Vietnam lawyers express their concern in the face of a new government decree regulating the issuance and revocation of law licenses, many going to social networks to publicly express their grievances.
Decree 121, issued on June 11, moves the authority to grant, revoke and renew the licenses of practice of the law of the Minister of Justice to provincial presidents – a decision considered as part of a broader program to restructure the apparatus of the State of Vietnam. Government representatives did not offer direct explanation for the decree.
However, law professionals have taken alarms on change, warning that not only does it violate the existing law, but also the scanning hands to local leaders, which stresses that the authority could be abused to intimidate the lawyers involved in cases against provincial governments.
Writing on his Facebook page, Ho Chi Minh City’s lawyer, Trinh Dinh Dung, argued that Decree 121 violates existing legislation, in particular the law of 2006 on lawyers, which stipulates that only the Minister of Justice has the power to issue, revoke and renew the licenses in exercise of the law. “In principle, a legal document issued by the National Assembly can only be modified by the National Assembly itself,” he wrote.
The current session of the National Assembly should end on June 30, but its program does not include any discussion on the law on lawyers.
Without any indication that the existing law will be modified, the lawyer Trinh Dinh Dung concluded that the executive power shows “signs of abuse of power”.
The most disturbing aspect of the new rule, according to criticism, is that it grants the power to strip lawyers from their right to practice the right to provincial leaders, who are frequently confronted with public opposition on local policies.
Dang Dinh Manh, a former lawyer for Ho Chi Minh-Ville who has given up practicing Vietnam’s right due to the harassment of the government, local governments were often the target of judicial disputes.
“Often, when the authorities emit documents related to the confiscation of land or housing, even a single affected area can encourage hundreds of households to bring prosecution,” he said.
Local communities generally hire lawyers from the same province to represent their affairs. Local leaders now holding the power to end the legal careers, lawyers will be “intimidated in submission,” warned the former lawyer.
This concern is also reproduced by lawyers in other parts of the country.
Addressing RFA on condition of anonymity, a lawyer based in Hanoi cited a hypothetical case involving a president of the city. “It will be easy for favoritism and the fear of setting up, because the president has the power to revoke the lawyer’s licenses at any time,” he warned.
The new rule should add an additional deterrent layer for lawyers, supplementing existing regulations. Under the current law, all of lawyer in office must be registered with an association of bars, which operates under the supervision of government authorities.
In 2024, the authorities of the southern province of Long launched an investigation into three lawyers on their online commentary on a local legal affair. This decision prompted the three to flee the country, marking a turning point in the government’s approach to law professionals involved in sensitive issues.
Addressing RFA, Dang Dinh Manh, one of the three lawyers who fled Vietnam, fearing the government’s remuneration, said that the regime’s decision to grant provincial leaders the authority to revoke lawyers’ practice of lawyers show that it considers the professionals of the law as a “target”.
Published by Greg Barber