Legal System of Vietnam

Vietnam's legal system, known domestically as He thong phap luat Viet Nam, is built from interrelated legal norms and rules of conduct organized into distinct branches and institutions. Its modern form dates to the country's first constitution in 1946, adopted after Ho Chi Minh's September 1945 declaration of independence, followed by further constitutions in 1959, 1980 and 1992 that tracked Vietnam's changing political structure and the 1975 reunification of North and South. As the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, the system today rests on two principal branches: criminal law, which under the 2015 Criminal Code protects state sovereignty and national security alongside human and citizens' rights, and civil law, which governs property relations and personal transactions on principles of equality and self-determination between the parties. The National Assembly, the Supreme People's Court and the Supreme People's Procuracy are its central institutions, operating within a legal order shaped throughout by Vietnam's socialist governance model.