On April 30, 2025, the Politburo of the Central Committee issued Resolution No. 66-NQ/TW on innovating law-making and law enforcement to meet the country's development demands in the new era (“Resolution 66”), marking a significant milestone in legal institutional reform. Resolution 66 sets forth a strategic vision: to build a high-quality, modern legal system that aligns with international standards while being suitable for the country's development realities .
In line with this vision, on May 17, 2025, the National Assembly adopted Resolution No. 197/2025/QH15 on certain special mechanisms and policies to create breakthroughs in law-making and law enforcement (“Resolution 197”), which institutionalizes this vision through unprecedented legislative mechanisms, reflecting a swift transition from leadership thinking to institutional design and effective implementation .
In this week's article, ATA Legal Service summarizes and delves into the key new points based on the spirit of these resolutions.
1. Key Contents of Resolution 66
Resolution 66 outlines the Party's objectives in building Vietnam's legal system, including:
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Developing a high-quality, modern legal system that approaches advanced international standards and practices, while being suitable for the country's development realities.
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Building and perfecting laws on the socialist-oriented market economy towards creating a favorable, transparent, and safe legal environment with low compliance costs.
Based on these general objectives, the Party proposes implementation solutions, including:
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Emphasizing the role and enhancing the responsibility of heads of ministries and ministerial-level agencies in leading and directing law-making work, being primarily responsible for the quality of policies and laws within their management areas. Accordingly, ministries, ministerial-level agencies, and National Assembly agencies should structure at least one leader with legal expertise.
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Valuing and proactively researching strategies and policies early, from practical experiences and global lessons, contributing to enhancing foresight and improving the quality of law-making work.
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Focusing on legal interpretation, guidance on law application, and communication about policies and laws.
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Implementing special, superior policies, applying appropriate remuneration and contracting regimes to attract and improve the quality of human resources participating in law-making and law enforcement tasks and activities.
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Prioritizing resources to build and develop information technology infrastructure, big data, digital technology applications, and artificial intelligence serving law-making and law enforcement work.
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Implementing special financial mechanisms for law-making and law enforcement work, ensuring that spending on law-making is not less than 0.5% of the total annual budget expenditure and gradually increasing according to development requirements.
Thus, among the key solutions to build and perfect a high-quality, modern legal system, Resolution 66 officially "paves the way" for applying special, superior mechanisms and policies in law-making and law enforcement activities—a pioneering move in transforming orientations and policies into specific, enforceable regulations.
2. Resolution 197 – Institutionalizing Special Policies in Law-Making and Law Enforcement
2.1. Special Financial Mechanism – Addressing the "Lack of Funds for Law-Making" Bottleneck
For the first time, a National Assembly resolution clearly stipulates that spending on law-making work should not be less than 0.5% of the total annual state budget expenditure and must gradually increase according to development requirements .
Additionally, Resolution 197 establishes a special financial mechanism through the establishment of the Law and Policy Making Support Fund—a state financial fund outside the budget, under the Ministry of Justice. This fund allows for mobilizing additional socialized resources and flexible contracting based on market prices, creating proactive financial conditions for legal reform tasks that the regular budget cannot meet. This is a breakthrough step in addressing the "lack of funds for law-making" bottleneck, affirming that law is a strategic investment area, not merely an administrative expense.
2.2. Special Mechanism for Attracting Human Resources and Investing in Technology Infrastructure for Law-Making and Law Enforcement
Resolution 197 concretizes the orientation of "placing people at the center" with a series of breakthrough policies to attract and retain high-quality human resources in law-making work, such as supporting 100% of the current salary coefficient, not using the support amount as a basis for calculating social insurance contributions and benefits, and exempting personal income tax and other financial obligations on income from law-making work.
Furthermore, Resolution 197 allows for the application of special mechanisms to attract, recruit, train, and foster human resources with high professional qualifications and practical experience in international law and dispute resolution; sending Vietnamese experts to work in legal departments of international organizations, international legal organizations, and international judicial bodies.
Alongside investing in human resources, the resolution also promotes the development and application of digital technology and artificial intelligence in law-making and law enforcement. Specifically, building a large legal database; applying AI and virtual assistants to enhance the effectiveness of document management and inspection; developing digital infrastructure and technology platforms directly serving legislative activities. Domestic technology products serving law-making and law enforcement activities are prioritized for investment using the state budget, ensuring the modernization of legal work in a synchronized and sustainable manner.
2.3. Protecting the Rights of Organizations and Individuals Participating in Law-Making and Law Enforcement Against Legal Risks
Resolution 66 emphasizes the role and responsibility of heads and related organizations and individuals in the process of law-making and law enforcement. However, to create a safe legal corridor for innovation, creativity, and to alleviate concerns about responsibility, Resolution 197 establishes a mechanism for legal risk immunity for officials performing law-making and law enforcement tasks. Specifically:
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Heads of legislative and law enforcement agencies have the right to proactively decide on expenditure contents, change expenditure contents appropriately, sufficiently, and publicly, transparently according to regulations.
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Heads of agencies and units assigned tasks have the right to proactively allocate and change expenditure contents, suitable to the importance and complexity of each task.
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Organizations and individuals performing tasks are exempt from civil liability and are not required to refund funds used from the state budget when they have correctly and fully implemented related contents, processes, and regulations, but the task or activity results are not achieved or not recognized due to changes in state policies or due to objective factors or force majeure events.
From Resolution 66 to Resolution 197, there is a significant political determination to elevate our country's institutional framework. This represents a shift in the law-making mindset from "law following management" to "law leading management"; from manual, scattered law-making to a professional, methodical model meeting global standards.
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