State of Emergency in Vietnamese Law: Reflections on the Government Response to the Covid-19 Pandemic

Abstract

This article explores the Vietnamese government’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic, to examine the rationality and effectiveness of Vietnamese law on the state of emergency. In so doing, it investigates interpretations of the Constitution of Vietnam regarding emergency powers. The authors argue that although Vietnam has various regulatory provisions on state of emergency (including: emergency measures; decision-making processes; substantial criteria for entering and lifting the state of emergency; and legal remedies for, and consequences of, violation of emergency measures) many are not clearly or properly defined. Legally, emergency powers, especially the power of the executive, therefore, cannot be controlled. With tacit permission from the Communist Party, the loopholes in the current legal framework on the state emergency have allowed the application of extra-legal government decisions in response to the Covid-19, revealing structural weaknesses in the rule of law in Vietnam.