>>Legislation in French-ruled Vietnam
Pham Diem
State and Law Research Institute
During the resistance war against the French colonialists (1946-1954), the legal system of the then Democratic Republic of Vietnam was formulated, though not yet complete. Laws, ordinances, decrees, etc., promulgated during this period aimed mainly at mobilizing the human and material resources for the resistance war and regulating social relations in conformity to the war conditions. Many social relations and particularly economic relations were not governed by laws. From 1954 on, northern Vietnam moved into the period of socialist construction and struggle against the US imperialists for national salvation. Many new types of social relations were established and consequently the legal system was gradually improved, meeting the requirements of the socio-economic development in the North and actively serving the war of resistance against the US for national defense.
I. The 1959 Constitution
By 1959, the Democratic Republic of Vietnam had been established for 14 years and witnessed many important events that changed the political, economic and social situation of the country. Therefore, the 1946 Constitution, the Constitution of the period of the people's national democratic revolution, was no longer suitable to the social relations of the new period. Under that circumstance, the National Assembly then decided to amend it and the amended constitution drafting committee was set up with President Ho Chi Minh at the head.
The first draft, completed in July 1958, was discussed among middle- and high-ranking cadres of the State and the army. It was later adjusted and put up for public comments for four consecutive months from April 1959. And on December 18, 1959, President Ho Chi Minh presented the final draft of the amended constitution before the 11th session of the National Assembly which passed the Constitution on December 31, 1959; and President Ho Chi Minh signed the order to promulgate the Constitution.
Though made on the basis of amendments to the 1946 Constitution, the 1959 Constitution was in essence a new one, containing the Preamble and 112 Articles arranged in 10 Chapters.
The Preamble affirmed that Vietnam was a unified country stretching from Lang Son to Ca Mau and recognized the leadership of the Vietnam Workers' Party (now the Communist Party of Vietnam). It also underlined the fine traditions of the Vietnamese people and affirmed their aspiration and will to build a peaceful, unified, independent, democratic and prosperous Vietnam. The nature of the State of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam was confirmed in the Preamble as a people's democratic State based on the foundation of the worker-peasant alliance led by the working class.
Chapter I: The Democratic Republic of Vietnam
This Chapter prescribed the political regime of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam through the following stipulations:
- Vietnam is a unified country that cannot be divided.
- The State of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam is the people's democratic republic State. All powers in the country belong to the people who exercise their power through the National Assembly and the People's Councils at all levels, which are elected by the people and take responsibility before the people. The election of deputies to the National Assembly and the People's Councils is effected on the principle of universal suffrage, equality, direct and secret ballot. All State bodies must rely on the people, keep close contact with the people, listen to their opinions and submit to the people's supervision.
- The principle of equality among ethnicities living in Vietnam. All acts of ethnic discrimination, oppression and division are strictly forbidden.
Chapter II: The Social and Economic System.
This is a new chapter in the 1959 Constitution, which defined the then economic policy that was to turn the backward economy into a socialist economy with modern technology, modern agriculture, advanced sciences and techniques. The basic goal of such an economic policy was to constantly develop the productive force so as to improve the people's material and cultural life. The State recognized major forms of ownership of the production means: The State ownership (or the entire people's ownership), the cooperative ownership (or the collective ownership of laborers), the private ownership (including the ownership of the individual laborers and the ownership of the national bourgeois). The last form of ownership was gradually eliminated and turned into the first form of ownership. The State-run economy under the State ownership played the leading role in the national economy and was given priority by the State to develop.
Chapter III: Fundamental rights and duties of the citizens.
The 1959 Constitution defined the citizens' fundamental rights and duties in a fuller and more complete manner than the first Constitution of the country in 1946, covering not only social and political aspects but also the economic field. More concretely, under the 1959 Constitution, a Vietnamese citizen had the following fundamental rights and obligations:
- The political rights, including the right to democratic freedoms such as to right to vote and stand for the election, the right to equality before law, the right to freedom of speech, press, assembly, association, demonstration; the right to complain or denounce acts of law offences by State officials or employees.
- The civil, economic and social rights such as the right to work, to rest; the right to enjoy material support when getting old and weak, losing working acity; the right to study, to conduct scientific research, to create literary and art works, the right to freedom of belief.
- The rights to personal freedoms such as the inviolable rights with regard to body, housing, the rights to freedom of residence and movement.
- The fundamental duties of the citizens include the obligations to observe the Constitution, laws, labor disciplines, public law and order, to protect public property, to pay tax according to the provisions of law, to defend the Fatherland.
Chapter IV prescribed the organization of the State apparatus, constituting a basic step of development as compared to the 1946 Constitution.
Under the 1959 Constitution, the supreme organ of State power was called the National Assembly not the People's Parliament as in the 1946 Constitution. The National Assembly had a four-year term (instead of the three-year term as for the previous legislature). Before 1959, the People's Parliament only established subcommittees of each session; but the 1959 Constitution stipulated that the National Assembly had permanent commissions and provisional commissions.
Chapter V: The State President.
The State presidency is closely associated to the prestige and historical role of President Ho Chi Minh, the embodiment of the national unity bloc.
Under the 1946 Constitution, the State President headed the Government and was the member of the Government. Yet, under the 1959 Constitution the State President was not the member of the Government which was led by the Prime Minister, while the State was headed by the President who represented the State in domestic as well as external affairs. Therefore, the State Presidency was prescribed by the 1959 Constitution in a separate chapter with the minimum age to stand for the Presidency which was not stated in the 1946 Constitution. Moreover, the 1959 Constitution did not stipulate the Presidency candidate must be a deputy to the National Assembly while the 1946 Constitution said the State President had to be elected from among the parliamentarians.
Chapter VI: The Government Council
The 1959 Constitution affirmed that the Government Council was not only the highest administrative agency of the State as mentioned in the 1946 Constitution but also the executive body of the supreme organ of the State power. This new regulation clearly reflected the principle that the State power was concentrated in the National Assembly. It also showed that the Government Council under the 1959 Constitution was modeled after the governments of the socialist countries, which was different from the government organized according to the 1946 Constitution as a bourgeois government (namely the government was not the executive body of the Parliament).
Chapter VII: The People's Council and the local Administrative Committee.
Under the 1959 Constitution, the regional level (the northern, central and southern regions) was abrogated. Under the 1946 Constitution the People's Council was set up only at the provincial and communal levels, the 1959 Constitution stipulated that the People's Council would be set up at all local administrative levels as the local State power bodies.
Chapter VIII: The People's Court and People's Procuracy.
Under the 1959 Constitution, the system of the people's courts was no longer attached to the Government and the court took the responsibility before the State power body of the same level and should report its activities thereto. The 1959 Constitution also stipulated that the system of people's procuracy was no longer attached to the executive body, and the Supreme People's Procuracy took responsibility before the National Assembly and the National Assembly Standing Committee for its activities while the people's procuracy of other levels were answerable to their specialized agencies.
II. Legislation
Apart from the 1959 Constitution, various laws that governed different aspects of the social life were promulgated by the State of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam.
1/ Legislation on the organization of the State apparatus
Right after the promulgation of the 1959 Constitution, the National Assembly of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam issued various legal documents regarding the organization and operations of key State bodies and concretizing the Constitution's provisions in this regard.
- The Law on the organization of the National Assembly was passed on July 14, 1960 by the National Assembly and promulgated on July 26, 1960 by the State President. On the basis of the principles on the position, tasks and powers of the National Assembly as stated in the 1959 Constitution, the Law prescribed in details the National Assembly's conferences, the organization and operation of its Standing Committee and various Commissions, the tasks and powers of its deputies.
- The Law on the organization of the Government Council was passed on July 14, 1960 and promulgated on July 1960. It specified the positions, tasks and powers of Cabinet members, as well as the plenary meetings and regular meetings of the Government Council.
- The Law on the organization of the people's court was passed by the National Assembly on July 14, 1960 and promulgated on July 26 the same year. On the basis of the basic principles stated in the Constitution, the Law defined the general tasks of the people's court and specified the organization, operation and power of the people's court of all levels.
- The Law on the organization of the people's procuracy was adopted by the National Assembly on July 15, 1960 and promulgated by the State President on July 20, 1960. It detailed the constitutional provisions on the organization and operation of the people's procuracy.
- The Law on the organization of the People's Council and the Administrative Committee at all levels was passed on October 27, 1962 and promulgated on November 10, 1962, replacing the law on the organization of the local administration of May 31, 1958.
2/ Legislation on people's rights to democratic freedoms
The people's right to vote was prescribed in the Law on Legislative Election (passed on December 31, 1959 and promulgated on January, 13, 1960) and the Ordinance on Procedures for the Election of the People's Councils of all levels (adopted on January 18, 1961 by the State President). These two legal documents concretized a basic principle stated in the 1959 Constitution that the election of deputies to National Assembly and the People's Councils of all levels was conducted on the principle of universal suffrage, equality, direct and secret ballot.
- Law No.100-SL/L002 of May 20, 1957 on the press activities, having aimed to ensure the people's right to freedom of speech.
- Law No.101-SL/L003 of May 20, 1957 prescribing the people's right to freedom of assembly.
- Law No.102-SL/L004 of May 20, 1957 defining the right to freedom of association.
- Law No.103-SL/L005 of May 20, 1957 prescribing the people's inviolable rights with regard to their bodies, housing, property, mails.
- Trade Union Law No.108-SL/L10 of November 5, 1957, defining the role, position of the union organization.
3/ Legislation on building the national defense and maintaining the political security, social law and order
- The law on military service was passed on December 31, 1959 and promulgated on January 12, 1960. Under this law, the voluntary enlistment was replaced by the compulsory military service. It was amended on October 26, 1962. In face of the US war escalation in southern Vietnam and air war of destruction in northern Vietnam, the National Assembly on April 10, 1965 adopted the Law on the Amendments and Supplements to the Law on Military Service, which was in fact a law on wartime military service, aimed to mobilize a large number of young people for service in the regular army to defend the country.
- On October 20, 1967, the National Assembly Standing Committee adopted the Ordinance on Punishment of Counter-revolutionary Offences, the Ordinance on the Punishment of Infringements Upon the Socialist Property and Ordinance on the Punishment of Infringements Upon Private Property of Citizens. Later, on September 6, 1972, the National Assembly Standing Committee adopted the Ordinance on Forest Protection.
4/ Wartime legislation include legal documents issued by the State to ensure the most effective mobilization of human and material resources for the resistance war against the US imperialists for national salvation, to regulate the social relations in a manner suitable to the wartime conditions.
In order to make timely decisions on important and urgent issues of the nation, the National Assembly on April 10, 1965 issued a resolution, having assigned its Standing Committee a number of powers in the new situation:
- To decide on the State plans, consider and ratify the State budget estimates and statements of final accounts.
- To set different kinds of tax.
- To ratify the delimitation of land boundaries of the provincial and equivalent levels.
- To consider and decide the convening of National Assembly sessions in case that the National Assembly could not hold its regular meeting.
Later on April 1, 1967, the N.A. Standing Committee adopted the Ordinance stipulating some points on the election and organization of the People's Council and the Administrative Committee at different levels during the wartime. Together with the April 10, 1965 Law on Amendments and Supplements to the Law on Military Service, the N.A. Standing Committee, on April 21, 1965, issued the decision on the partial mobilization in order to quickly strengthen the regular army. And on April 26, 1966, the Government promulgated the provisional regulation on the mobilization and use of wartime labor, the Decree No.31-CP of March 8, 1967 on enhancing the female labor in offices and factories...
In brief, the legislation of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam during the war of resistance against the US imperialists for national salvation had some following prominent features:
1/ Due to the conditions of fierce and prolonged war and constant changes in the social relations, only few among the legal documents promulgated during that period were of legislative character while most were of regulatory character. The organization and management of every aspect of the social life were governed not only by State laws but also directly by policies of the Vietnam Worker's Party.
2/ The legislation was of wartime character.
3/ The legal system of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam met the most urgent needs of the social life and had high effect as well as practical efficiency, contributing no little part to the construction and defense of the North, the liberation of the South and the reunification of the country.-