On February 19, 2025, the National Assembly passed the Law on Promulgation of Legal Normative Documents 2025 ("Law on Legal Normative Documents 2025"), replacing the Law on Promulgation of Legal Normative Documents 2015, as amended in 2020 ("Amended Law 2020"). Accordingly, there are significant changes in the system of legal normative documents ("LNDs") and some notable new points regarding the process of drafting and promulgating legal normative documents. In this week's article, ATA Legal Service will highlight the key changes in the Law on Legal Normative Documents 2025.
1. Changes in the System of Legal Normative Documents:
a. Abolition of Two Types of Commune-Level Legal Normative Documents:
According to the Amended Law 2020, the system of legal normative documents included 26 forms issued by 16 entities, including documents issued by the Commune People's Committees and Commune People's Councils. To ensure consistency with the proposals set out in the project to reform and improve the law-making process, under the Law on Legal Normative Documents 2025, from April 1, 2025, Commune People's Committees will no longer have the authority to issue legal normative documents. Specifically, the Resolutions of the Commune People's Councils and the Decisions of the Commune People's Committees will no longer be listed as mandatory legal normative documents.
b. Government Resolutions Reintroduced into the Legal Normative Document System:
The 2008 Law permitted the Government to issue two types of legal normative documents: Decrees and Resolutions. However, under the policy of simplifying the legal normative document system, the Amended Law 2020 removed Government Resolutions from the system.
After nearly 10 years of implementation, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, the urgent issuance of legal normative documents by the Government with immediate effect for a limited period proved necessary. For this reason, the Law on Legal Normative Documents 2025 has reintroduced Government Resolutions as a new type of legal normative document to ensure general enforceability and effectiveness in specific areas to promptly address urgent issues. This amendment was also justified by the Ministry of Justice, the lead agency drafting the law.
Accordingly, the Government issues resolutions to:
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Address urgent and important issues arising in practice within a specific timeframe and scope under the Government's jurisdiction;
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Suspend, adjust the validity, or extend the application period of all or part of a Government decree to meet urgent socio-economic development needs and ensure human rights and citizens' rights;
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Pilot certain policies not yet governed by law within the Government's jurisdiction or policies that differ from existing Government decrees and resolutions.
2. Enhancing the Importance of Policy Development Before Drafting Legal Normative Documents:
The Law on Legal Normative Documents 2025 stipulates that for drafting new Laws and Ordinances or replacing existing ones; for Laws amending or supplementing provisions that restrict human rights and citizens' rights; or for experimental Resolutions of the National Assembly, a policy development process must be implemented before drafting. Previously, policy development was integrated into the process of formulating the annual law-making program of the National Assembly and applied to all types of legal normative documents before promulgation. However, policy development was not sufficiently emphasized and was only stipulated as a principle that law-making must align with the policies of the Party and State, with drafting agencies required to assess policy impacts when drafting laws.
Under this new provision, policy development is now a separate procedural step alongside the formulation of the law-making program. The lead drafting agency must develop policies before drafting laws and ordinances. The policy development process involves the following steps:
Step 1: Identify policies based on the Party's guidelines, law enforcement reviews, etc.
Step 2: Assess the impact of policies.
Step 3: Collect policy consultation from political-social organizations, Party agencies, and other state policy-making bodies.
Step 4: Appraise policies.
Step 5: Approve policies.
3. Amendments and Supplements to the Expedited Process for Drafting and Promulgating Legal Normative Documents:
First, the Law on Legal Normative Documents 2025 adds new cases where legal normative documents can be promulgated under an expedited process, specifically:
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When it is necessary to immediately issue a legal normative document to implement relevant international treaties to which Vietnam is a party;
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When it is necessary to adjust the validity period of all or part of a legal normative document for a specific period to address urgent issues arising in practice;
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When issuing documents detailing legal normative documents that were themselves promulgated under the expedited process or in special cases.
Second, the law clarifies when to propose and decide on applying the expedited process in the law-making process. Accordingly, the decision on whether to apply the expedited process will be made before or during policy development and drafting. For legal normative documents subject to the expedited process, policy development is not required.
4. Additional Regulations on the Promulgation of Legal Normative Documents in Special Cases:
The regulation on promulgating legal normative documents in special cases applies when "approved by a competent Party authority and in emergencies as prescribed by the law on a state of emergency, disasters under the law on civil defense, force majeure events, or urgent, significant, and necessary national issues, where the National Assembly, the Standing Committee of the National Assembly, the President, or the Government issues a legal normative document in special cases."
This is a new and progressive regulation that addresses legal gaps in situations that may arise in practice but are not yet covered by existing laws.
5. Changes in the Effectiveness of Legal Normative Documents:
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Regarding the effective date of legal normative documents:
The Law on Legal Normative Documents 2025 stipulates that all legal normative documents issued by local governments will take effect no earlier than 10 days from the date of adoption. This contrasts with the previous law, which set different timeframes for different levels: 10 days for provincial-level documents and 7 days for district- and commune-level documents.
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Regarding retroactive effect:
Under the Amended Law 2020, legal normative documents issued by local governments (provincial and district levels) and special administrative-economic units could not have retroactive effect. However, under the new law, only district-level legal normative documents are prohibited from having retroactive effect.
6. Assigning Responsibility for Implementing Legal Normative Documents to the Issuing Authorities:
Guidance on the application of legal normative documents applies to all legal normative documents except the Constitution, laws, resolutions of the National Assembly, ordinances, and resolutions of the Standing Committee of the National Assembly. The issuing authorities can provide guidance on legal normative documents through administrative documents. Previously, this provision was not codified in the Amended Law 2020.
The Law on Legal Normative Documents 2025 takes effect from April 1, 2025./.
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