Control of Administrative Coercion Activities to Meet the Requirements of Building A Vietnamese Rule-Of-Law State

Abstract

This paper is a serious issue of administrative coercion in Vietnam, which needs to be controlled, an essential task to fulfill the projected objective of Vietnam to develop a socialist rule-of-law state (2025). The norms of the rule of law in legal theory and their transfer to practice remain closely unrelated to each other, which is justified by the examples of unregulated administrative practice that may even suppress personal rights and undermine state legality (2025). The paper analyzes the legal climate of Vietnam in relation to the administrative coercion and evaluates the existing practice and related issues.
The key thesis of this paper is that it is impossible to successfully build a socialist rule-of-law state in Vietnam without successful administration of administrative coercion. This type of administration requires regular realignment of legislation, institutional effort, and establishment of effective procedural safeguard to assure legality of compulsory actions, their suitability and transparency.
It is observed through the analysis that even with what appears to be an extensive legal system, there are still some flaws in the system and especially in the institutional independence, procedural protection and government control. To promote solutions to these challenges, the paper suggests a list of reforms on multiple fronts: improving legal clarity, empowering institutions, introducing more procedural innovations, empowering citizens and international best practices.
In the end, the paper finds that the metamorphosis of the administrative coercion as an instrument of control to a clear and rights-conforming instrument of governance is the biggest challenge to the future development of Vietnam and to the development of trust and legitimacy of the people.