The National Assembly discussed revising Civil Code

27/10/2015
Within the framework of the 10th session of the 13rd National Assembly (NA), on 24 October 2015, the NA discussed ongoing disagreed issues of revised Civil Code, one of the most important laws in Viet Nam's legal framework. Chairman of the NA Nguyen Sinh Hung chaired the discussion.

The draft Civil Code has a total of 672 articles, including six sections and 24 chapters. Compared with the 2005 Civil Code, the draft retains 263 articles, amends 297 articles, supplements 126 articles and repeals 149 articles.

A public consultation on the draft revision of the 2005 Civil Code has been launched to collect opinions of people from all walks of life, inside and outside the country according to Resolution No. 857/ Q-UBTVQH13 dated 25 December 2014 of the Standing Committee of the NA. According to the Ministry of Justice, by 15 May 2015, the Ministry has received over 100 reports from ministries, central agencies and provinces, centrally-run cities with about 8.5 million comments on the draft Civil Code. Acquiring people's comments, the Government has directed the Ministry of Justice to coordinate with the Law Commission of the NA, the Government Office, relevant ministries and organizations to study and complete the draft revised Code.

At the discussion session, according to deputies, the revised Civil Code submitted to the NA at this session has been acquired sophisticated opinions and there are reasonable adjustments. However, it still has ongoing disagreement which needs to be discussed in order to make the revised Code conformable to the 2013 Constitution, the real practice and current integration process.

Regarding the jurisdiction of the court to adjust civil contracts when circumstances change, alongside the consensus views, at this session, some deputies asked to carefully consider these provisions. Accordingly, if this regulation has not been specified then one of the parties may abuse it to make unreasonable demands upon termination of the contracts.

At the discussion, a number of deputies agreed that gender transformation would be conducted following laws and transgender individuals had the right and obligation to register for changes in personal records as well as personal rights in accordance with their gender under relevant laws.

In the morning session, many delegates agreed with the draft Code to eliminate some new concepts such as jus in re (a right in property) and jus in rem (a right to a thing). In addition, delegates also agreed to remove household, cooperatives and other organizations from the subject of civil relations, in this sense, only legal persons and individuals are the subject of civil relations.

The revised Civil Code, one of the most important laws in Viet Nam's legal framework, is expected to be approved at the 10th session of the 13rd National Assembly./.

The 10th session of the 13th National Assembly opened in the morning of 20 October in Ha Noi. At the 31-day sitting, NA deputies will question issues relating to all fields in interpellation sessions. Previously, issues of only one field were raised for a question-answer session.

In addition, the NA will have a question-answer session for the judicial sector in the 13rd NA term with the participation of key officials from the Supreme People's Procuracy and the Supreme People's Court.

The NA will adopt 18 draft bills especially the Civil Code, the Criminal Code, the Civil Procedure Code and the Criminal Procedure Code; 14 resolutions; and give comments on eight draft laws which will guide the realization of the 2013 Constitution. The NA will elect the National Election Council with 15-21 members to prepare for the 14th NA.

The NA will spend 12 days discussing and considering the implementation of the socio-economic development plan and State budget in 2015 and plans for 2016 and assessing the implementation of National Target Programs over the last five years and the next five years.