Constitution of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam

The Constitution of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (Vietnamese: Hiến pháp nước Cộng hòa xã hội chủ nghĩa Việt Nam) is the current constitution of Vietnam, adopted on November 28, 2013 by the Thirteenth National Assembly, and took effect on January 1, 2014. It is the third constitution adopted by the Vietnamese government since the political reunification of the country in 1976.

The current constitution, known as the 2013 Constitution, contains a preamble and 11 chapters:

The Democratic Republic of Vietnam had two constitutions:

Upon political reunification of the country in 1976, the 1960 Constitution of the Democratic Republic became the constitution of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. Since then, the Vietnamese government has adopted two constitutions before the 2013 Constitution

The former Republic of Vietnam also had two constitutions, adopted in 1956 and 1967. Neither of these constitutional documents is in force, as the 1967 Constitution was abrogated when the government of the Republic of Vietnam collapsed in 1975.

Even though such guarantees were never intended to be carried out, the constitution provided for freedom of speech, the press, and assembly. The document remained in effect in Viet Minh-controlled areas throughout the First Indochina War and in North Vietnam following partition in 1954, until it was replaced with a new constitution in 1959.

The second constitution was explicitly communist in character. Its preamble described the DRV as a "people's democratic state led by the working class," and the document provided for a nominal separation of powers among legislative, executive, and judicial branches of government. On paper, the legislative function was carried out by the National Assembly. The assembly was empowered to make laws and to elect the chief officials of the state, such as the president (who was largely a symbolic head of state), the vice president, and cabinet ministers. Together those elected (including the president and vice president) formed a Council of Ministers, which constitutionally (but not in practice) was subject to supervision by the Standing Committee of the National Assembly. Headed by a prime minister, the council was the highest executive organ of state authority. Besides overseeing the Council of Ministers, the assembly's Standing Committee also supervised on paper the Supreme People's Court, the chief organ of the judiciary. The assembly's executive side nominally decided on national economic plans, approved state budgets, and acted on questions of war or peace. In reality, however, final authority on all matters rested with the Political Bureau.

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