Constitutional Defence in Vietnam: New Opportunities, Universality, and Specificity

Constitutional defence is considered one of the important constituents of a rule-of-law state. Without a professional and independent constitutional defence mechanism, it is difficult to protect the constitution as the foundational law with the highest legal effect. Modern Vietnam is built around the Soviet mode of power organization; therefore, there are many inherent difficulties in building and operating a professional and independent constitutional defence. As a result of the 2013 Constitution and the 2015 Law on Referendum, the opportunity to establish a centralized, relatively independent, and professional constitutional defence model in Vietnam has never been more possible than it is now. By applying certain main research methods such as the normative analysis and comparative methods, this article attempts to clarify the opportunities and analyse the characteristics of the Vietnamese constitutional defence mechanism concerning universal standards. Consequently, it proposes a constitutional defence model for a socialist rule-of-law state.