This new mindset is expected to help the legal system be promulgated and operated in a more transparent, seamless and effective way. However, what “elements” will make up the “materials” that can drive the law to develop to the right level in a new era?
A “compass” for the “breakthrough of breakthroughs”
Minister of Justice Nguyen Hai Ninh said that the Politburo’s issuance of Resolution No. 66-NQ/TW dated April 30, 2025, on reforming the work of law-making and law enforcement to meet the country’s development requirements in a new era, is of particular significance — like a call for profound institutional reform.
This is a strategic document, affirming the Party’s strong political determination to comprehensively reform law-making and law enforcement, with the goal of making institutions and laws a genuine national competitive advantage, a solid foundation and a powerful driver for development.
According to the Minister of Justice, the guiding spirit of Resolution No. 66 is that the legal system must be enabling and developmental; it must “move one step ahead” to lead the way, remove bottlenecks, create an open legal space for innovation, mobilise all resources for the country’s socio-economic development, and fully safeguard human rights and citizens’ rights in a new stage of development.
To realise the spirit of Resolution No. 66, the entire political system has moved into action with strong determination. The Politburo has established a Central Steering Committee on improving institutions and laws, headed by General Secretary To Lam. The Government has issued Resolution No. 140/NQ-CP with nearly 50 specific tasks and solutions; and ministries, sectors and localities are actively implementing them with an urgent and proactive spirit.
To achieve the resolution’s goals, many ministries, sectors and localities are carrying out several key tasks in parallel: reviewing and improving the legal system with a new mindset, while also devising special and flexible mechanisms in the short term to promptly address shortcomings and limitations that have accumulated over many years in practice.
In practice, ministries, sectors and localities are gradually pursuing comprehensive reform—reviewing and standardising administrative procedures consistently across all three levels of government, and progressively replacing paper-based data with electronic data, bringing tangible benefits to citizens and businesses.
Alongside stronger application of digital technology in legal and judicial fields and the completion of key databases, many reforms in law-making and law enforcement are gradually delivering promising results.
Bringing technology into the legislative process
Applying modern technology to the law-making process is one of the more pivotal conditions in the current context.
According to Dr Nguyen Sy Dung, former Deputy Head of the Office of the National Assembly, in recent years the National Assembly has considered and passed a very large number of laws and resolutions, promptly removing difficulties and obstacles and promoting socio-economic development.
Dung proposed that, given such a heavy workload at each major session, it is necessary to consider developing and refining a legal framework for the issuance and management of machine-readable law — legal documents designed from the outset in a digital data standard — alongside draft laws submitted to National Assembly deputies for review...
Nguyen Phuong Thuy, Deputy Head of the National Assembly’s Committee on Legal and Judicial Affairs, shared Dung’s view that if the economy wants to take off, it needs physical motorways; then the legal system — the foundation of national governance — also needs a digital motorway to operate smoothly. Machine-readable law is precisely that motorway.
On that basis, the Deputy Chair of the National Assembly’s Committee on Legal and Judicial Affairs recommended that the Draft Political Report to be submitted to the 14th National Party Congress should add, or place greater emphasis on, the building and rollout of a machine-readable legal system under the section on strategic institutional breakthroughs.
“This is not merely a technical upgrade, but an institutional breakthrough, enabling Viet Nam’s legal system to become more transparent, consistent and accessible, and able to detect contradictions on its own,” Thuy said.
According to Assoc Prof Dr To Van Hoa, Rector of Ha Noi Law University, there is a problematic vicious circle in the development of legal human resources today. “Fragmented training leads to uneven workforce quality, which leads to lower-quality legal texts and a working environment lacking motivation,” he said.
To solve the problem, he said, said one necessary solution is to provide continuous, in-depth training for legal officials aligned with each stage of the law-making process. Alongside this, training and the application of digital technology should be stepped up — especially the use of AI in legislative drafting.
Officials responsible for drafting and enforcing laws need to be equipped with the capacity to use digital tools, analyse legal data, operate the national legal data system, and, crucially, use AI for tasks such as searching and comparing texts, detecting contradictions and overlaps, assessing policy impacts, and monitoring law enforcement.
If AI is properly invested in and used, it can provide strong support for officials involved in drafting and enforcing laws across most stages — from policy analysis and identifying legislative issues to the technical drafting of normative legal documents.
“This approach can also reduce manual burdens, speed up processing, improve accuracy, and foster a data-driven working culture in a scientific manner,” To Van Hoa emphasised.
