Nghị định 63/2013/ND-CP

DECREE

ON IMPLEMENTATION OF ORDINANCE ON CODIFICATION

Pursuant to the Law on Organization of the Government dated December 25, 2001;

Pursuant to the Ordinance on Codification of Laws and Regulations dated April 16, 2012;

At proposal of the Minister of Justice,

The Government issues this Decree on Implementation of the Ordinance on Codification of Laws and Regulations.

Chapter I

STRUCTURE OF THE CODE OF LAWS AND REGULATIONS

Article 1. Titles of the Code of Laws and Regulations

The Code of Laws and Regulations (hereafter referred to as “the Code”) consists of 45 titles which are listed in Article 7 of the Ordinance on Codification (hereafter referred to as “the Ordinance”). In case where one or more legal normative documents (hereafter commonly referred to as “document”) govern one or more types of social relations that are not codified in an existing Title of the Code, the Minister of Justice shall, at its discretion or at request of a codification undertaking agency, propose the Government to add an appropriate Title.

A Title so added shall be numbered and placed following the last Title that already exists in the Code.

Article 2. Sub-Titles in the Code

1. Sub-Title is a component part of a Title which contains legal norms governing a certain type of social relations.

2. The name of a Sub-Title is the name of the act that have the highest legal effect and that governs a type of social relations of a Title.

3. Depending on the name of each Sub-Title, the Sub-Titles in each Title shall be sequenced by the Vietnamese Alphabet and shall be numbered by the Arabic numerals, starting from number 1. An added Sub-Title shall be numbered and placed following the last Sub-Title that already exists in the Title.

4. The structure of a Sub-Title shall be the structure of the legal document whose name is used as the name of that Sub-Title. Parts, chapters and sections may be added in accordance with the provisions of article 12 of this Decree.

Article 3. Parts, Chapters and Sections in the Code

1. Parts, chapters and sections are component parts of the Sub-titles which contains the Articles of the Code.

2. The name and sequent number of parts, chapters and sections in a Sub-Title is the name and sequent number of the corresponding parts, chapters and sections in the legal document whose name is used as the name of that Sub-Title.

3. An added part, chapter and section shall be numbered and placed following the part, chapter and section whose contents relate most to the contents of the added parts, chapters and sections. The name of an added part, chapter and section is a phrase reflecting the main contents of that part, chapter and section.

Article 4. Articles in the Code

1. Articles in the Code are components of the parts or chapter or sections of the Code; the contents of each article in the Code are contents of the corresponding article in the codified legal document.

2. Name of an Article in the Code is the name the corresponding article in the legal document to be codified.

3. The number of an article in the code consists of following:

a) The number of the Title;

b) The number of the Sub-Title;

c) Notation of the form of the legal document;

d) The number of the detailing legal document; and

e) Number of the corresponding article in the codified legal document.

4. Notation of the form of a legal document shall be as following:

a) Law of the National Assembly is LQ;

b) Ordinance of the Standing Committee of the National Assembly is PL;

c) Order of the State President is LC;

d) Decision is QD;

e) Decree of the Government is ND;

f) Resolution is NQ;

g) Inter-agency resolution is NL;

h) Directive is CT;

i) Circular is TT; and

k) Inter-agency circular is TL.

5. The sequent number of a detailing legal document shall be numbered chronologically by Arabic numeral, starting from number 1.

6. The number of an article in the Code shall consist of the components stipulated in paragraph 2 of this Article and shall be placed in the following sequence: the number of the Title; dot (.), the number of the Sub-Title; dot (.), the notation of the form of the legal document; dot (.), the sequent number of the detailing legal document, dot (.), the number of the corresponding article in the codified legal document, dot (.).

Article 5. Notes

1. Noting is making notes of the sequent number of an article in the legal document to be codified, number, notation, name, date of enactment, the enacting body and the effective date of the legal document.

2. Notes provided for in paragraph 1 of this article shall be made in the first article of each legal document to be codified; all next articles shall be noted by their numbers and the numbers, notations and effective dates of the legal documents to be codified. Where contents of an article in the codified legal document are amended or supplemented, notes shall be made about such changes and the number, notation and effective date of the amending or supplementing legal document.

3. Notes shall be put in brackets at the line following the line on the name of the article in the Code in italic with a size smaller than the size the noted article.

Article 6. Indication in the Code

1. Indication is defining those Sub-Titles, parts, chapters, sections or articles in the Code whose contents are closely related.

2. Depending on each specific case, indication shall be made amongst Sub-Titles, parts, chapters, sections or articles in the Code.

3. Indications shall be put in brackets after the indicated contents in italic with a size smaller than the size the indicated contents.

4. Based on the results of the determination of legal norms whose contents are related carried out by the codification undertaking agencies under the provisions of Article 13 of this Decree, the Ministry of Justice shall make indications in the Code.

Chapter II

CODIFICATION BY SUB-TITLES

Article 7. Request for making Sub-Titles

1. Pursuant to article 4 of the Ordinance, the agency which has the competence to codify legal norms in the legal document of highest legal effect regulating a certain type of social relations shall have the responsibility to a request for making a Sub-Title and sent the request to the Ministry of Justice. The request shall consist of following particulars:

a) Name of the Sub-Title;

b) List of legal documents to be put in the Sub-Title, provided that these legal documents are enumerated according to their legal effect; and

c) Suggestion of which Title in the Code the Sub-Title shall be put in.

2. The Ministry of Justice shall have the responsibility to:

a) Compile requests for making Sub-Titles and invite comments from the bodies concerned about the list of Sub-Titles in each Title; and

b) Submit to the Prime Minister for decision on the list of Sub-Titles in each Title and assignment of bodies to codify these Sub-Titles.

Article 8. Collection of Legal Documents

1. The codification agencies shall collect the following documents:

a) Documents that are the contents of the Sub-title, including the document whose name is used as the name of the Sub-Title and the documents guiding that document;

b) Documents whose contents relate to the legal documents referred to in sub-paragraph a of this paragraph.

2. Legal documents referred to in paragraph 1 of this article shall be collected in following priority sequence: the original copies, documents published in the Official Gazette, certified true copies, copies from the original made by the competent agencies or persons, consolidated, reviewed, or systematized documents published by the competent agencies.

3. Source of each legal document referred to in paragraph 1 and 2 of this Article shall be specified in the list of documents collected.

Article 9. Contents not to be codified

1. Legal norms that ceased to be effective at the time of codification.

2. Official name of Vietnam, legal bases for enacting the legal document, preamble, part of the rights, title, name and signature of the competent person,, seal of agency or unit, recipients of the legal document.

Article 10. Dealing with Conflicting, Overlapping or Impractical Legal Documents

1. Where legal norms in a legal document issued by a codification undertaking agency or in an inter-agency legal document drafted by it are found to be conflicting, overlapping or impractical, the agency shall deal with those legal norms in accordance with the provisions of the laws and regulations on promulgation of legal normative documents before putting them into the Sub-Title.

2. Where legal norms in a legal document other than that referred to in paragraph 1 of this article are found to be conflicting, overlapping or impractical, the codification undertaking agency shall codify those legal norms and shall at the same time request the competent agency to deal with them in accordance with the provisions of the laws and regulations on promulgation of legal normative documents.

Article 11. Codification of Legal Norms to Create a Sub-Title

The codification undertaking agencies shall codify legal norms in legal documents according to the hierarchy of their legal effect and following procedures:

1. For legal norms in the legal document whose name is used as the name of the Sub-Title:

a) To deal with or request the competent agency to deal with the legal document in accordance with the provisions of article 10 of this Decree;

b) To set aside the contents not to be codified as provided for in article 9 of this Decree; and

c) To put all the remaining contents in their existing structure into the Sub-Title.

2. For a guiding legal document:

a) To deal with or request the competent agency to deal with the legal document in accordance with the provisions of article 10 of this Decree;

b) To put articles in the guiding legal document after the guided articles of the legal document of higher legal effect;

c) Where a number of articles in a legal document set forth guidance for the implementation of an article in the legal document of higher legal effect, those articles shall be put after the guided article according to the sequent number of that article in the guiding legal document;

d) Where an article in the guiding legal document sets forth guidance for the implementation of a number of articles in the legal document of higher legal effect, that article shall be put after the first guided article and references shall be made for the following articles;

e) Where a number of articles in several legal documents sets forth guidance for the implementation of an article in the legal document of higher legal effect, those articles shall be put after the guided articles according to the hierarchy of their legal effect or chronologically if they are of the same form;

f) Where an article in the guiding legal document does not set forth guidance for the implementation of any specific article in another legal document, that article shall be put after the article which has the most related contents in the other legal document.

g) The provisions on implementation and entry into force of a guiding document shall be put after the provisions on implementation and entry into force of the legal document whose name is used as the name of the Sub-Title according to the hierarchy of their legal effect or chronologically if they are of the same form.

3. The transitional provisions shall be put after the provisions to which the transitional provisions are applied. Where a transitional provision is applied to several articles, that transitional article shall be put after the first article to which the transitional is applied and references shall be made for the remaining articles.

4. Annexes and forms issued together with a legal document shall be put in the last article providing for the annexes or forms or for their application. Where several articles provide for the application of an annex or a form, the annex or form shall be put in the end of the first article providing for such annex or form or for their application and references shall be made for the remaining articles.

5. Name and number of an article and notes and definition of legal norms whose contents relate to each other shall be according to the provisions of articles 4, 5 and 13 of this Decree.

6. The Ministry of Justice shall provide guidance for codification of legal documents that are not structured by articles and in other cases.

Aticle 12. Addition of Parts, Chapters and Sections

In case where the articles of a guiding legal document cannot be placed according to the provisions of article 11 of this Decree, depending on each case, they may be put in an additional part, chapter or section.

An additional part, chapter and section shall be put after the most related part, chapter or section.

Article 13. Determination of Legal norms whose Contents Relate to Each Other

1. Where the contents of a part, chapter, section or article of a legal document to be codified relate to the contents of a part, chapter, section or article of another legal document, the codification undertaking agency shall specify the sequent number and name of that part, chapter, section or article and number, notation, name and issuance date of the other legal document in italic in bracket at the end of the part, chapter, section or article of the legal document to codified.

2. Where the contents of a part, chapter, section or article of a legal document to be codified relate to the contents of a part, chapter, section or article of a Sub-Title, which already exist in the Code, the codification undertaking agency shall specify the sequent number and name of that part, chapter, section or article of the Sub-Title in italic in bracket at the end of the part, chapter, section or article of the codified legal document.

Article 14. Request for Review; Authentication of Results of Codification of Sub-Titles

1. The codification undertaking agency shall send a set of dossier in writing accompanied by a electronic file of the results of codification of a Sub-Title to the Ministry of Justice for review. The dossier consists of:

a) A written request to review the results of codification of the Sub-Title of that agency;

b) The results of codification of a Sub-Title signed by a leader and with a seal of that agency; and

c) The legal documents used for codifying the Sub-Title accompanied by the list of that legal document.

2. Where a legal document is issued between the time of submission of the codification results and the time of conclusions by the Review Board, the codification undertaking agency shall add the results of codification of such legal document and send an additional dossier to the Ministry of Justice.

3. The codification undertaking agency shall, at request of the Ministry of Justice, have the responsibility to explain and clarify unconsenting matters and difficulties faced during the codification of a Sub-Title before the review of the codification results takes place.

4. The codification undertaking agency shall have the responsibility to study the conclusions made by the Review Board in order to correct the codification results.

5. The leader of the codification undertaking agency shall sign for authentication of and close seal on the last page of the document of corrected codification results and send the document to the Ministry of Justice within the time limit stipulated in paragraph 1 and 2 of article 11 of the Ordinance.

Article 15. Check of Results of Sub-Title’s Codification

1. On the basis of the conclusions made by the Review Board, the Ministry of Justice shall have the responsibility to check the correction of the results of codification of the Sub-Title concerned.

2. If the results of codification of the Sub-Title concerned have not been corrected according to the conclusions of the Review Board, the Ministry of Justice shall request the codification undertaking agency to continue the correction.

Within five working days of receipt of the request from the Ministry of Justice, the codification undertaking agency shall correct the Sub-Title, sign for authentication of the contents corrected and sent the Sub-Title so corrected to the Ministry of Justice.

Chapter III

UPDATING NEW LEGAL NORMS AND SUB-TITLES INTO THE CODE

Article 16. Determination of a New Legal Norm

A new legal norm by meaning of paragraph 1 of article 13 of the Ordinance is a legal norm that is enacted after the date on which the Review Board makes conclusions on the results of codification of the Sub-Title concerned.

Article 17. Codification of New Legal Norms

A new legal norm shall be codified according to the following provisions:

1. Where a new legal document makes an amendment of or supplement to the contents of an article in the already codified legal document, the codification undertaking agency shall define the location of the amended or supplemented article in the Code and its contents; the location of the new article in the Code and its contents and then to number, make notation of and to name the new article and put it in the defined place in the Code; after that to make notes of and define related legal norms according to the provisions of articles 4, 5, 11, 12 and 13 of this Decree.

2. Where a new article is added to an already codified legal document by a newly issued legal document, the codification undertaking agency shall define the location of the new article in the Code and its contents; and then to number, make notation of and to name the newly issued article and put it in the defined place in the Code; after that to make notes of and define related legal norms according to the provisions of articles 4, 5, 11, 12 and 13 of this Decree.

3. Where a legal document is issued to repeal a part, chapter, section, article, paragraph or sub-paragraph of an already codified legal document or a guiding legal document, the codification undertaking agency shall define the location of that part, chapter, section, article, paragraph or sub-paragraph or of that guiding legal document in the Code and their contents and specify the reason for the repeal.

4. Where the legal document whose name is used as the name of a Sub-Title is replaced by a new legal document, the codification undertaking agency shall define the Sub-Title containing the legal document so replaced and modify that Sub-Title according to the provisions of articles 11, 12 and 13 of this Decree.

5. Where an already codified guiding legal document is replaced by a new legal document, the codification undertaking agency shall define the location of the legal document so replaced in the Code and its contents, as well as the location of the new legal norms in the Code, and then to number and name the relevant article in the Code and define related legal norms according to the provisions of articles 4, 5, 11, 12 and 13 of this Decree.

6. Where the legal document whose name is used as the name of a Sub-Title is repealed by a new legal document, the codification undertaking agency shall define the Sub-Title concerned in the Code and request the Ministry of Justice delete that Sub-Title.

7. Newly enacted legal norms shall be codified according to the guidelines issued by the Ministry of Justice.

Article 18. Request for Updating Results of Codification of Newly Enacted Legal Norms

1. Not later than 20 days prior to the date on which a newly enacted legal norm takes effect for the cases stipulated in paragraphs 1, 2, 3, 5 and 6 of article 17 of this Decree, the codification undertaking agency shall sent to the Ministry of Justice a written request together with an electronic file for updating the results of codification of the newly enacted legal norms. The request shall consist of:

a) An official letter requesting for updating the results of codification of the newly enacted legal norms; and

b) A document containing the results of codification of the newly enacted legal norms with the signature of the leader of the codification undertaking agency and seal of that agency; and

c) The legal document containing the newly enacted legal norm.

2. In case where a Sub-Title must be modified in accordance with paragraph 4 of article 17 of this Decree, the codification undertaking agency shall modify it and certify by signature the results of such modification and shall sent to the Ministry of Justice a request for review of those results according to article 14 of this Decree within the following time limits:

a) Not later than 60 days prior to the date on which the newly enacted legal norm in a legal document passed by the National Assembly or its Standing Committee takes effect; or

b) Not later than 35 days prior to the date on which the legal document other than the legal document stipulated in sub-paragraph of this paragraph takes effect.

Article 19. Check and Update Results of Codification of Newly Enacted Legal Norms

1. The Ministry of Justice shall check the adequacy and accuracy of the codification of a newly enacted legal norm for the cases stipulated in paragraph 1 of article 18 of this Decree. If the Ministry of Justice has found that the codification of the newly enacted legal norm is inadequate or inaccurate, it shall request the codification undertaking agency to correct the results of codification of that legal norm.

The codification undertaking agency shall have the responsibility to correct the results of codification at request of the Ministry of Justice and shall send the corrected results to the Ministry of Justice within 5 working days of receipt of the request.

2. For the case stipulated in paragraph 2 of article 18 of this Decree, the Ministry of Justice shall check and make a request according to the provisions of article 15 of this Decree.

3. The Ministry of Justice shall update the results of codification of newly enacted legal norms into the Code at the time when that legal norm takes effect and shall delete those legal norms that have ceased to be effective in the Code.

Article 20. Request for Making New Sub-Titles and Assignment of Agencies to Make New Sub-Titles

1. Where a new legal norm is enacted as stipulated to paragraph 2 of article 13 of the Ordinance, the codification undertaking agency shall, within 5 working days from the date when the new legal document is enacted, have the responsibility to send to the Ministry of Justice a request for making a new Sub-Title. The request shall be made in accordance with paragraph 1 of article 7 of this Decree.

2. The Ministry of Justice shall check the request for making a new Sub-Title and to submit the request to the Prime Minister for decision and assignment of an agency to make the new Sub-Title.

Article 21. Codification, Review and Update of New Sub-Titles

1. The agency assigned under the decision of the Prime Minister shall codify the new Sub-Title in accordance with the provisions of articles 8, 11, 12, 13 and 14 of this Decree.

2. The certification by signature and request for review of the results of codification a new Sub-Title shall be made according to paragraph 2 of article 18 of this Decree.

3. The results of codification a new Sub-Title shall be checked and updated in accordance with the provisions of article 15 and paragraph 3 of article 19 of this Decree.

Chapter IV

FINAL PROVISIONS

Article 22. Entry into Force

This Decree shall enter into force on August 15th, 2013.

Article 23. Responsibility for Implementation

1. Ministers and Heads of ministerial-level agencies shall have the responsibility to implement this Decree.

2. The codification undertaking agencies listed in article 4 of the Ordinance shall codify the Sub-Titles under their charge in accordance with the provisions of this Decree. During the process of codifying legal norms, the codification undertaking agencies may employ collaborators who are specialists and scientists having deep knowledge of codification. Remuneration and allowances to collaborators shall be paid according to the provisions of law./.