The ASEAN Law Forum 2026 takes place from August 18-19, in Hanoi, with the theme "Application of artificial intelligence (AI) in law-making and enforcement in the digital age".
Speaking at the opening ceremony, Member of the Party Central Committee, Deputy Prime Minister Le Tien Chau said that the presence of the delegates is proof of the belief and spirit of solidarity to realize the ASEAN Community Vision to 2045.
According to the Deputy Prime Minister, the world is undergoing a landmark transitional period. "Before that context, we are facing a major paradox of the times: risks are increasing, but the room for breakthrough is also expanding," the Deputy Prime Minister assessed.
From there, the Deputy Prime Minister raised three big questions for the legal system of each country and the international legal system: how does law regulate AI to both protect human rights and not hinder innovation; how does AI support to improve the quality of building and organizing law enforcement; what benefits does AI bring to people, businesses and society, and whether it helps reduce compliance time and costs and improve access to law.
This is an area that no country can go alone, but must go together," the Deputy Prime Minister emphasized.
For Vietnam, institutions, infrastructure and human resources are 3 strategic breakthroughs, both creating space for innovation and creating a legal framework to protect people, national interests and social benefits.
The Deputy Prime Minister also shared 3 major principles. First, data must be an open platform - without data "correct, sufficient, clean, living, interconnected, unified, shared" it is impossible to apply AI effectively.
Second, AI is only a supporting tool, not replacing the decision-making rights and responsibilities of humans, so it is necessary to classify risks according to each application method, in which support for drafting, appraising, and policy impact assessment must be controlled at the highest level.
The third principle is to identify, prevent risks and guide policies early and remotely, because incorrect input data will affect the operating quality of the entire system.
Stepping into the second year of the journey to implement the ASEAN Community Vision to 2045, I believe that ASEAN has enough conditions to become a world pioneer in responsible artificial intelligence application in the field of law and justice," the Deputy Prime Minister shared.
The four cooperation orientations mentioned include: developing a common set of principles on AI application in law-making and enforcement based on ASEAN Guidelines on AI governance and ethics; sharing standards and regulations on legal data and digitalization experience, towards more convenient legal lookup and comparison between countries; cooperation in developing human resources that are both knowledgeable in law and proficient in technology, supporting data infrastructure and technology transfer to members facing difficulties; maintaining dialogue mechanisms and expert network connections, promoting the effectiveness of the Working Group on AI governance within the framework of the ASEAN Digital Ministers' Meeting and the ASEAN AI Safety Network.
Vietnam is committed to continuing to be a responsible member; actively and proactively supporting regional and international cooperation initiatives," the Deputy Prime Minister affirmed, and at the same time requested the Ministry of Justice to fully study the opinions at the Forum to coordinate in concretizing the above orientations.
