For the party, a substantial change of the Constitution is delicate because this
change would open a range of issues, such as party leadership (Article 4 of the
Constitution) and other political and economic policies pronounced in the Consti-
tution, which the party and the state were not willing to relinquish.^16 Conse-
quently, even though some Assembly delegates and progressive scholars
repeatedly advocated broadening the scope of the revision, the Party has success-
fully limited revision to the following key issues.
Socialist rule-of-law state and distribution of powers
The amended Article 2 of the Constitution incorporates the ideology of the
Socialist Rule of Law State (Nha nuoc Phap quyen Xa hoi Chu nghia), reading:
“The Socialist Republic of Vietnam is the Socialist Rule-of-Law State of the
people, by the people, and for the people.” In fact, the concept of rule-of-law state
(nha nuoc phap quyen) was initially introduced in the Seventh National Congress
of the Vietnamese Communist Party in 1991 and repeatedly emphasized in subse-
quent national congresses of the Party.
Generally, Vietnam’s notion of socialist rule-of-law state is a me ́lange of socialist
political and legal principles and Western theory of the rule of law.
17
In contrast to
the pre-Doi moicentrally planned state, governed by verbal orders, instructions,
plans, and criteria, the socialist rule-of-law state characteristically underlines the
role of law in governing. More specifically, the socialist rule-of-law state is concep-
tualized as including the following features:
- state power belonging to the people,
- the distribution of state powers,
- the separation of party leadership and state governance,
- the existence of a sufficient and stable legal system,
- the effective role of the law in administration,
- citizens’ equality before law, and
- the independence of judicial adjudication.
18The ideological entrenchment of the socialist rule-of-law state amendments into
the Constitution in 2001 indicated Vietnam’s continued commitment to reform the
state and the law in line with modern international standards of institutional
(^16) Sidel,The Constitution of Vietnam,p. 114.
(^17) John Gillespie explains that the ideology ofNha nuoc phap quyenis a Vietnamese adaptation
of the Sovietpravovoe gosudarstvo, which was in turn based on GermanRechtsstaat. John
Gillespie, “Concept of law in Vietnam: transforming statist socialism,” in Randall Peeren-
boom (ed.),Asian Discourses of Rule of Law(London and New York: Routledge, 2004 ), p. 151.
(^18) For a comprehensive explanation of principles of the socialist rule-of-law state in Vietnam,
see Dao Tri Uc (ed.),Mo hinh To chuc va Hoat dong cua Nha nuoc Phap quyen Xa hoi
chu Nghia Viet Nam(Model of Organization and Operation of Vietnamese Socialist Rule-
of-Law State) (Hanoi: Judicial Publishing House, 2006 ), pp. 229 – 315.