Can the National Assembly make laws that are 'appropriate and complete'?

Recently, National Assembly Chairman Tran Thanh Man affirmed: The National Assembly needs to play its role properly and fully. That simple, straightforward and meaningful statement by Chairman Tran Thanh Man, along with the sharp and decisive direction of General Secretary To Lam, is being strongly implemented in the organization and activities of the National Assembly, perhaps most clearly in legislative activities.

According to the Constitution (Article 69), constitution-making and legislation are among the most important functions of the National Assembly, along with the function of deciding on important national issues and the function of supreme supervision over State activities.

The Constitution (Clause 1, Article 70) more specifically stipulates the constitutional and legislative functions of the National Assembly, which are to make and amend the Constitution; to make and amend laws.

This article focuses on the legislative role of making laws and amending laws, commonly referred to as law-making of the National Assembly.

First of all, we need to talk more about the law. The law, including the Code, is absolutely and uniformly perceived as a legal document, more precisely a legal normative document issued by the National Assembly and promulgated by the President, with the highest legal effect after the Constitution. The law must be consistent with the Constitution, all legal documents under the law must be consistent with the Constitution and the law.

Delegates attending the 9th Extraordinary Session of the 15th National Assembly. Photo: National Assembly Electronic Information Portal

What does the law stipulate as the legislative role of the National Assembly?

Firstly, the law specifies the contents that the Constitution is required to regulate by law (*).

In addition, according to Article 70 of the Constitution on the duties and powers of the National Assembly, there are also contents that must be prescribed by the National Assembly, that is, must be prescribed by law or by resolution of the National Assembly.

Many other contents of the Constitution are provided in an open, optional manner, allowing the National Assembly to issue laws, resolutions, or other State agencies or individuals with the authority to issue sub-law documents depending on the nature of the issue and the requirements for regulation by which type of legal document is most appropriate.

However, according to practice, these contents of the Constitution are mainly specified by laws or resolutions of the National Assembly.

Second, the Law institutionalizes the contents that need to be regulated by law as recorded in the Platform, resolutions of the Party Congress and the Resolutions and Conclusions of the Central Committee and Politburo.

Third, the law stipulates that the State's commitments must be internalized to implement international treaties of which Vietnam is a member.

Fourth, in addition to the above cases, agencies, organizations and individuals have the right to submit draft laws and recommendations on laws to the National Assembly according to Article 84 of the Constitution, and can propose other contents that they deem necessary to be regulated by law for the National Assembly to consider and decide.

In our country, state power is unified, so the clear, reasonable, scientific division of labor, coordination and control between state agencies in the implementation of legislative, executive and judicial powers; the decentralization and delegation of power between the Central and local levels according to the principle of "locality decides, locality acts, locality is responsible" is also a very important basis to ensure that the National Assembly plays the right role in legislation.

The National Assembly and its legislative functions

The role of legislation is easy to determine because it has a clear, specific and increasingly improved constitutional and legal basis. Meanwhile, the role of legislation is an issue that needs to be further analyzed and evaluated.

Some criteria that each law and the entire legal system must meet to demonstrate the legislative activities of the National Assembly are as follows:

Party spirit, constitutionality, scientific nature, professionalism, compliance with legislative processes and procedures as prescribed by law.

The completeness, synchronization, unity, consistency and timeliness of the legal system in accordance with the orientation and legislative program on the basis of ensuring the right to submit draft laws and recommendations on laws of agencies, organizations and individuals as prescribed by the Constitution.

Completeness, coverage of scope of regulation, applicable subjects, anticipation of arising situations, exceptions, and specificities that need to be resolved and handled in the law.

The principles and reasonable framework of the law ensure stable adjustment while creating flexibility in the management and operation of the Government, local authorities and the operations of judicial and auditing agencies.

Specificity in necessary cases, transparency, ease of understanding, accessibility, ease of application, compliance with the law for relevant entities and ease of forecasting and predicting for the production and business activities of investments, ensuring that the law can directly and quickly enter life without having to wait for the issuance of too many guiding documents for implementation.

Seriousness, fairness, democracy, humanity, progress, inclusiveness and development promotion.

National character, modernity, international integration.

Feasibility, effectiveness, efficiency and completeness.

How does the National Assembly legislate (make laws) properly and fully?

At the workshop "Institutional bottlenecks and breakthrough solutions for development" organized by the Vietnam Association of Administrative Sciences, there were opinions that the regulation that the National Assembly makes laws is incorrect, the National Assembly cannot make laws but only passes laws submitted by the Government and competent agencies, organizations and individuals.

In return, Dr. Nguyen Van Thuan, former member of the National Assembly Standing Committee and former Chairman of the National Assembly's Law Committee, said that the concept of "the National Assembly makes laws" was used by the late General Secretary and Chairman of the State Council Truong Chinh and was expressed in the 1980 Constitution.

In the constitutional history of our country, President Ho Chi Minh used the concept of "the National Assembly makes law" for the first time and this concept was recorded in the 1959 Constitution.

In many countries around the world, the concept of “the National Assembly is a legislative body” (Legislative Body) or the concept of “the National Assembly is a lawmaking body” (Lawmaking Body) is also commonly used. Parliamentarians and National Assembly deputies are also often called Lawmakers (Law makers).

In our country, when we say that the National Assembly makes laws, it does not mean that the National Assembly itself researches, proposes, develops legislative policies, edits, drafts, and completes draft laws for approval (promulgation).

The Constitution stipulates that the National Assembly makes laws (Article 70), and also stipulates that agencies, organizations, and individuals submit draft laws (Article 84); the Government proposes and develops policies to submit to the National Assembly for decision, and submits draft laws to the National Assembly (Clause 2, Article 96); the National Assembly's Council of Ethnic Minorities and Committees examine draft laws (Articles 75 and 76); the National Assembly votes to pass laws (Article 85); the President promulgates laws (Articles 85 and 88).

Pursuant to the Constitution, the Law on Promulgation of Legal Documents 2015 and the draft Law on Promulgation of Legal Documents 2025 expected to be passed in the near future, specific regulations on law making and promulgation show more clearly that the National Assembly's law making is a process from building, approving, deciding on the orientation and legislative program of the National Assembly; assigning agencies, organizations, and individuals to propose, develop policies, draft, and submit draft laws; reviewing and giving opinions for the National Assembly to consider and decide.

Thus, the concept of “the National Assembly makes laws” should be understood in a broad sense, as a process with the participation and responsibility of many of the above-mentioned agencies, organizations and individuals. In which, the National Assembly, under the leadership of the Party and responsible to the People, plays the leading, leading role and is the agency with the final decision-making authority.

In the revolution of streamlining the organizational apparatus initiated and led by the Party, our Vietnamese National Assembly will have a breakthrough development in the direction of streamlining - strength - efficiency - effectiveness - efficiency, working in the right role, more fully than before, ready to enter the new era of development of the Vietnamese nation.

(*) In articles 14, 19, 20, 21, 22, 27, 31, 47, 54, 55, 80, 96, 101, 105, 107, 108, 110, 111, 112, 113, 117, 118 and 119.

Vietnamnet.vn

Source: https://vietnamnet.vn/quoc-hoi-co-the-lam-luat-dung-vai-tron-vai-2371738.html