Dear Stephen,

I am hoping this letter will reach you well. It’s been a year since we met in my country
Vietnam and I know you still have a lot of confusion about our country legal system. As we
participate in a cultural exchange that involves the United States and Vietnam’s legal
systems, while both have the same goal of maintaining justice, they are fundamentally
different in design, principles and applications.

Firstly, about Vietnamese legal system, it originates from the Civil law, which considers
written law as the basic form of legal regulation. It is divided into three essential
components: legal rules – these are the fundamental components of the system; legal classes
– constituents of society which are the norms governing related social interactions; legal
branches – specialized rules that govern specific areas, for example constitutional,
administrative, criminal, civil, and labor laws.

Secondly, criminal law, court jurisdiction over civil and criminal cases and political system
are the main things I want to share with you about my country's legal system. Criminal law in
my country classifies harmful actions as crimes and provides sanctions. The court's
jurisdiction over civil cases is handled by people's courts at all levels, while criminal cases
are investigated by the people’s procuracy and adjudicated by the people's court. Besides, the
current Vietnamese political system includes: Communist Party of Vietnam; State of socialist
Republic of Vietnam; Vietnam Fatherland Front and socio-political organizations. According
to Article 4 of the 2013 Constitution, the role of the Communist Party of Vietnam is: the
vanguard of the working class, and at the same time the vanguard of the working people and
of the Vietnamese people, loyal representatives of the interests of the working class, the
working people and the entire nation. The Party takes Marxism-Leninism and Ho Chi Minh
Thought as its ideological foundation. The State of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam in
clause 1, Article 2 of the 2013 Constitution defines the State of the Socialist Republic of
Vietnam as a socialist law-governed state of the People, by the People, for the People.
According to clause 1, Article 9 of the 2013 Constitution stipulates that the Vietnam
Fatherland Front is as follows: The Vietnam Fatherland Front is a political alliance
organization, a voluntary union aspirations of political organizations, socio-political
organizations, social organizations and representative individuals from different classes,
social strata, ethnic groups, religions, and Vietnamese people residing abroad.

Thirdly, the Vietnamese legal system has many issues and things to discuss because it is very
complicated and difficult to understand without careful study. For example, Vietnam is a
country with a high number of people wearing helmets when participating in traffic because
it is required by law while in some other countries this is not mandatory. Or in the case of
misappropriation of property of tycoon Truong My Lan was sentenced to death on 11 April
2024, which is an unprecedented verdict for economic criminals in the United States and
other countries in the world.

In conclusion, because of differences in political institutions, economics and cultures,

Vietnamese law has many differences with American and other countries’. However,
Vietnam is still considered one of the safest destinations in the world. Moreover, Vietnamese
law is being supplemented and amended annually to better suit our society nowadays. I hope
we will have more opportunities to meet each other to discuss the laws of our two countries.
I’m looking forward to your reply.
An.