Vietnamlawmagazine

The Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) and the Government Office’s Department of Legal Affairs held a seminar on September 7 in Hanoi to review the Law on Environmental Protection and its guiding documents.

According to specialists, lawyers and enterprises, the Law on Environmental Protection has created a complete legal corridor for effective management of environmental protection activities. However, environmental violations tend to increase, partly because of outdated provisions of the Law.

Luong Minh Thao, deputy director of the Police Department Against Environmental Crimes, the Ministry of Public Security, said during the past five years, the Department has detected and handled 20,000 cases involving violations of the law but could not bring any case to trial due to ambiguous and unspecific regulations.

Dr. Nguyen Van Phuong from Hanoi Law University said legal documents failed to ensure the balance between economic, social and environmental interests and determine the relationship between regulations on environmental protection and guaranteeing the right to freedom of enterprises.

Many new environmental protection policies provided in the Law on Environmental Protection could not be implemented due to the lack of specific guidance, he said.-