Law No. 80/2015/QH13 on Promulgation of Legal Normative Documents

Instrument and legal basis

This is the Law on Promulgation of Legal Normative Documents, No. 80/2015/QH13, adopted by the National Assembly of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (13th legislature) and enacted on the basis of the Constitution of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. It is the master procedural statute governing how legal normative documents are drafted, appraised, adopted, and issued throughout the Vietnamese legal system.

Scope and definitions

Chapter I sets the scope of regulation, defines the term 'legal normative document' as a document containing generally applicable legal rules issued by a competent body under the forms and procedures prescribed by this Law, and lays down the general principles governing the drafting and promulgation process. It requires that documents be lawful, consistent, transparent, and feasible, provides for public participation and commentary in the drafting process, and sets rules on language, numbering, symbols, amendment, consolidation, and the prohibited acts in this field.

System of documents and issuing competence

The Law establishes the hierarchy of legal normative documents and assigns each type to its issuing authority: the Constitution, Laws (bo luat, luat) and Resolutions of the National Assembly; Ordinances and Resolutions of the Standing Committee of the National Assembly; orders and decisions of the President; decrees of the Government; decisions of the Prime Minister; resolutions of the Council of Judges of the Supreme People's Court; circulars of Ministers and heads of ministerial-level agencies; joint circulars; decisions of the State Auditor General; and resolutions of People's Councils and decisions of People's Committees at each level of local government, together with legal normative documents of special administrative-economic units.

Drafting, appraisal and adoption procedures

The bulk of the Law prescribes, form by form, the process for building the legislative programme and for drafting each category of document. For laws and ordinances it governs the formulation of policy proposals, policy impact assessment, collection of public and expert opinions, the composition of the dossier, appraisal (tham dinh) by the Ministry of Justice, submission to and consideration by the Government, verification (tham tra) by the relevant bodies of the National Assembly, the drafting and revising committees, and the sequence for consideration and passage at National Assembly and Standing Committee sessions, followed by promulgation by order of the President.

Parallel procedures are prescribed for Government decrees, Prime Minister decisions, ministerial circulars, documents of the Supreme People's Court and Supreme People's Procuracy, State Audit documents, and the resolutions and decisions of local People's Councils and People's Committees, each with its own drafting, opinion-gathering, appraisal or verification, dossier, and adoption steps. The Law also provides a simplified order and procedure for issuing documents in urgent cases and other prescribed circumstances.

Effect and application

The Law fixes uniform rules on the effective date, applicable territory and subjects of legal normative documents, on their retrospective effect, suspension, expiry, and on the handling of conflicts and the application of documents. As the unified statute in this field, it consolidates into a single instrument the previously separate regimes governing central and local law-making.