SOCIALIST

LEGAL
SYSTEM
GROUP 3
01 HISTORY AND 03 SOURCE OF
DEVELOPMENT LAW
02 CHARACTERISTICS 04 SOCIALIST
LEGAL SYSTEM
IN VIETNAM
 DEFINITION
Socialist law or Soviet law denotes a general type of legal system which has been used in communist and
formerly communist states. It based on the civil law system, with major modifications and additions from
Marxist – Leninist ideology. During the cold war period, it was incorporated into the legal systems of the
Soviet Union and its former satellite states in Central and Eastern Europe. These systems were built on the
notion that the state, rather than private individuals, should own most of the property within its jurisdiction.
 AFTER THE
RUSSIAN
IN 1917 IN 1921
REVOLUTIO
N OF 1917

TIMELINE
IN THE POST-
WORLD WAR IN 1930s IN 1928
2 PERIOD

DURING THE LATE

IN 1949-1957 COLD WAR 1980S -
(1946-1989) PRESENT
 AFTER THE
RUSSIAN
IN 1917 IN 1921
REVOLUTIO
N OF 1917

TIMELINE
IN THE POST-
WORLD WAR IN 1930s IN 1928
2 PERIOD

DURING THE LATE

IN 1949-1957 COLD WAR 1980S -
(1946-1989) PRESENT
 IN 1917
Soviet legal institutions had to
contend with the official
Marxist-Leninist theory that
law is essentially a capitalist
institution destined to wither
away once socialism is
established
 AFTER THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION OF 1917
The Bolsheviks set about building socialist legal
system in the Soviet Union. The new Soviet
regime made strenuous efforts to eliminate the
legal institutions of the prerevolutionary period and
to usher in the new classless society as rapidly as
possible
One of the most pressing aspects of this project
was writing a socialist constitution; this new
constitution would signal to the world the proper
structure of a socialist state.
 However, the entire economy
was at a standstill, and Lenin
IN introduced the New Economic
1921 Policy (NEP) which restored the
legal basis necessary for the
economy to function.
The New Economic Policy was ended
after Joseph Stalin became leader of the IN
Soviet Union and asserted total central 1928
control over the economy.
 IN 1930s

Russo-Leninist institution and public

law approaches became critical
components of the socialist legal
model and its state-led model of
development.
Moscow sent advisors and emissaries
to new socialist nation to spread the
theory of Russo-Leninist institution
and public law. Russo-Leninist
elements of the socialist legal system
become the model of socialist law.
The Soviet model of a “socialist legal
system” became the point of departure
in the process of building socialism
and has shaped the development of
law in the Soviet Union supported
countries in Asia.

IN THE POST-WORLD
WAR 2 PERIOD
IN 1917 IN 1949-1957
The basis for this Russo-Leninist
influence on China’s post-Mao
legal development was laid in
the early post-found-ing period of
the People’s Republic of China.
Most major comparative law theorists added a third legal system to the common law and
civil law legal tradition: the socialist legal system. In the 1980s, the socialist legal system
faced criticism.

DURING THE COLD WAR (1946-1989)

As the Soviet legal system
disintegrated, the Soviet Union
weakened. Communism collapsed in
Eastern Europe and the concept of a
socialist law family was abandoned
altogether. Some legal scholars
described that the socialist legal
system was “dead and buried.”
Nowadays, Some Communist
countries base on the theory of Soviet
legal system to develop their own legal
system.

LATE 1980S - PRESENT

 HOW MANY CHARACTERISTICS ARE
THERE IN SOCIALIST LEGAL SYSTEM?
 LEGAL FORM LEGISLATIVE ROLE OF JUDICIAL
AUTHORITY

CHARACTERISTICS OF SOCIALIST LEGAL SYSTEM

What is legal form? How many
types are there?

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SUBSTANTIVE

LAW AND PROCEDURAL LAW
In the other system law, between substantive
law and procedural law, which one is more
important?

THE ISSUE OF DIVIDING LAWS INTO THE CODIFICATION LEVEL

PUBLIC AND PRIVATE LAWS
What is Public laws? What is What is the codification?
Private laws? The relationships?
 SOCIALIST LAW
Only the only type of source is recognized as
legal documents issued by a competent
state authority, not accepting the
exclusion of case law or custom.
However, customs and case law still have
a certain role in this legal system.
COMMON LAW
Common Law system are influenced by
the British legal system and recognize
precedent as the source of formal law
that means the precedent doctrine is
admitted. However, case law is no
longer the only source of law, written
law has become an important source
of law, especially for those field
without precedents.
CIVIL LAW
Civil Law system are based on the
principle that legislators formulate
specific institutions and create
mechanisms for the principles to
adjust social relations. Therefore, legal
documents are the main form, in
LEGAL FORM
addition to customs and case law.
MUSLIM LAW
There is no basis to confirm that the Islamic
legal system has a form of law. Because
the Islamic law is reflected in the Bible
and is recognized and applied by the
state of the Islamic nation. The Islamic law
countries there exist laws that are legal
documents (just like the existence of case
law). But this is just an additional sources
behind the Bible.
 Like the legal system of continental Europe, only legal documents expressed in the form of documents

JUDICIAL AUTHORITY
LEGISLATIVE ROLE OF
SOCIALIST LAW issued by competent state agencies will become the means to transform the purposes that this legal
system aims to. A tribunal is the only agency established to ensure that the basic rights and obligations
of citizens are actually exercised.

CIVIL LAW
The Civil Law system is based on an inquisitorial system, so in criminal cases, judges rely mainly on
the written Law, the results of investigating bodies, and the trial process in Court to make a verdict.
Only the Parliament has the right to make laws, and the Court is only the agency to apply the law.

Judges in the legal systems under the Common Law play a crucial role in the creation and development
of legal norms. If the laws in the civil law family contain highly generalized rules and legal principles,
COMMON LAW which provide legal solution to many cases, in England that function belongs to the ruling made by the
judge. If the British judge does not want to apply a legal precedent, he or she will try to find the facts of
the case to justify the difference between the case and the case in precedent law or on law or on both of
these elements are based on principles, written laws are put in priority to apply.

Islamic law is not a legal system attached to the state. Those loyal to Islam believe that the Islamic Law is immortal
MUSLIM LAW and never change, this is the last, most complete form of law and in the future all humanity will acknowledge and
abide by it. Some Muslim countries in the state apparatus have only two branches: the executive and the judiciary,
without the legislative Parliament. In these countries, the concept that only Allah can make laws to regulate the
conduct of the people in society. According to this view, the State-issued legal documents cannot change Islamic
law but only adjust details that Islamic law has not specified or left blank. That is, the State is only secondary to
religion and is simply a tool to implement religious rules (for countries that consider Islam and the State as one).
However, the judges also have the freedom to create new methods to solve criminal or social problems, so they
have a great right to decide which options are best to solve a case. And judges can also use legal precedent to
solve a new case arising on the basis of reason and logic to create case law.
 THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SUBSTANTIVE
LAW AND PROCEDURAL LAW
I
The relationship between the substantive law and the procedural law seem like the
SOCIALIST
continental European system and explicitly emphasizes that only the substantive law
express and identify interests of the working class and all the people job. The law of
procedure is just ensuring the enforcement of the actual law
II
Civil law system created in Europe can be found back to Roman law. The use of a codified
system here allows primary sources of law to be verified in legal codes which are expected to CIVIL
cover the law in a certain area. Thus, the civil law system has a relationship between
substantive law and procedural law related to the Socialist legal system.

Procedural process: the parties involved in the processes are considered to have equal legal status III
with each other, the judge only behaves as a mediator, not involved in the process but will give COMMON
judges and decisions. They depend on mostly on the facts in court given by lawyers. Consequently,
the plaintiff or the defendant, whoever wants to win the case, will completely rely on the defense of
the lawyer of that party). As we can see, in the Common law system, the procedural law (formal law)
is believed as the strength of the trial process and is more decisive than the real law (content law).

The Islamic law expresses the will of God, not the will of the state, so it regulates almost all areas of
IV
MUSLIM
social life. It is hard to differentiate between legal and religious rules because Muslims believe law
and religion are one. The procedural law (formal law) is not mentioned much because the nature of
the Islamic Law is the will of God. It obtained from the bible that Muslims believe and follow, and it
says the command of the ultimate being, not the power of the state.
 LAWS INTO PUBLIC AND
THE ISSUE OF DIVIDING
SOCIALIST LAW

PRIVATE LAWS
There is no division of the law into
public and private laws, the
mechanism of separation of
powers has not been focused.
Therefore, these countries set up a
single court system
 LAWS INTO PUBLIC AND
THE ISSUE OF DIVIDING
CIVIL LAW

PRIVATE LAWS
There have a division of the law
into public and private law. In
order to properly resolve or apply
laws, many legal issues actually
arise that require the law subject to
be fully knowledgeable about the
provisions of both public and
private laws.
 COMMON LAW

LAWS INTO PUBLIC AND

THE ISSUE OF DIVIDING
In general, the common law system does not distinguish between public
and private laws, except the British legal system. However, the distinction

PRIVATE LAWS
between public and private law in the UK differs in purpose from those of
the Civil law system only to determine which legal proceedings to apply to
resolve the relevant case. Common law is not divided into public and
private laws for the following reasons: (1) This distinction makes little sense
during the feudal period in England, the early stage of the development of
the Common law, because of rights public and private are determined by
property rights, but there is no distinction between property ownership and
civil law bureaucracy in the manner of Civil law; (2) There is a court system
that becomes a place to review legislative and executive activities,
including in private disputes. Therefore there is no complete distinction of
power according to the style of Civil law. (3) American scholars were initially
inclined to ignore that distinction and deemed unnecessary for the
tendency to aggregate judgment decisions.
 LAWS INTO PUBLIC AND
THE ISSUE OF DIVIDING
MUSLIM LAW

PRIVATE LAWS
The Islamic legal system is a system of laws raised from religion and
morality so its norm is considered to be the only institution governing the
entire society. The Islamic law expresses the will of God, not the will of the
State, so it governs almost all areas of social life, not just adjusting the
issues that concern the State. Theocratic politics embraces public-private
matters. First, in traditional areas such as the family, inheritance and
criminals (to a certain extent), there is a weaker part in the field of contract
law and property law. Islam also intervenes in areas that most other
countries deem absolutely not governed by the law: the right time for
prayer, the time to brush your teeth.
 There have been a number of proposals to reform this level and they have tended to be in the direction

THE CODIFICATION LEVEL

SOCIALIST LAW of fully privatizing rural land for the alleged purpose of increasing efficiency. These proposals have
usually not received any significant support, largely because of the popularity of the current system
among the farmers themselves. There is little risk that the village committee will attempt to impose a bad
contract on the farmers, since this would reduce the amount of money the village committee receives. At
the same time, the farmer has some flexibility to decide to leave farming for other ventures and to return
at a later time. In law, codification is the process
of collecting and restating the law
CIVIL LAW An important common characteristic of civil law.The proponents of codification regarded is as a
conducive to certainty,unity
of a and systematic recording
jurisdiction of the law;whereas
in certain areas, its opponents claim that the
codification would result in the ossification of the law
usually by subject, forming a
This is the process oflegal code, i.e. a codex (book) of statue law,collecting and
COMMON LAW restating the law of a jurisdiction in certain areas,
converting and consodilating judge-made law into
law. usually by subject, forming a legal code.In deciding a
case the judge will consult voluminous law reports, digests and citators in order to find a precedent
which covers the legalCodification
issue involved. is one of the defining
features of civil law jurisdictions
In the period of the Prophet Mohammed (P. B. U. H) and of the four great Caliphs, the question of codification did
MUSLIM LAW not arise. With the passage of time, when a growing number of juristic schools appeared and the job of the
courts was not as simple as before, it was not possible any longer to expect the harmony in scholars’
opinions and judges’ verdicts, as much as the rulers themselves, began to feel the necessity of a codified
law. The concept of codification was presented in various forms in the later history of Islamic jurisdiction. It
was improved and advanced in very slow and gradual steps in such a form that it is sometimes difficult to
decide how to categorize them from a contemporary perspective
SOURCE OF LAW
LEGISLATION

SOURCE OF LAW
CUSTOM

PRECEDENT
 DID YOU KNOW THIS?
SOCIALIST LEGAL
SYSTEM IN VIETNAM
 Vietnam's socialist legal system is influenced by

Eastern and western Soviet communist

legal traditions legal ideology

The French civil law

system
 Vietnamese legal system is dominated
by 03 important doctrines

Socialist legality

Democratic
centralism
doctrine
Collective
mastery
doctrine
These doctrines point out 4 basic
principles of socialist law in Vietnam

The law system originates from The law system cannot control the State power
the state and is not higher than because Vietnam is a one-party state so every
the state aspects of the country are decided by the Sate

01 02 03 04

The Communist Goverment and the Individual legal rights must be

State possess the privileges of given priority to the public
using policies instead of law collective interest
THANKS!

THANKS!
Does anyone have any questions? 32

GROUP 3
MEMBERS

MEMBER OF GROUP 3
● Tong Thu Trang
● Nguyen Quang Tien Yen 33
● Nguyen Khue Tu
● Nguyen Thi Hoai Thuong
● Cao Nguyen Thien Kim
● Thai Thanh Loc
● Do Gia Huy
● Ha Thu Thuy
● Nguyen Ngoc Bao Tram