Vietnam

• The Constitution of 2013, the highest law
• Codes and statutes passed by the National Assembly, such as the Civil Code of 2015
• Resolutions of the Council of Judges of the Supreme People's Court, which guide lower courts
• Local custom, in limited areas where the Civil Code allows

• The Supreme People's Court at the top
• High-level People's Courts, provincial People's Courts and district-level People's Courts
• Military courts for military cases

A law degree, a training course and a period of apprenticeship, then a practising certificate from the Ministry of Justice and membership in a provincial bar association.

• There is no separate constitutional court; the National Assembly oversees whether laws follow the Constitution.
• The People's Procuracy both prosecutes and supervises that the law is followed.
• People's assessors, who are lay people, sit alongside professional judges at trials.
• The Civil Code of 2015 follows the continental model, combining older French influence with later socialist and international influences.

China, France, Russia, Thailand, Japan

The University of Ottawa’s JuriGlobe database lists Vietnam as: Civil law. It names the systems in order of importance.

The map colours a country by the first-named system, and shows both civil-law and common-law countries as “mixed”. It is a simplification, and real systems are rarely pure.

Albania, Algeria, Angola, Argentina, Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Belgium, Benin, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Bulgaria.

• Supreme People's Court of Vietnam

Sources last reviewed: October 2026.