Building a rule of law state: Avoiding waste and vested interests in law-making

In two articles “Promoting Party spirit in building a socialist rule-of-law state in Vietnam”; “Fighting waste” and speaking at the Opening Session of the 8th Session of the 15th National Assembly, General Secretary To Lam frankly pointed out the limitations in legislative work and law enforcement, especially the quality of law making and improvement that has not met the needs of practice, is the “bottleneck of bottlenecks”, causing waste of resources, missing the development opportunities of the country before the new era.

General Secretary and President To Lam speaks at the opening session of the 8th session of the 15th National Assembly. Photo: Doan Tan/VNA

Regarding the two articles mentioned above, Associate Professor, Dr. Truong Ho Hai (Director of the Institute of State and Law, Ho Chi Minh National Academy of Politics) emphasized that a country with a good legal system "can change the development of the country" and expressed agreement with the General Secretary's assessment of the shortcomings and limitations in legislative work. Citing the historical reality of the Doi Moi process initiated by the Party over the past 40 years, Associate Professor, Dr. Truong Ho Hai said that the strong institutional reforms in the early stages of Doi Moi helped the country escape difficulties and achieve the foundation and potential it has today. “We have laws on investment fields after the renovation period, for example the Law on Foreign Investment in Vietnam (1987), which has opened up a series of resources. Next, we have a series of industrial parks, especially in the southern provinces such as Binh Duong and Dong Nai, which are the result of waves of “rolling out the red carpet” to invite foreign investors... The provisions of the law, when the bottlenecks are removed, have contributed to turning the country from a lack of food, lack of clothing, lack of everything, into a powerful exporter of rice and other goods,” Associate Professor - Doctor Truong Ho Hai shared. However, according to Associate Professor - Doctor Truong Ho Hai, “making laws is a very difficult task”, requiring the law-making team to be highly qualified, knowledgeable in the field, and very dedicated, in order to be able to put words into the laws so that they can be understood and applied uniformly throughout the country. In addition, the process of making laws also involves the issue of group interests. For example, the Land Law will certainly affect the interests of different groups, from the people to real estate businesses. Therefore, Associate Professor, Dr. Truong Ho Hai believes that the law-making process in our country today needs the Party's spirit to ensure that a law and legal regulations must put the interests of the country and the people first and foremost, as the General Secretary requested. The law-making process must eliminate group interests, although this is not easy. "Recently, the Party has issued regulations on preventing and combating corruption right in the process of building the system of laws to avoid the infiltration of group interests. Just a few words of amendments in the law can clog the system or change a lot. Therefore, to have a good law system, the people who make the laws must be excellent in that field, and at the same time must prevent group interests from interfering politically and economically in the process of building and promulgating laws," Associate Professor, Dr. Truong Ho Hai emphasized. One of the solutions to prevent and combat “group interests” in the work of law-making that the Party has pointed out as well as most legislative experts and scientists agree on is transparency, democracy, and accountability. Carefully studying the article “Promoting Party spirit in building a socialist rule-of-law state in Vietnam”, Associate Professor-PhD Nguyen Thi Bao (Institute of State and Law, Ho Chi Minh National Academy of Politics) said that General Secretary To Lam emphasized “building strict, scientific, democratic laws”, “fully reflecting the will and aspirations of the people, protecting the interests of the state, the legitimate rights and interests of organizations and individuals”.

“It is also noteworthy that the General Secretary clearly stated that the National Assembly needs to play a leading role and have solutions to ensure that the legal system is enacted to meet the requirements of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. These arguments demonstrate the profound vision and orientation of the Party leader towards the legislative activities of the National Assembly,” Associate Professor-PhD Nguyen Thi Bao (Institute of State and Law, Ho Chi Minh National Academy of Politics) emphasized. According to Associate Professor-PhD Nguyen Thi Bao’s analysis, in terms of legislative techniques, the laws in the State of law must be easy to understand, clear, transparent, modern and easy to operate, removing “bottlenecks”, creating a legal basis for law enforcement organizations, improving the effectiveness of state management to ensure a transparent and effective administration, everything aimed at ensuring the legitimate interests of the people and ensuring that the law is the legal basis, the rule of law. “This shows that the strategic vision and orientation for Vietnam’s legislative work is becoming more and more effective, meeting the trend of integration and development and becoming a country operating according to fair, transparent and accountable laws,” Ms. Nguyen Thi Bao emphasized. According to Associate Professor-PhD Nguyen Thi Bao, in order to have a transparent, fair and accountable legal system, that legal system must create a mechanism to attract all classes of people to participate in the legislative process and law enforcement, or in other words, that legal system must demonstrate the two words “democracy”. Law is a manifestation of “discipline” but it is only effective, efficient and truly a driving force for development when it is built on the foundation of “democracy”. Once our country has such a legal system, everyone will live and work according to the Constitution and the law consciously and people will feel that the subjects granted state power are operating responsibly and transparently and people will also be aware of their responsibilities in the rule of law state. Thereby, the Party can promote the strength of the nation and all people to build and develop our country strongly and bring happiness to the people.

V.D (Vietnam News Agency)

Source: https://baotintuc.vn/chinh-tri/xay-dung-nha-nuoc-phap-quyen-tranh-lang-phi-loi-ich-nhom-trong-xay-dung-phap-luat-20241105090750810.htm