Constitutional Debate in Vietnam

by Dr. Bui Ngoc Son

On 28 November 2013, the National Assembly of Vietnam adopted a new constitution. The fifth basic law in the nation enacted under the leadership of the Communist Party of Vietnam, the 2013 Constitution reflects the culmination of a three-year constitution-making process. An in depth treatment of this process is therefore both timely and important. This project aims to organize, workshop and publish a special issue on the Vietnamese constitutional debate in the Asian Journal of Comparative Law.

First, the project deepens the understanding of the relationship between constitutional reform, politics, and society in transforming socialist Vietnam. These debates focused on a number of substantial issues of constitutional change, including core issues related to the relationship between the party and the state and the state and the individual. Importantly, these debates substantially challenge the nature of socialist constitutional system in Vietnam in a way that is unusual and worthy of special scholarly attention. The publication of a special issue draws out these important changes in a way that a single, isolated article cannot.

Second, the project enhances comparative understanding of constitutional discourse and constitutional reform in socialist Asia by contributing to a fuller picture of constitutional debates in socialist Asia. While there is already an extensive scholarship on constitutional debates in China, the scholarship on the same theme in Vietnam is extremely rare. This limits our comparative understanding of constitutional discourse in transforming socialist Asia. The publication of a special issue of constitutional debates in Vietnam offers necessary materials for comparative rumination of constitutional debates in socialist Asia.

Third, the project contributes to the general field of comparative constitutional law. The Vietnamese constitutional debate is a part of the larger picture of Asian constitutional dynamics. The creation of constitutionalism in the region must be situated within the socio-political complex and contentious context of debate and struggle which may involves different social and institutional actors. More generally, the project contributes to the discourse of global constitutionalism. In the 21st century, constitutional discourse in Vietnam is heavily informed by global constitutional ideas. However, these global ideas are contextualized in Vietnam by local factors. The publication of a special issue therefore contributes to our understanding of the migration and localization of global constitutional ideas.

The publication of a special issue in the Asian Journal of Comparative Law focuses on the key substantial issues during the constitutional debates, including:

»	Party leadership
»	Constitutional rights
»	The market economy
»	Land Ownership
»	The procuracy

Conference Programme Schedule | Paper Abstracts | Speakers' Brief Biographies | Conference Photos | Special Issue in Asian Journal of Comparative Law Vol 11(2)