VietNamNet Bridge - Why not prescribe the compulsory procedures on the people’s review of the draft Constitution to confirm whether the content of the Constitution actually expresses the general will of the people or not … suggested Dr. Nguyen Minh Doan, from the Hanoi Law University at the conference of the Legislative Research Journal of the National Assembly--on the draft amendments to the Constitution 1992 last week.

 

 

 

At the conference, Prof. Dr. Nguyen Minh Thuyet, said the Article 4 should clearly stipulate the method of the Party’s leadership over the State and society to avoid the current imbalance: the rights and obligations of the people and of state agencies are stipulated very specifically while the rights and obligations of the Party, the leading force of the state and the people are very sketchy.

Related to the institution on the state of law, Dr. Hoang Van Nghia, Vice Rector of the Institute for Human Rights, said that the jurisdiction principle is not made clear in the draft amendments to the Constitution. According to him, it is necessary to specify the limitation of power. The state power must be limited and controlled, including the clarification of the limitation of powers and functions of each state agency.

At the conference, many participants said that the draft Constitution does not show the spirit of state power belonging to the people, especially in constitutional issues.

Dr. Hoang Van Nghia said that the supreme principle of the state of law is the power belonging to the people. The draft should have an individual part on the people’s rights of reviewing of the constitution as well as the people's rights of referendum.

Dr. Nguyen Minh Doan, from the Hanoi University of Law, said more clearly: the Constitution does not define the constitutional rights of the people and still consider that as the right of the National Assembly.

He said that making and amending the Constitution must be finally decided by the people. The supreme right of monitoring the implementation of the Constitution must also belong to the people. The National Assembly only implements the right to supervise the implementation of the Constitution but it is not the supreme supervising body.

"One question is -- why does the Constitution not recognize the constitutional rights of the people? Why it does not prescribe the compulsory procedures for people to review the draft Constitution to confirm whether the content of the Constitution actually expresses the general will of the people or not?” Mr. Doan said.

Dr. Ngo Huy Cuong, from the Vietnam National University, said that considering the entire draft, the constituent power still belongs to the National Assembly. It almost has no significant changes compared to the current Constitution on the constitutional thought.

Cuong said that the Constitution or the amended Constitution must be decided by the people or by a meeting of the people's representatives who are elected for this special purpose.

The participants also suggested prolonging the time for collecting the people's opinions to build a "civilized, democratic constitution that creates a turning point for the country to take off.”

Le Nhung