Vietnamese laws the most complex in the world, lawyers say
Vietnamese laws the most complex in the world, lawyers say
Businesses complain they are not consulted by state management agencies when they are drawing up legal documents, and that many regulations are designed to bring benefits to only some interest groups.
Lawyer Tran Huu Huynh, chair of the Vietnam International Arbitration Center, said that if state management agencies followed standard procedures when compiling legal documents to ensure democracy and transparency, Vietnamese laws would not “top the world in terms of complexity”.
According to lawyer Vu Xuan Tien, laws, in principle, ratified by the National Assembly are at a higher level than government decrees and ministry circulars.
Circulars are issued to guide the implementation of the laws and decrees and they must not contain provisions contrary to the articles stipulated in laws and decrees.
However, Tien said circulars in reality have more power than laws, and ministries are more powerful than the National Assembly because ministries, through the circulars, can stipulate detailed regulations which directly affect businesses’ benefits.
He suggested that it would be better to restrict the issuance of circulars and the legal documents guiding the implementation of the laws.
Lawyer Tran Vu Hai agreed, saying that if circulars are compulsory, the compilation of circulars should be assigned to the Ministry of Justice instead of to management bodies.
Nguyen Thanh Hung, deputy chair of the Vietnam E-commerce Association, said the democracy principle had not been strictly pursued by state management agencies when compiling legal documents.
“They (state management agencies) open draft versions for public opinion. However, businesses’ opinions are not taken into account,” he said.
However, ironically, Hung was the head of the E-commerce Agency under the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MOIT), who headed the team in charge of compiling the E-commerce Law. This means that Hung once ignored the suggestions made by businesses and he might be heavily criticized for this when he was in the job.
Meanwhile, Ngo Viet Hoa, who was the head of MOIT’s Legal Department, and now director of the Russin Vecchi Law Firm, noted that businesses do not really want to make suggestions because they know their suggestions would be ignored.
Dau Anh Tuan, head of the Legal Department of the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI), agreed, saying that of the 1,000 questionnaires released by VCCI, only 20 percent of businesses have had feedback.
Tuan noted that businesses are aware of laws only when they encounter problems or when state management agencies refuse their services.
Meanwhile, they do not know when legal documents are drafted and when they are issued.
Huynh, while stressing that the principles of transparency and democracy must be followed during the procedures, admitted that this is not an easy task now because officials’ qualifications are limited.
vietnamnet
