Enhancing accountability and Regulatory Impact Assessment in the legislative process in Vietnam

Abstract

Abstract: Regulatory Impact Assessment or Regulatory Impact Analysis (RIA), is a mandatory requirement in legislative activities in many countries with advanced judicial systems. In Vietnam, the requirement for assessing and forecasting the impact of laws in the legislative process was first stipulated in the Law on the Promulgation of Legal Documents in 2008 (effective January 1, 2009). According to the Law on the Promulgation of Legal Documents in 2015, amended and supplemented in 2020, RIA is called a Policy Impact Assessment Report – one of the mandatory documents in the application dossier for drafting or the draft dossier of many important legal documents, and must be reviewed by competent authorities. This content continues to be affirmed in the Law on Promulgation of Legal Documents in 2025. Using qualitative research methods, this article focuses on clarifying the role of RIA in the legislative process and the necessity of strengthening the accountability of drafting agencies during the stages of gathering opinions, incorporating feedback, and social critique. Based on the experience of policy impact assessment in the legislative process of several countries, the authors recommend some lessons learned for Vietnam