As a supervision and education measure for under-18 offenders, community-based conciliation is provided for the first time in the 2015 Penal Code and the 2015 Criminal Procedure Code, marking a turning point in Vietnam’s policies on criminal handling of juvenile delinquents in compatibility with current global trends in juvenile justice. This measure is different from the other two judicial measures[1] applicable to under-18 offenders as it involves more active participation of victims and their representatives in criminal proceedings, and facilitates the use of opinions of victims during the conciliation process for handling juvenile offenders.

In this article, the author provides an insight view of fundamental statutory principles for adjudication of offenders aged under 18 years as per the 2015 Criminal Procedure Code and the 2015 Penal Code, with practical problems and limitations encountered by courts, and makes recommendations for better guaranteeing the juvenile justice in conformity with international legal practices.

Inmates satisfying certain conditions may participate in a work and training release program which would be applied on a pilot basis once it is approved by the National Assembly.

This article highlights new provisions of the 2015 Penal Code and the 2019 Law on Execution of Criminal Judgments[1] regarding the two judicial remedies of compulsory medical treatment and education at reformatories applied to juvenile offenders in Vietnam.

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.

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.

Though promulgated in 2015, the new Criminal Procedure Code took effect on January 1, 2018, like the 2015 Penal Code (revised in 2017). This article browses specific changes in the Code designed to better protect human rights and citizens’ rights in criminal proceedings

This article summarizes significant changes in the 2015 Penal Code and its revisions in 2017, including penalizing commercial legal persons for committing certain crimes, scrapping the crime of illegally doing business, and criminally charging corruption-related offenders in the private sector.

Under the recent universal periodic review, the United Nations Human Rights Council has appreciated the achievements recorded by Vietnam in realizing its commitments on human rights. It has also made hundreds of recommendations for Vietnam to better protect and guarantee human rights, 182 of which are accepted by the country. In criminal justice, 17 recommendations of the UNHRC are directly related to the formulation and revision of the 2015 Penal Code.