnecessary for each stage of the process for development and promulgation of legalnormative documents, from the policy development stage, drafting, appraisal, verification,revision, finalization to the promulgation of legal normative documents.

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