Mechanism for control of legislative power in the 2013 constitution of Vietnam

The 2013 Constitution stipulates the principle of “assignment, coordination and examination among state agencies in the exercise of legislative, executive and judicial powers”, but at [r]

MECHANISM FOR CONTROL OF LEGISLATIVE POWER

IN THE 2013 CONSTITUTION OF VIETNAM

Trinh Thang Xuan

Regional Academy of Politics - Region IV

Abstract

Legislative power is one of the most important powers of the state apparatus, and is aimed to establish the state’s legal system Therefore, it is necessary to have a mechanism to control the legislative power of the National Assembly so as to ensure that this type of power is properly implemented, in order to create a quality legal system that effectively serves the state in management activities, and limit the abuse of power and the arbitrary issuance of law The Constitution, as the supreme law, contains fundamental provisions on mechanisms for state power control, including the control of the legislative power of the National Assembly.

Therefore, there are several issues that will be addressed in this study, including: What is the objective necessity of the legislative control mechanism of the National Assembly? What is the current status of the National Assembly’s control of legislative power in the 2013 Constitution and the implementation of this power ful control mechanism in practice? What is the orientation of the ongoing improvement of the current legislative control mechanism of the National Assembly of Vietnam? On that basis, this paper will focus on clarifying these research issues.

Keywords: Legislative power, National Assembly, Vietnam

1 The objective necessity of the mechanism for the control of the legislative power of the National Assembly

The mechanism for the control of the legislative power of the National Assembly is a combination

of the regulations of laws and institutions relating to the control of the legislative power of the National Assembly The establishment of a mechanism for the control of the legislative power of the National Assembly is an important requirement in the construction a socialist law-based state in Vietnam due

to the following main reasons:

The first reason is that the nature of state power is originates from the people.

First of all, state power in general and the legislative power in a socialist law-based state is originated from and represents the nature that “All state power belongs to the people” In democratic political regimes, state power is not an inherent power of the state, but is authorized by the people who empower the state The people do not directly exercise the state power which by nature belongs

to themselves, but they delegate the power to the state who performs it on their behalf Therefore,

controlling state power is an objective demand from the mandator (the people) over the authorized (the state) Moreover, the exercise of state power is always at risk of corruption It was summed up by Lord Acton, a British historian in the late 19th century that “Power tends to corrupt; absolute power, absolute corruption is also” This is because the power of the state is that of the people and is entrusted

by the people to state agencies, which, after all, are composed of specific individuals who exercise the state power However, “human actions are always influenced by the kinds of affection and desire that make rationality sometimes obscured”1 With such characteristics of a human being, it is impossible

to assert that the authorized persons always implement accurately and sufficiently what they are authorized by the people Such reality also means that it is even more demanding to control state power with an aim of limiting the misuse of power, abuse of power, and ensuring the effectiveness and efficiency in the exercise of state power

The second reason is concerned with the position and important role of legislative power in the Socialist Law-Based State of Vietnam

Legislative power in the Socialist Law-Based State of Vietnam is an important part of the state power, and is used to perform the fundamental tasks of passing the Constitution and laws in order to ensure the sovereignty of the people, exercise state power, ensure human rights, civil rights and the common interests of the whole society The legislative power is vested in the National Assembly, which

is a collection of delegates directly authorized by the people through direct universal suffrage Thus, the legislative power is a direct and highest division of power representing the interests and the will

of the people, aiming to promulgate the highest legal documents of the nation which contain the codes

of behaviour for all entities in society The legislative power plays a key role in the implementation and assurance of the people’s sovereignty, institutionalizing the Party’s guidelines and policies, and creating a legal corridor for state agencies and the entire society If the legislative power is well implemented, it will be an important basis for promoting the people’s right to mastery, ensuring the Party’s leadership role and strengthening the effectiveness and efficiency of state management

The third reason stems from the situation of the mechanism for the enforcement of legislative power in the 2013 Constitution.

The current law-making process does not guarantee effective control of power The establishment

of the Board of Law Drafting, law amendments and the designation of drafting agencies are carried out by the National Assembly Standing Committee and the Government However, the drafting of laws is normally performed by those ministries, branches and agencies which are directly related

to their corresponding areas of management Such a way of law-making is difficult to avoid the integration of local and group interests in the drafting process if the mechanisms for the control of legislative power do not work well Hence, there is an urgent need to continue researching, building and perfecting the mechanisms for the control of legislative power in accordance with the 2013 Constitution of Vietnam at present

Moreover, the mechanism for the control of the legislative power in the 2013 Constitution of Vietnam still raises many issues: “the mechanism for the control of power is also created by people The constitution is made by humans, people have shortcomings, so are the mechanisms, we have to

1 JonMills: Comment on Freedom ( first published, National Political Publishing House 2005) 131

improve them gradually according to our perception” A number of provisions on the mechanism to control legislative power and the actual implementation of this mechanism are inadequate, not really guaranteeing effective control of legislative power

2 The current situation of the mechanism to control legislative power of the National Assembly according to the 2013 Constitution

* Current situation of regulations on controlling the legislative power of the National Assembly according to the 2013 Constitution

- Achievements:

The 2013 Constitution of Vietnam has established important mechanisms for the control of legislative power, including provisions on the mechanisms for the control of legislative power from beyond and within the state apparatus

The first mechanism is for the control of legislative power beyond the state apparatus.

The mechanism for the control of legislative power is controlled by entities beyond the state apparatus (including the people and socio-political organizations, professional societies, and means

of mass media)

For the people as entities that control the legislative power, the 2013 Constitution establishes

an important legal basis for a mechanism that allows the people to control the legislative power Specifically, the 2013 Constitution regulates a mechanism by which the people control legislative power through the exercise of a direct and a representative form of democracy In Article 6, the 2013 Constitution stipulates that the people exercise the control of their legislative power through the form

of representative democracy (through elected members of the National Assembly, representing the will

of the people and being the entities directly exercising legislative power) At the same time, the people also exercise their control over the legislative power by means of direct democracy such as exercising the rights to nominate themselves as candidates and elect members to the National Assembly (Article 27); the right to dismiss National Assembly members in case they are no longer worthy of the people’s confidence (Article 7); the citizens have the right to vote when the state holds a referendum (Article 29); the citizens have the right to participate in state and social management, and take part in discussions and recommendations to state agencies on issues emerging at the grassroots, local and national levels; the state creates conditions for the citizens to participate in state and social management, and publicizes and assures the transparency in the process of receiving and responding to citizens’ opinions and proposals (Article 28) Thus, through this mechanism, the people can directly contribute their opinions

to draft laws when authorized state agencies collect public opinion, and can make recommendations to authorized state agencies on the inadequacies of the laws

In addition to the mechanism of the people’s control of legislative power, the 2013 Constitution also provides for the mechanism to control the legislative power from political organizations, socio-political organizations, professional social organizations and means of the mass media Specifically, the 2013 Constitution states that “The Vietnam Fatherland Front is the political base of the people’s

1 Prof Dr Tran Ngoc Duong, ‘On the state power and the assignment, coordination and control among state agencies

in the implementation of legislative and executive powers and the current judiciary’, Communist Journal [2014].

government supervises and social crititiques the activities of state agencies, elected representatives and officials, civil servants” (Article 9); “Vietnamese Trade Union participates in the examination, inspection and supervision of the activities of state agencies” (Article 10) Thus, the legislative power

is controlled by the inspection and supervision mechanisms of the Communist Party, the supervision and social criticism mechanisms of the Vietnam Fatherland Front and its member organizations, social organizations and press agencies towards legislative activities of the National Assembly The actual practice of our state today has witnessed positive changes in the formulation and implementation

of these mechanisms Such changes have made significant contributions to the monitoring of the legislative power of the National Assembly, and to the improvement in the quality of issuing laws

The second, mechanism is for the control of legislative power within the state apparatus.

Along with the mechanisms for the control of legislative power beyond the state apparatus, the 2013 Constitution also stipulates a mechanism for the control of legislative power within the state apparatus, that is, the control among agencies within the state apparatus This mechanism of power control is established on the basis of the constitutional power on the division of the legislative, executive and judicial powers in the power organization of the state apparatus Accordingly, the 2013 Constitution stipulates that the National Assembly exercises constitutional and legislative powers (Article 69), the Government exercises executive power (Article 94), and the People’s Court exercises judicial power (Article 102) At the same time, the Constitution also clarifies the principle in the state power organization in Vietnam, stating that “State power is unified, there is a division, coordination and control among state agencies in the implementation of legislative, executive, judicial power” (Clause 3, Article 2) This principle is the basis for the control of state power and the grounds for the people to comment on and assess the validity and effectiveness in the exercise of each of the state powers This is because the division of power in a clear manner helps to enable state agencies to clearly define their scope of authority, avoiding arbitrarily encroaching on the authority of other agencies

or relying on other agencies, or not fulfilling their duties; meanwhile, regular coordination among the agencies of the National Assembly, the Government and the People’s Court in exercising the legislative, executive and judicial powers is required to ensure effectiveness in the implementation of the state power It is basically through the implementation of such a principle that a mechanism for the control of power among state agencies is ensured The above-mentioned provisions as principles in the

2013 Constitution provide the basis for promulgating laws for the organization of the state apparatus such as the 2014 Law on Organization of the National Assembly, the 2015 Law on Organization of the Government, the 2014 Law on Organization of People’s Court, which then contributes to the formation of a mechanism for the control of legislative power within the state apparatus

The 2013 Constitution also stipulates for a mechanism that the National Assembly exercises the control of the legislative power over it The 2013 Constitution stipulates a mechanism that controls the legislative power by examining bills proposed by the Council for Ethnic Peoples and committees

of the National Assembly before such bills are submitted to the National Assembly for approval Clause 2, Article 76 of the 2013 Constitution states that “the Committee of the National Assembly verifies bills”; “The Council for Ethnic Peoples has other duties and authorities similar to those of other committees of the National Assembly prescribed in Clause 2, Article 76” (Article 75) Through the mechanism of examination by the Council for Ethnic Peoples and committees of the National Assembly, bills that do not guarantee the quality will not be submitted to the National Assembly’s

meeting for voting Such is also a pre-inspection mechanism for the legislative authority of the National Assembly

In addition, the 2013 Constitution promotes a certain role of the Government in controlling legislative power by expanding the authority of the Government in legislative activities Specifically, the 2013 Constitution stipulates that the Government has the right to propose legislative initiatives

by proactively elaborating plans on submitting projects, implementing the right to submit bills, and the Government can also withdraw these projects in the case of statutory regulations Although the Law on Promulgation of Legal Documents does not stipulate the right to abandon the Government’s bills, it has recognized more clearly the role of the Government in the process of receiving feedback and revising the bills In the legislative activities in Vietnam, over 90% of the bills are submitted by the Government to the National Assembly for approval At the same time, “in the legislative process

of the National Assembly, the Government organizes the implementation, receives feedback and discussions to finalize the bills Although the National Assembly has the right to propose and decide

on amendments to the bill proposed by the Government, the Government has the right to discuss the National Assembly’s proposals and opinions to make the bills feasible when applied”1 Such

is a mechanism of pre-inspection of the Government’s bills before they are passed by the National Assembly to ensure the quality of the bills

* Emergent inadequacies:

In addition to the above-mentioned achievements, the mechanism for the control of the legislative power of the National Assembly prescribed in the 2013 Constitution also has the following inadequacies:

Firstly, some provisions in the 2013 Constitution do not guarantee the effectiveness of the

mechanism for “the control among state agencies in the exercise of legislative power” The 2013 Constitution stipulates the principle of “assignment, coordination and examination among state agencies in the exercise of legislative, executive and judicial powers”, but at the same time, Article

69 of the 2013 Constitution stipulates that “The National Assembly is the highest representative organ of the People, the highest authorized state organ of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam” Given that the National Assembly is the highest authorized state organ, other organs of the state apparatus such as the Government, which is established by the National Assembly, the executive organs of the National Assembly (Article 94), and even the Supreme People’s Court are all at lower rank and under the supreme supervision of the National Assembly, inadequacies and difficulties are unavoidable

in implementing the principle of “division, coordination and control among the agencies” in the state apparatus Since other state agencies such as the Government, the Supreme People’s Court is dependent on (i.e lack the independence of) the National Assembly, it is difficult to establish these agencies’ control over the legislative power of the National Assembly Confirming this view, Professor Doctor Dao Tri Uc (Chairman of the Council of the Institute of Public Policy and Law) declares that when providing that “the National Assembly is the highest authorized state organ (no one is higher) and exercises the supreme oversight, then executive and judicial agencies cannot have the right to

“control” over the National Assembly Such is one of the issues that need to be taken seriously because

1 MA Nguyen Thi Yen, ‘Constitution 2013 with the issue of controlling state power’ (2019) <https://tapchitoaan.vn/ bai-viet/phap-luat/hien-phap-2013-voi-van-de-kiem-soat-quyen-luc-nha-nuoc> accessed 25 October 2019.

the risk of abuse of power and corruption of policies have, in fact, been warned and discovered in parliaments in many countries”1 Professor Doctor Tran Ngoc Duong (senior expert of the Legislative Research Institute of the National Assembly’s Office, former Deputy Chairman of the XI National Assembly’s Office (2002-2007)) also said: “but the National Assembly has no one to supervise itself

to ensure that the National Assembly operates constitutionally, properly and fully comply with the provisions of the Constitution”2 Therefore, the current mechanism mainly emphasizes the role of one-way control of the National Assembly over the Government and the Supreme People’s Court; the reverse control (by the Government and the Supreme People’s Court over the legislative power of the National Assembly) has not been clearly-defined in any available mechanism The reality on the exercise of legislative power in Vietnam shows that, beyond the right to propose, construct and submit bills to the National Assembly, there have been no mechanisms in place that reflect the Government’s role in controlling the legislative power of the National Assembly Similarly, the current institution

of the Supreme People’s Court almost has no control over the exercise of the legislative power of the National Assembly, and has no decisive voices in the process of legislation passing of the National Assembly In many countries, the interpretation of laws can be a measure to control the legislative power of Parliament Such a function is usually given to the Court However, the 2013 Constitution of Vietnam stipulates that the authority of law interpretations belongs to the National Assembly Standing Committee, not to the Supreme People’s Court

Secondly, the regulation on the mechanism for the National Assembly’s self-control over its

legislative power still demonstrates some shortcomings Emphasizing this inadequacy, Associate Professor Doctor Le Minh Thong (former Director of the Institute of Organizational Sciences under the Party Central Organization Commission) posits that “the legislative activities (meaning the act of issuing laws by the National Assembly) are not subject to the supervision of the National Assembly and seem to be beyond the supervision of the state aspect”3 In the legislative activities in Vietnam, there is currently no legal mechanism to control the constitutionality of laws by other state agencies except the National Assembly’s self-control mechanism For the self-control mechanism

of the legislative power of the National Assembly, there exists only a pre-inspection mechanism (examination before a bill is passed), which is implemented through investigation activities by the Council for Ethnic People, Committee of Law and other committees of the National Assembly on the constitutionality of bills before they are submitted to the National Assembly for discussion and voting for approval As for a mechanism for examining laws that have been passed by the National Assembly (the post-inspection mechanism), both the 2013 Constitution and the 2014 Law on Organization of the National Assembly do not clearly stipulate any mechanisms or procedures for other agencies or the National Assembly to review by themselves the constitutionality of the passed laws The 2013 Constitution and current laws do not stipulate that the National Assembly has the authority to repeal laws showing signs against the constitution At the same time, Article 15 of the Law on Organization

1 Bao Linh, ‘Three questions about power control’ (2013) <https://vietnamnet.vn/vn/thoi-su/3-cau-hoi-ve-kiem-soat-quyen-luc-111469.html> accessed 25 October 2019.

2 Prof Doctor of Science Dao Tri Uc, Assoc Prof Dr Nguyen Nhu Phat (Co-Editor): Constitutional Judge and the issue of building a Constitutional jurisdiction model in Vietnam (Monograph) (first published, People’s Publication Publishing House 2007)186, 190.

3 Prof Doctor of Science Dao Tri Uc, Assoc Prof Dr Nguyen Nhu Phat (Co-Editor): Constitutional Judge and the issue of building a Constitutional jurisdiction model in Vietnam (Monograph) (first published, People’s Publication Publishing House 2007) 178.

of the National Assembly stipulates that the National Assembly is only competent to repeal documents

by the National Assembly Standing Committee, the State President, the Prime Minister, the People’s Court and the People’s Procuracy, and other agencies established by the National Assembly when such documents contravene the Constitution, laws and Resolutions of the National Assembly at the request of competent entities

Thirdly, the 2013 Constitution does not regulate a mechanism that allows the State President to

control the exercise of the legislative power of the National Assembly The President is defined by the

2013 Constitution as the head of state (Article 86), who has the authority to publish the Constitution, laws and ordinances (Article 88), but does not have the authority in requesting the National Assembly

to review a bill or delay the signing of an order to announce a bill that has been passed by the National Assembly In reality, the State President has not had the right to delay the signing for publication of any bills that have been approved by the National Assembly to date

Fourthly, the 2013 Constitution does not specify a specialized constitutional mechanism Article

119 of the 2013 Constitution states that “The Constitution is the basic law of the Socialist Republic

of Vietnam, with the highest legal effect All other legal documents must conform to the Constitution All violations of the Constitution will be punished The National Assembly and its organs, the State President, the Government, the People’s Court, the People’s Procuracy, other state organs and the entire people have the responsibility to protect the Constitution The mechanism for constitutional protection is regulated by law” The mechanism for constitutional protection is one of the important methods to control the legislative power of the National Assembly However, the 2013 Constitution and current legal documents of Vietnam have not clearly defined the order and procedures of constitutional protection The authority of constitutional protection is not delegated to a specialized agency, but to many agencies, which causes the avoidance of responsibilities, possibly making the constitutional protection less effective

* Current situation of implementing the mechanism of controlling legislative power of the National Assembly according to the 2013 Constitution

- Achievements:

+ Implementation of mechanisms to control the legislative power from outside the state apparatus

Practicing the implementation of direct democratic rights such as elections, supervising the activities of the DRC - those who directly exercise their legislative rights, and contribute their opinions

to the bills when the competent state agencies organize public opinion on draft laws, the people have made positive contributions to the control of legislative rights Comping with the provisions of Article

57 of the Law on Promulgation of Legal Normative Documents 2015 about collecting comments on law projects, agencies and organizations competent to preside over the drafting of law projects have organized for the collection of opinions from the subjects directly affected by the documents and from related agencies and organizations in many different forms, the most popular of which is posting the full text of the draft document on the web portals of the agencies or organizations in charge of drafting for at least 60 days (except for documents issued in summary order and procedures) to collect comments from agencies, organizations and individuals

In addition, the Vietnam Fatherland Front and socio-political organizations, social-professional organizations have also made positive contributions to the supervision, criticism, and suggestions

for constructing law projects, thereby contributing significantly to the control of legislative power in Vietnam in recent years

+ Implementation of mechanisms to control the legislative power from within the state apparatus

First of all, this can be seen in the National Assembly’s self-control mechanism of legislative power In compliance with Article 63 of the Law on the Enactment of Legal Documents, the Nationality Council and Committees of the National Assembly play an important role in presiding over the verification of all draft laws projects before they are submitted to the National Assembly for discussion, feedback or consideration for approval This is an important pre-check mechanism, comparable to a filter to ensure the quality of the bills

In addition, the Government’s control mechanism for legislative rights is also implemented through the drafting, appraisal and submission of bills Practical legislative activities through the terms

of the National Assembly show that the Government is the party in charge of researching, drafting and submitting over 90% of bills to the National Assembly for consideration and promulgation The Ministry of Justice will appraise draft Government bills before submitting them to the National Assembly At the same time, in the process of the National Assembly’s consideration and approval of bills submitted by the Government, although not yet stipulated by the Law on Promulgation of Legal Documents 2015, the Government has in fact applied for withdrawals or proposed a cancellation

on passing the bill For example, “in 2017, the Government asked to revoke the Law on Commune Police to add the issue of regularizing the Commune Police force to the revised Law on People’s Public Security (not promulgating the Law on Public Security communes according to the 2017 law and ordinance making program); or at the 5th session of the XIV National Assembly (June 2018) the Government asked the National Assembly to stop considering and passing the Law on Special Administrative - Economic Units to continue researching, perfecting and ensuring quality, feasibility”1

- Emergent inadequacies:

+ Implementation of mechanisms to control the legislative power from outside the state apparatus

The implementation of the people’s control mechanism over the legislative power of the National Assembly has not been really effective The actual practice of people supervising and contributing opinions to the draft laws shows that “the proportion of the public giving direct comments to draft legal documents on the web portal of the authority agencies is negligible”2 At the same time, the mechanism for collecting and accepting people’s comments, supervision and examination of the legislative process has not been guaranteed Competent authorities have neither assured transparency

of information nor implemented properly the associated accountability in receiving comments and critiques from the people on the draft laws

In addition, the implementation of the legislative control mechanism of the Vietnam Fatherland Front and its member organizations has been ineffective: “Application effects on the results of

1 Nguyen Phuoc Tho, ‘Controlling the Government’s power over the National Assembly in exercising legislative rights’, Legislative Research Journal, No.14 [2019].

2 MA Tran Thi Huong Hue, ‘Public participation in the development of legislative programming programs’, Democracy and Law Magazine, No 9 [2017] 9.

legislative control activities such as recommendations, complaints, denunciations, critiques, comments, and conclusions from the society have not been clearly defined from a legal perspective; therefore in practice, the control of legislative rights is formal”1 The lack of initiative, activeness and forms of supervision and critique of the Vietnam Fatherland Front and socio-political organizations for legislative activities are still monotonous and ineffective: “The Fatherland Front Vietnam and political-social organizations at all levels, mainly send representatives to participate in supervised delegations organized by state agencies, but have not chaired many independent monitoring activities”2 In particular, “The methods of research, document review and document supervision of competent agencies related to the legitimate rights and interests of the people have not been given due attention”3

+ Implementation of mechanisms to control the legislative power from within the state apparatus

The mechanism of controlling legislative rights within the state apparatus is implemented by the self-control mechanism of the National Assembly and the control mechanism of the Government with regard to legislative power Concerning the mechanism of self-control of the legislative power of the National Assembly, this is mainly conducted through the verification activities of the Nationalities Council and the Committees of the National Assembly with regard to bills However, most members

of the Nationality Council and Committees of the National Assembly work on a part-time basis, reside and work in many localities and so on This often leads to their failure to attend all verification meetings, leaving significant impacts on the effectiveness of bills verification: “The reason for this situation is that the organization of the verification of bills, ordinances of the Nationality Council and Committees as mentioned above does not guarantee the participation of a large number of participants (sometimes not more than half the number of attending members) This is one of the causes for the occurrence of many cases where the verification reports of the Ethnic Council or the Committees only outline the types of opinions, not the representativeness of the opinions, whether it be from the majority or minority of the members of th Ethic Council or Committee”4

In addition, the implementation of the mechanism to control legislative rights through the Ministry

of Justice’s appraisal of the Government’s draft laws before submitting them to the National Assembly demonstrates limitations: “This leads to the limited quality and ineffectiveness of the appraisal With

a small number, officials are sometimes overloaded with work because apart from appraising bills, officials of the Ministry of Justice also have to participate in the evaluation of sub-law documents

in a large number; some officials even have to appraise as many as five documents a week”5 The position and role of the Government in controlling the implementation of legislative rights have not been dynamic and active The Constitution also has not given the Government the right to withdraw,

1 Dr Truong Thi Hong Ha, ‘Controlling the implementation of legislative rights: Some theoretical and practical issues’, State and Law Review, No 4 [2010] 29.

2 Dr Hoang Minh Hoi, ‘Supervisor of the Vietnam Fatherland Front and socio-political organizations in the mechanism of state power control - Current situation and some recommendations’, Legislative Research Journal, No 21 [2018] 19.

3 Dr Hoang Minh Hoi, ‘Supervisor of the Vietnam Fatherland Front and socio-political organizations in the mechanism of state power control - Current situation and some recommendations’, Legislative Research Journal, No 21 [2018] 17.

4 Dr Nguyen Dinh Quyen, MA Dinh Thanh Huong, ‘Examination of laws and ordinance projects of the Nationality Council, Committees of the National Assembly’, Legislative Research Journal, No 21 [2018] 8.

5 Dr Tran Quoc Binh, ‘The Role of the Government in the Legislative Process in Vietnam’, (Monograph), (first published, National Political Publishing House, Hanoi, 2013), 151.

reserve opinions or consider adding parts or the whole of a bill if new issues are detected from reality when bills or policies are submitted to the National Assembly Some ministries and agencies have not really actively coordinated with the National Assembly’s agencies in the process of adjusting bills and ordinances Control has not been effective in practice

In summary, from the above-mentioned analyses and assessments, the implementation of the legislative control mechanism of the National Assembly still has many limitations and shortcomings The inefficiency in the operation of the legislative control regime is one of the important causes leading to the consequence that over the years, a number of laws have been enacted but there are inadequacies in the enforcement Application effects are not remarkable and difficult to come to life, multiple amendments and supplementations are required within only a short time For example,

“many important laws passed by the National Assembly are of poor quality, and required major revisions, such as the 2014 Law on Social Insurance, the 2015 Criminal Law, the 2015 Criminal Procedure Code, the Law on Organization of investigating agencies 2015, Law on Enforcement of custody and temporary detention 2015”1 Therefore, it is necessary to continue the research on the solutions to improve this power control mechanism

3 Suggestions to improve the mechanism for the control of the legislative power of the National Assembly of Vietnam

Based on the inadequacies and emerging issues as analysed above, it is possible to propose some directions for perfecting mechanisms for the control of the legislative power of the National Assembly prescribed in the 2013 Constitution of Vietnam as follows:

Firstly, it is necessary constructed a specialized and independent Constitutional protection

mechanism

Constitution protection means the protection of the people’s sovereignty, the protection of the political regime, and the legal basis of the State Therefore, Constitution’s protection is a special activity, which must be carried out by a special entity - the organ that protects the Constitution Normally, in many countries, the risk of abuse of power of the National Assembly will be most strongly controlled by other independent power institutions such as the Constitutional Court and the head of state An independent Constitutional Court with a judicial function to revoke unconstitutional laws will be an effective mechanism to control the activities of the National Assembly, avoiding decisions by legislative agencies that are not beneficial to the people Article 119 of the 2013 Constitution of Vietnam delegates the responsibility of constitutional protection to many entities, but the effectiveness and efficiency are not high because there remains a lack of specific mechanisms to ensure the implementation and there have been no regulations on specialized organs to protect the Constitution Studies on the mechanism of constitutional protection of law-based states around the world show that the establishing a Constitutional Court as a constitutional protection organ with a specialized and independent role is suitable for the actual conditions of Vietnam “This Constitutional Court is not part of the judicial system, but is an agency independent from legislative, executive and judicial agencies The Constitutional Court conducts the mission of protecting the constitution, and

1 Dr Hoang Minh Hoi, ‘The opinion of the Communist Party of Vietnam on the control of state power and the current situation of control of state power in Vietnam’, State and Legal Information, No 4 [2017] 6.