Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong has ordered Party committees, organizations and competent agencies to continue with more drastic, rapid actions and stronger determination to fight corruption and negative phenomena.

The 15th sitting day of the 15th National Assembly’s fourth session on November 7 focused on discussing in the hall a draft resolution on piloting several specific mechanisms and policies for the development of Buon Ma Thuot city in the Central Highlands province of Dak Lak.

Legislators are to discuss the implementation of policies and laws regarding thrift practice and wastefulness prevention in the 2016-2021 period on October 31 as part of the ongoing fourth session of the 15th National Assembly.

As recommended by the International Human Rights Committee, member states should clearly specify the time limit for temporary holding in custody or detention of persons arrested in criminal proceedings. At the same time, when exercising the right to detain or arrest people for custody or temporary detention as preventive measures, competent agencies must secure the rights of the accused and defendants in accordance with law, including the right to have access to legal aid; right to be informed; and right to obtain court rulings on whether the custody or temporary detention is lawful or unlawful.

The procedural law and regulations in Vietnam during the 15th and 19 centuries were prescribed fairly comprehensively and specifically in “Quoc Trieu Hinh Luat” (the National Criminal Code) of the late Le dynasty and “Hoang Viet Luat Le” (the Royal Laws and Regulations of Vietnam) under the Nguyen dynasty. They were also codified into “Quoc Trieu Kham Tung Dieu Le” (the National Procedural Regulations of Royal Dynasties), which was really a distinctive legal phenomenon of the Vietnamese feudal laws.

The Law on Execution of Criminal Judgments was passed in 2019 by the National Assembly[1], significantly contributing to the institutionalization of the Party’s guidelines and the State’s humanitarian policy toward convicts and inmates. Since then, the execution of criminal judgments has recorded notable progresses; security and safety of detention and custody facilities have been better guaranteed; and the correctional education of prisoners has become more effective, thus facilitating the exercise of their human rights.

From January 1, six laws will come into force, including the Law on Environmental Law on Vietnamese Guest Workers, Law Revising the Law on Handling of Administrative Violations, Law on Vietnam Border Defense, Law on Drug Prevention and Control, and Law Revising the 2015 Statistics Law and the List of National Statistical Indicators.

In Vietnam’s feudal regime, the vulnerable included women, the elderly, children, persons with disabilities, widows, widowers, the lonely, ethnic minorities, persons with nobody to rely on, prisoners and, in a broader sense, people in general as commoners in relation to the state. The feudal states paid attention to these disadvantaged groups and protected their legitimate rights and interests. The human rights then were understood in a narrow sense as legitimate needs and interests of people, which were recognized and protected to a certain extent by law.

In the context of extensive international integration, besides diplomatic missions and consular offices as key parties to diplomatic relations, the State, state agencies, companies, state enterprises, sole proprietorships, multinational corporations, etc., will be involved more and more actively in economic, civil and commercial transactions overseas. Therefore, civil, economic and commercial disputes involving foreign elements will inevitably occur and need to be settled by competent authorities with proper jurisdiction. In principle, their rulings or awards are to be respected and executed, except cases eligible for immunity from execution under international and domestic laws. Many economic and commercial cases involving the aforesaid subjects have recently been recorded in Vietnam in the field of private international law. However, the execution of court judgments and rulings for these cases has encountered not a few difficulties and problems, especially those caused by legal institutions. This article provides an overview of Vietnamese laws as well as international regulations on immunity from measures to enforce court judgments and rulings.

International cooperation has been recognized as a key in the fight against corruption in general and corruption relating to wildlife crime in particular. In order to create a legal basis for international anti-corruption efforts, the United Nations adopted the Convention against Corruption on October 31, 2003. Vietnam became an official State Party to the Convention on August 19, 2009. This article analyzes the Convention’s provisions and Vietnam’s regulations on international cooperation in the fight against corruption, especially those concerning the wildlife, and puts forward some recommendations for making them more compatible with the United Nations Convention against Corruption.