Need criteria to assess the reasonableness of the legal system structure

(Chinhphu.vn) - Vietnam's legal practice in recent times shows that, although there have been many achievements in building and perfecting the legal system, the issue of the rationality of the legal system structure is still a big challenge. Therefore, it is necessary to have criteria to evaluate the rationality of the legal system structure of Vietnam.

Deputy Minister of Justice Phan Chi Hieu speaks at the workshop. Photo: VGP/DA

Major orientations to perfect the legal system structure

Speaking at the National Scientific Conference on "Improving the structure of Vietnam's legal system to meet the requirements of national development in the new era", on November 1, Deputy Minister of Justice Phan Chi Hieu said that in recent times, the Ministry of Justice has chaired and coordinated with relevant departments, ministries, branches and agencies, mobilizing experts and scientists to research and develop a project to perfect the structure of Vietnam's legal system to meet the requirements of national development in the new era.

Briefly introducing the contents expected to be included in the draft Project, Deputy Minister Phan Chi Hieu said that, according to the general practice of Projects submitted to competent authorities and to suit the nature and specific requirements of the project, in addition to the introduction and appendix, the content of the project is structured into 3 main parts: Part 1, general issues on the structure of the legal system; Part 2, assessment of the current state of the structure of the Vietnamese legal system; Part 3, context, viewpoints, goals, and solutions to perfect the structure of the Vietnamese legal system to meet the requirements of national development in the new era.

Regarding the goal, perfecting the structure of Vietnam's legal system in the direction of ensuring full coverage of all areas of economic, political and social life that need legal adjustment, streamlining, unification, synchronization, feasibility, publicity, transparency, stability and accessibility.

At the same time, strictly and effectively implement the law, promote innovation, meet the requirements of rapid and sustainable development of the country in the new era, and lay the foundation for building a strategy to perfect Vietnam's legal system in the new era.

In addition to the remarkable results, Deputy Minister Phan Chi Hieu also pointed out the limitations of the current legal system such as: The legal system still has many levels with a very large number of documents; the legal value of legal documents has not been clearly defined; the scope of regulation of legal documents of the same level, between legal documents and sub-legal documents has not been clearly defined...

Orienting the completion of the legal system structure in the period of 2026-2030 and the following periods, the Deputy Minister of Justice said that it is necessary to first clearly define the structure of the legal system, the impact on the work of building, perfecting the law and organizing law enforcement. From there, clearly define the principles, orientations, tasks, solutions for building and organizing law enforcement...

In addition, it is necessary to reasonably apply the thinking of classification, general provisions, specific provisions, hierarchy of legal documents, public-private nature of regulations to determine appropriate requirements when designing legal regulations in each specific legal field, in each specific law, ensuring convenience, transparency, reliability in law application, having a unified, specific, clear basis to handle legal conflicts.

At the same time, calculate to perfect the structure of the legal system in the direction of taking the Constitution and some fundamental documents such as the Civil Law; Law on handling administrative violations; Criminal Law; Law on civil procedure, criminal procedure, administrative procedure as the center. Minimize the hierarchy, clearly define the scope of issues that must be regulated in the law, issues regulated in decrees, in circulars, calculate to continue to narrow down the types of legal documents that agencies are allowed to issue, especially sub-law documents.

Reasonably expand the cases in which specialized laws prescribe specific sanctions; develop precedents, promote the role of customary law, focus on legal interpretation and guidance on law application,

In addition, the Project also identifies the improvement of legislative techniques, modernization of legal infrastructure; proposes new legal documents that need to be issued, legal documents that need to be amended and supplemented, closely following the Party's policies and orientations to realize the two 100-year goals.

In the coming time, the Ministry of Justice will continue to closely coordinate with departments, ministries, branches, agencies of the National Assembly, experts and scientists to continue to complete the content of the draft project to submit for comments to competent authorities, thereby revising, supplementing and completing the project report and submitting it to the Central Steering Committee on perfecting the legal system in December 2025.

Prof. Dr. Vo Khanh Vinh, former Vice President of the Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences, shared at the workshop. Photo: VGP/DA

Ensuring the legal system operates smoothly, transparently and stably

Sharing at the workshop, Prof. Dr. Vo Khanh Vinh, former Vice President of the Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences, said that in the process of building and perfecting the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, the law is affirmed to be a basic tool for social management, ensuring fairness, democracy, order and sustainable development. However, the effectiveness of social management by law does not only depend on the content of legal norms, but is also deeply influenced by the structure of the legal system, that is, the way of organizing, arranging, linking and operating between the constituent parts in a unified whole.

"A reasonable legal structure will ensure that the legal system operates smoothly, transparently, stably and adapts to changes in social life. On the contrary, an unreasonable structure can easily lead to overlapping, contradictions, ineffectiveness and ineffective enforcement," emphasized Prof. Dr. Vo Khanh Vinh.

Professor, Dr. Vo Khanh Vinh commented that Vietnam's legal practice in recent times shows that, although many achievements have been made in building and perfecting the legal system, the issue of the rationality of the legal system structure is still a big challenge.

Manifestations such as dispersion, lack of synchronization, and overlap between normative documents; blurred boundaries between legal levels and unclear coordination mechanisms between legislative, executive, and judicial agencies... pose an urgent need for scientific criteria to assess the reasonableness of the structure of the current Vietnamese legal system.

The research and establishment of this system of criteria not only has theoretical significance, contributing to clarifying the concept of "rationality" in legal science, but also has profound practical significance, serving as a basis for evaluating, reforming and perfecting the legal system in a modern, unified, feasible direction and suitable to the requirements of rapid and sustainable development of the country in the new context.

The completion of the legal system structure in the new period must be based on three core guiding viewpoints: closely following and promptly institutionalizing the Party's guidelines; taking the legitimate and legal rights and interests of people and businesses as the center; proactively integrating and selectively absorbing international experience.

From the above perspectives, the process of perfecting the legal structure must meet three basic requirements: It must be comprehensive and synchronous; it must have a focus and key points; it must be feasible and have a specific roadmap.

At the workshop, delegates also shared and clarified issues about the current situation and proposed to improve the system of legal documents in the fields of science, technology; finance; industry and trade... as well as the structure of foreign legal systems, thereby providing reference value for Vietnam.

Dieu Anh

Source: https://baochinhphu.vn/can-tieu-chi-danh-gia-muc-do-hop-ly-cua-cau-truc-he-thong-phap-luat-102251101141404447.htm