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The Investment Protection Agreement among Vietnam, the European Union (EU) and each of the EU’s member states (EVIPA) was signed by Vietnam and the EU on June 30, 2019, in Ha Noi. While the Free Trade Agreement between Vietnam and the EU (EVFTA) promotes trade liberalization between Vietnam and EU countries, EVIPA establishes legal safeguards for outward investment activities of investors from EU countries into Vietnam and vice versa. The EVIPA has not yet come into effect as it needs to be approved not only by the EU Council and the National Assembly of Vietnam, but also by the Parliaments of all EU’s member states. Even so, with the EVFTA in place, Vietnam hopes to attract more investment from the EU as Vietnam has committed to provide investors from the EU with certain protection some of which have not been available in any other investment protection agreements to which Vietnam is a party. Investors with EU nationalities undoubtedly are interested in how Vietnam could implement its commitments under the EVIPA. The paper discusses key commitments of Vietnam under the EVIPA along the lines of relevant provisions of Vietnam law and addresses some noteworthy points for investors from the EU planning to invest in Vietnam. It argues that understanding how domestic law and regulations facilitate international commitments would help investors from the EU prepare for their investments in Vietnam.
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Vietnam’s Commitments Under the European Union – Vietnam Investment Protection Agreement (EVIPA): Some Noteworthy Points

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As in many other countries, Vietnam’s integration into the international trade system has accelerated since its participation in the WTO and regional trade agreements. However, widening market access – the consequence of this integration process – risks exacerbating some of Vietnam’s existing environmental problems. In this context, the Vietnamese government is adopting measures in order to mitigate negative impacts of trade on the environment, but do these measures risk violating Vietnam’s international trade commitments? Can the environmental protection provisions of new generation free trade agreements like CPTPP be a reliable legal basis to justify Vietnamese trade restriction measures? The author will analyse these questions, while focusing on the case of debris importation control – an issue that has been attracting a lot of public attention in Vietnam and in South East Asia in recent years.
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Harmonisation Between Trade Liberalisation and Environmental Protection – A Long Way to Go? An Analysis of Vietnam’s Debris Importation Control in Light of WTO and CPTPP Rules

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This paper analyzes the capability of the electricity licensing systems, together with the third-party access regime in Thailand and Vietnam and compares the two. It specifically studies the Energy Industry Act B.E. 2550 (2007) of Thailand (“Energy Industry Act of Thailand”) and the Electricity Law No. 28/2004/QH11 of Vietnam (“Electricity Law of Vietnam”) in enabling locally generated electricity traded on a peer-to-peer (P2P) basis, as well as the regulation of smart metering services. In summary, it finds that the Energy Industry Act of Thailand and the Electricity Law of Vietnam are functionally comparable. These two laws are both capable of serving as regulatory bases for P2P electricity trading among prosumers and other electricity users. However, to enhance readiness of the electricity regulatory regime for P2P renewable electricity trading among active and passive electricity-using customers, this paper suggests that in the future it would be wise for research be conducted to make clear whether a prosumer can simultaneously be an electricity-generating unit as well as an electricity-using customer. Importantly, it is necessary to answer whether a private power purchase agreement between prosumers and another electricity-using customer can be deemed as the permissible electricity trading forms under Article 20 paragraph 2 of the Electricity Law of Vietnam. In-depth analysis is needed to determine whether the electricity-generating unit’s right to connect, as well as under the Electricity Law of Vietnam can be evolvingly interpreted to include a right to “use” the electricity grids for “transporting” its self-generated renewable electricity. Finally, an important regulatory question to be addressed by the Electricity Law of Vietnam is whether rates and setting of wheeling service and related charges are subject to the regulatory scope of the Electricity Law of Vietnam.
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Roles of the 2007 Energy Industry Act in Supporting Peer-To-Peer Electricity Trading in Thailand: Issues to be Addressed by the 2004 Electricity Law of Vietnam

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Thailand is under consideration whether to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) along with four other ASEAN member states namely Brunei, Malaysia, Singapore, and Vietnam. Moreover, the negotiation of a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with the European Union (EU), despite its halt in 2013, is expected to resume.
This article aims to study the challenges regarding the labour provisions which form part of new generation FTAs to which Thailand may become a party. It will focus on the labour provisions in the CPTPP and the EU FTA model and examine the eventual impact on Thai labour law as well as suggest legal reforms in case Thailand decides to accede to the CPTPP and/or to conclude an FTA with the EU.
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Challenges Concerning New Generation FTAs’ Labour Provisions: Perspective from Thailand

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January 1, 2021 marks an extremely important event in China’s legislative history, as the day the first Civil Code of the Democratic People’s Republic of China entered into force on May 28, 2020 (the “Chinese Civil Code 2020”), after an extremely long preparation time. The 2020 Chinese Civil Code was considered China’s “Declaration of Civil Rights”, with a huge number of regulations. Understanding legal provisions of the Chinese Civil Code is essential because of the following reasons: firstly, as Vietnam’s neighboring country, China has close relations with Vietnam in many areas of civil life. Secondly, Civil Code is a fundamental law of social life, having a profound influence, so the study of Civil Code should be given priority before studying many other laws. Thirdly, researching laws of other countries will help us realize the points that need to be improved in our laws. Up to now, legal research on this Code has not been much. Despite the prolonged lockdown in the past two years, China’s real estate market is hotter than ever. Real estate is an extremely important asset, especially when the future of other economic sectors is bleak, the society’s financial resources were pouring more and more into real estate, from which relevant conflicts were also increasing, requiring the constant improvement of legal regulations. This study aims to analyze the process of improving Chinese civil law provisions on real property and assess the completion level of the current regulations. To achieve these goals, the study has collected a large number of relevant regulations that China has promulgated and legal discussions of experts. The article is composed of three parts. The first is an overview of real property legislation before the Chinese Civil Code 2020, and the second part is the current regulations. Based on them, the author reports research findings and makes discussion.
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Real Property in Chinese Civil Law – The Process of Developing Property Legislation

AHEAD OF PRINT

Volume 10 (2024): Issue 1 (April 2024)

Volume 9 (2023): Issue 2 (December 2023)

Volume 8 (2023): Issue 1 (June 2023)

Volume 7 (2022): Issue 2 (December 2022)

Volume 6 (2022): Issue 1 (June 2022)

Volume 5 (2021): Issue 2 (December 2021)

Volume 4 (2021): Issue 1 (June 2021)

Volume 3 (2020): Issue 2 (December 2020)

Volume 2 (2020): Issue 1 (September 2020)

Volume 1 (2019): Issue 1 (November 2019)

Vietnamese Journal of Legal Sciences

 Print ISSN (p-ISSN): 2719-5872, Online ISSN (eISSN): 2719-3004   The Vietnamese Journal of Legal Sciences (abbreviation VJLS) is a semi-annual journal that aims to provide a platform for the dissemination of high-quality, peer-reviewed research across diverse realms of law and policies with contemporary relevance. It was founded under the initiative of Ho Chi Minh City University of Law, a leading legal educational and training institution in Vietnam. VJLS aims to foster intellectual discourse and contribute to the advancement of legal scholarship.   The VJLS provides a platform for national and cross-national discussion on topics in both public and private law, as well as interdisciplinary contributions that are relevant to legal studies. In particular, the VJLS focuses on publishing articles, book reviews, case commentaries and other such which analyse the recent developments related to legal issues raised in Vietnam or other countries in the context of globalization and modernization. Therefore, contributions related to the following topics will be highly encouraged:    Challenges and Opportunities, as well as Legal issues in emerging economies in the region: Focusing on Vietnam and other countries in the Asia-Pacific region, exploring challenges, opportunities, and legal issues in the context of globalization and industrialization;   International Legal Comparisons: Examining legal issues and solutions globally, providing insights and experiences applicable for countries in the Asia Pacific Region; drawing valuable insights from countries facing similar concerns, offering a comparative perspective to guide policy and legal reform;   Interdisciplinary Submissions: Welcoming contributions intersecting with legal studies that may originate from other disciplines, offering a multifaceted view of how the law interacts with societal changes.    The journal’s activities are supported by an extensive international editorial board, as well as devoted native-speaker language editors. Articles are widely distributed, via printed as well as free-access digital versions, to lecturers, students, researchers and practitioners in the legal field.     Open Access Policy   Vietnamese Journal of Legal Sciences is an open-access journal, which means that all content is freely available without charge to the user or his/her institution. Users are allowed to read, download, copy, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles in this journal without asking prior permission from the publisher or the author. Authors retain their copyright and agree to license their articles. Vietnamese Journal of Legal Sciences is a no-fee journal. Authors are not charged for the publication of their articles.   Charges   Vietnamese Journal of Legal Sciences is a no-fee journal. Authors are not charged for the publication of their articles.　   Website   https://sciendo.com/journal/VJLS   Archiving Policy   VJLS is published in both online and hard-copy forms.   Archiving   Sciendo archives the contents of this journal in Portico – a digital long-term preservation service of scholarly books, journals and collections.   Ethics Policy   Please find the Ethics Policy of the VJLS in the For Authors section.   The editorial board is participating in a growing community of Similarity Check System users in order to ensure that the content published is original and trustworthy. Similarity Check is a medium that allows for comprehensive manuscript screening, aimed to eliminate plagiarism and provide a high standard and quality peer-review process. 