Vietnam in preparations to adopt common law

Newly appointed Chief of the Supreme People's Court Nguyen Hoa Binh told VGP News that judicial precedents are among his top priorities. 

The judicial precedents published so far concern cases of murder, property disputes, divorce, contractual disputes over the transfer of land use rights, inheritance and legacy disputes. 

In October 2012, Vietnam issued a decision approving the project "Development of judicial precedents of the Supreme People's Court" in order to improve the quality of court rulings. 

Professor Le Hong Hanh, director of the Institute of Legal Science under the Ministry of Justice, said: "No legal system may cover all social cases, so using judicial precedents in addition to existing laws is necessary."

However, legal experts noted that for the project to be feasible, the model for developing judicial precedents should be standardized, while lawyers and judges should be properly trained for this change.