Presiding over the Conference were Mr. Cao Xuan Thao, Vice Chairman of the Central Committee of Vietnam Fatherland Front; Prof. Dr. Tran Ngoc Duong, Member of the Presidium, Chairman of the Advisory Council on Democracy and Law of the Central Committee of Vietnam Fatherland Front.
According to representatives of the Ministry of Justice, the Law on Dissemination and Legal Education was passed by the 13th National Assembly at the 3rd Session on June 20, 2012 and took effect from January 1, 2013. After 13 years of implementing the Law on Dissemination and Legal Education, the work of dissemination and legal education has received the attention and leadership and direction of Party committees, authorities, sectors, and levels from the Central to the grassroots level; achieving some results such as the organization of dissemination and legal education is increasingly focused on, gradually becoming systematic, mobilizing the whole society to participate, thereby bringing policies and laws into practical life. However, the summary shows that, besides the achieved results, the implementation of the Law on Dissemination and Legal Education still has some limitations and inadequacies.
Therefore, the development of the draft Law on Dissemination and Education of Laws (amended) is being implemented according to the comprehensive amendment process, based on summarizing the implementation of the 2012 law, reviewing the Party's guidelines, legal normative documents and relevant international treaties. The Government has approved 6 policies of the draft law in Resolution No. 128/NQ-CP dated May 14, 2026.
The draft Law consists of 5 chapters with 49 articles, an increase of 8 articles compared to the Law on Dissemination and Education of Law in 2012. The amended content focuses on perfecting regulations on the scope of regulation, rights and obligations of citizens in accessing the law; socializing the work of dissemination and education of law; innovating forms of dissemination of law in accordance with the digital environment and current implementation practices.
Expressing his opinion at the Conference, Prof. Dr. Tran Ngoc Duong - Chairman of the Advisory Council on Democracy and Law of the Central Committee of the Vietnam Fatherland Front said that one of the new viewpoints, guidelines and orientations of the Party on innovating law-making thinking is to shift from management thinking to management thinking, development creation, taking people and businesses as the center. Practice shows that people do not lack legal normative documents, but lack skills to apply law to life. Meanwhile, Article 11 of the draft Law stipulates the content of dissemination and legal education is still mainly listing types of documents. Therefore, it is necessary to amend and supplement Article 11 in the direction that legal education content also includes education on skills to apply law to life.
Dr. Nguyen Van Pha, Member of the Presidium of the Central Committee of the Vietnam Fatherland Front, said that the regulations in the Draft have created a better basic legal framework than the old law, but it is not enough to fully and comprehensively promote the role of the Fatherland Front and member organizations in the new situation. The regulations are still heavily "encouraging", "coordinating" passively rather than empowering and establishing a proactive position for the Front. To effectively bring the law into life, it is necessary to shift from the thinking of "state management of legal dissemination and education" to the thinking of "mobilizing society, in which the Front is the core with state support".
The Law on Dissemination and Legal Education 2012 was built in the context that the State plays a central role in most activities of disseminating legal education, therefore, many regulations are imbued with administrative management. In the current conditions, when the Party's policy is: building a development-creating State; streamlining the apparatus; promoting the socialization of public services; promoting the role of the Vietnam Fatherland Front, social organizations; promoting democracy, improving the self-management capacity of the community, amending the Law in the direction of shifting from the "State does the main job" model to the "State plays a leading role, society participates widely" model is completely reasonable.
The State plays a leading role in policy making, ensuring resources, inspecting and orienting content; the Vietnam Fatherland Front, socio-political organizations, social organizations, professional associations, experts and the community play a direct role in participating in and organizing the implementation of many legal dissemination and education activities; gradually shifting from a model of legal dissemination and education mainly implemented by state agencies to a model of widespread socialization, multi-subject participation, taking people as the center and the effectiveness of legal access as a measure. This is an approach suitable for the requirements of building a rule-of-law state, streamlining the apparatus, promoting social democracy and mobilizing the strength of the whole society in raising people's legal awareness in the current period," Professor Phan Trung Ly proposed.
Speaking at the conclusion of the Conference, Vice Chairman of the Central Committee of the Vietnam Fatherland Front Cao Xuan Thao emphasized that after 13 years of implementing the Law on Dissemination and Education of Law, many results have been achieved, contributing to raising the awareness and sense of law compliance of the people; promoting the role of agencies and organizations, including the Vietnam Fatherland Front and member organizations in propaganda and mobilization of the people to implement the Party's guidelines, policies and laws of the State. For the Vietnam Fatherland Front, the work of disseminating and educating law is not only a pure propaganda task but also closely linked to promoting the people's right to mastery, building the great national unity bloc, and raising the awareness of respecting the law in society.
Vice Chairman Cao Xuan Thao said that, in the face of the requirements of building a socialist rule-of-law state and practical requirements, the draft revised Law on Dissemination and Education of Laws this time is of great significance, aiming to promptly institutionalize the Party's guidelines and innovation orientations on the work of disseminating and educating the law; overcome limitations, difficulties, and obstacles in the implementation process; contribute to innovating and improving the effectiveness of communication and dissemination of policies; administrative reform, promoting the application of information technology, digital transformation, putting people at the center, ensuring easy access, understanding, easy implementation and suitability for each target group; at the same time, more clearly defining the responsibilities of agencies and organizations; contributing to building a culture of law compliance, continuing to build and perfect the socialist rule-of-law state of the People, by the People, for the People.
From the comments of experts and scientists at the Conference, Vice Chairman Cao Xuan Thao affirmed that the Central Committee of the Vietnam Fatherland Front will seriously and responsibly receive them; and at the same time requested the Democracy, Supervision and Social Criticism Committee of the Central Committee of the Vietnam Fatherland Front to soon prepare a criticism report, promptly send it to the Ministry of Justice, contributing to completing the draft Law on Dissemination and Education of Laws (amended).
