Vietnam became an official member of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) in 1994. Since then, the Convention’s provisions have been step by step incorporated into the country’s legal framework. This article assesses the compatibility between CITES provisions and two important laws concerning wildlife conservation and protection, the 2015 Penal Code and the 2017 Law on Forestry, and puts forth some recommendations for further improvement.

As defined in the 2015 Criminal Procedure Code, exit postponement is a deterrent measure in criminal procedure that may be imposed on persons against whom denunciations or criminal case initiation proposals are made, the accused or defendants when there are sufficient valid grounds (to believe that they have committed an offense) in order to prevent them from leaving the country for a given period of time while their criminal case initiation, investigation, prosecution or trial are carried out.

Vietnam’s criminal law’s evolution landmarks include the first-ever 1985 Penal Code, 1999 Penal Code (revised in 2009) and the latest Penal Code passed in 2015 (revised in 2017). Each of these codes and its revised version was imbued with characteristics of certain criminal legislation trends in its effective period. In the initial stage of codification of Vietnam’s criminal law, international aspects were embodied in a very moderate manner. The 1985 Penal Code only recognized some international criminal law principles regarding some crimes in order to protect interests of the international community. The 1999 Penal Code went further with some revisions to guarantee Vietnam’s responsibility as a state party to a number of conventions and treaties on criminal justice. However, these two codes have not yet initiated the internationalization trend of Vietnam’s criminal law. Until the 2009 Code revising the 1999 Penal Code and the 2015 Penal Code (revised in 2017), such trends as modernization, benevolence, international integration, judicial reform and respect for human rights are embraced. So, for what reasons Vietnam’s criminal law has been influenced by international criminal law and more and more clearly leaned toward consistency with international criminal law?

This paper outlines the remarkable evolution of juvenile justice in Vietnam. It discusses the extent to which Vietnamese juvenile justice and related laws and policies have been shaped by identifiable ideologies and models of intervention. Moreover, the legal framework governing juvenile justice, mainly the 2016 Law on Children, the 2015 Penal Code, the 2015 Criminal Procedure Code and the 2010 Law on Execution of Criminal Judgments, is introduced to show the complex and scattered state of relevant legislation. The paper offers a short analysis of actors who perform the juvenile justice role or function and reveals a system without specialization or clear separation from the justice system for adult offenders. In addition to identifying emerging characteristics of the system, the author compares these with some typical juvenile justice models around the world, namely the welfare model, the justice model and the restorative model, and concludes that the Vietnamese model is a hybrid mixture of these three ones. Finally, the author makes some recommendations on shaping the juvenile justice system of Vietnam in conformity with international standards in order to meet access-to-justice needs of Vietnamese juvenile offenders.

Mutual legal assistance in criminal matters is an effective channel to handle criminal cases involving overseas investigation and collection of documents and evidence. However, the result of mutual legal assistance on wildlife-related crimes remains below expectations mostly because of belated response to mutual legal assistance request. This article reviews the current situation of mutual legal assistance in handling wildlife-related criminal cases and puts forth some recommendations to improve the effectiveness of this work.

The 2015 Penal Code prescribes heavy fines for corporate legal persons’ crimes violating regulations on management and protection of endangered, precious and rare wild animals, ranging from VND 300 million to VND 15 billion. This shows that Vietnam is always aware of the nature and danger of these crimes to the ecological environment.

Compared to the 1999 version, the 2015 Penal Code’s provisions on protection of wildlife have been significantly revised toward expanding the scope of application of the monetary penalty, increasing penalties and adding some aggravating circumstances. This article analyzes these regulations and proposes a number of recommendations for more effective protection of endangered, precious, and rare wildlife.

On April 8, 2020, the Government issued Decree 44/2020/ND-CP (Decree 44), prescribing enforcement of judgments against commercial legal persons in a move to detail the 2019 Law on Execution of Criminal Judgments. With this Decree, set to take effect from July, the legal framework for execution of criminal judgments against commercial legal persons has been fundamentally completed, guaranteeing the enforcement of the 2015 Penal Code’s provisions concerning criminal handling of commercial legal persons.

The 1984 United Nations Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (UNCAT), one of the nine fundamental conventions on human rights, came into force on June 26, 1987, after being ratified by 20 member states[1]. Vietnam acceded to the UNCAT on November 7, 2013, and ratified it a year later. As a member state to the UNCAT, Vietnam has spared no efforts to build its legal system, particularly criminal justice laws including the Penal Code, Criminal Procedure Code, Law on Custody and Temporary Detention, Law on Execution of Criminal Judgments, Law on Organization of Criminal Investigation, etc., in conformity with the UNCAT.

Vietnam’s 2013 Constitution (the Constitution) provides for the first time human rights and citizens’ rights in Chapter II with significant progress in the recognition and exercise of these rights as well as specific cases where these rights may be limited.