In what cases is the decree corrected?

Vietnam's system of legal documents is regulated by the Law on Promulgation of Legal Documents 2015 (amended and supplemented in 2020), including: Constitution; laws and resolutions of the National Assembly; ordinances and resolutions of the National Assembly Standing Committee; orders and decisions of the President; decrees of the Government; decisions of the Prime Minister; resolutions of the Council of Judges of the Supreme People's Court; circulars of ministers... In addition, there are legal documents of local authorities at all levels.

As an important tool to regulate social relations, legal documents are developed and promulgated in strict order as prescribed by the Law on Promulgation of Legal Documents. However, the question is whether, after a legal document is promulgated and contains errors, it is allowed to be corrected or not?

Problem oneDoes the Law on promulgation of legal documents allow correction of legal documents?

Answer: No. The current law on promulgation of legal documents does not stipulate the correction of legal documents.

Second problem, so are competent authorities allowed to correct legal documents?

Answer: Yes. This provision is in a sub-law document. Specifically, Decree No. 34/2016/ND-CP detailing the Law on Promulgation of Legal Documents stipulates the correction of documents published in the Official Gazette (Article 94), and correction of posted documents - for documents issued by local authorities (Article 100).

Next issue: The law does not regulate the correction of legal documents, but the decree detailing the law allows it. Is Decree 34 regulating more broadly than the law, regulating issues not authorized by the law? For various reasons, I will not discuss this issue but leave it to the experts who teach Constitutional Law, Administrative Law, General Theory of State and Law...

But in practice, I think that allowing corrections to legal documents is necessary. The reason is that the quality of current law making and the quality of people participating in the process of drafting, reviewing/appraising, and promulgating legal documents are still limited, so mistakes are inevitable.

However, correction of legal documents must be very limited and only applied to the "minor" errors (temporarily called: typographical errors) mentioned below.

Vthird issueIn which cases can legal documents be corrected?

Answer: The scope of application of the form of correction of legal documents only applies to errors in format and presentation techniques.

Article 130 of Decree 34 clearly stipulates: "Correction of documents is carried out for documents with errors in the basis of issuance, format, and presentation techniques".

Thus, current law only allows the application of the form of correction of legal documents with minor errors related to the format and technical presentation of the document. Common technical errors are: typing errors, drafting errors, misnumbering of pages, articles, clauses, points, wrong font size, font style...

Refer to Resolution No. 351/2017/UBTVQH14 of the National Assembly Standing Committee regulating the technical format for presenting legal documents of the National Assembly, the National Assembly Standing Committee, and the President:

"Text format"is the way of presenting parts of a text including introduction, content and conclusion.

“Text presentation techniques”including content presentation techniques and formal presentation techniques. In which: "Content presentation techniques" include techniques for presenting the layout of the document and techniques for presenting the elements that make up the content of the document, using language, numbers, units of measurement, symbols, formulas, deadlines, points in time in the document, and techniques for citing the document. "Formal presentation techniques" include the position of presenting the components of the document's format, font, font size, typeface, paper size, margins and page numbering of the document.

The provisions of Resolution 351 are similar to the provisions on format and technical presentation of documents in Chapter V of Decree 34.

In short, the correction of legal documents is a "crisis handling" action to correct "typing errors" - errors in format and presentation techniques. On the contrary, correction does not apply if it changes the content of the document, that is, leads to changes in legal mechanisms and policies. Applying the form of correction in this case will not be in accordance with the law on promulgation of legal documents, and will not ensure strictness in the work of law-making.

In case of changes in the content of a legal document, a radical solution must be applied, which is to issue another legal document to amend and supplement it. This amended and supplemented document must also be developed according to the strict procedures of the Law on Promulgation of Legal Documents.

Fourth problem,How to correct legal documents?

Answer: Article 130 of Decree 34 stipulates: "The agency or person issuing the document shall correct the document in an administrative document."

Thus, correction of legal documents is done by administrative documents (official dispatch). For example: Correction of decrees will be by official dispatch of the Government; correction of decisions of the Prime Minister will be by official dispatch of the Prime Minister; correction of circulars will be by official dispatch of the Ministry...

In short, using official dispatches to correct decrees is appropriate but only applies to errors in format and presentation techniques as mentioned above.