Viet Nam

Abstract

This chapter explores international law in Viet Nam. It is difficult to comprehensively conceptualize international law in Viet Nam’s legal system. There is no formal documentation concerning two of the main sources of public international law: international custom and general principles of law. Treaties, by contrast, are dealt with in great detail. Viet Nam adopts a modified monist approach by maintaining the primacy of the Constitution and the priority of treaties and incorporating treaties into the muninipal law on a case-by-case basis. The use of treaties in Viet Nam can be divided into two phases: (i) colonial times and (ii) since independence in 1945 when modern Viet Nam, proactively relying on international law in the quest for ultimate independence and unification in 1975 and since, started a period of robust engagement in the international legal order. The chapter finally looks at Viet Nam’s current practice of concluding and enforcing treaties.