36 enforced). In the banking sector, commercial banks find it difficult to foreclose properties pledged as collateral for bank loans because of poor enforcement of court orders in addition to the lack of foreclosure procedure. The inefficiency of the law enforcement system has frustrated the public in general and led business people to prefer to settle their commercial disputes mostly out of court. It also frustrates practicing attorneys, and "some of them are just not taking the risk of arguing with the judges in court and just use the back door".<sup>24</sup> In general, the lack of information, the lack of consciousness of the citizens of their rights, the lack of independence of the judiciary also contributes to the difficulties of Viet-Nam's legal system. Laws and regulations are not often kept secret or unpublished, but they are confusing. In many areas, such as contract law and banking law, the new laws often are legislated in a hurry to meet the need of the transition. They tend to be general in nature and, as a result, have seen wide discretion in their application. In these situations, decisions made by officials in charge of implementation are often personalized as interpretation of the laws vary among government offices and between provinces.

# Source of **Law** and Judicial Review

Source of Law. The current sources of law in Viet-Nam are almost exclusively in legislation (mostly in decree-law,i.e the statutes passed by the Standing Committee of the Parliament, when Parliament is not in session) and administrative regulations. "Case law" is nonexistent. On the whole, only the laws in the foreign economic sector, particularly foreign investment are going through a process of research/consultations (with international authorities in the field). Law making for the rest of the legal framework, particularly "private laws" governing domestic business and personal relations is lagging behind. Regulatory laws are in abundance not only in "administrative law" as normally expected but also in other traditional fields of civil law and commercial law. The statutes themselves - - particularly when they are in the form of decree-law are often either too broad or poorly drafted, requiring a great deal of explanatory regulations beyond the usual, already detailed "decree of application". For commercial laws, investors, particularly foreign investors, often have to rely more on these regulations than on the law itself for their understanding of what the law requires. Eventually, most of the laws will be codified; for the time being only criminal law and criminal procedure were put in "Codes" (December 12, 1992). For the more complicated areas of civil law and commercial law, it will probably take some years before the relevant planned codes can be enacted. In civil law, a revised draft (draft no. 12) is being circulated among lawyers, legislators, and media. Until all laws are codified, investors and the public will have to continue working with legal texts in various forns.

24 Tai Van Ta Legal Reform for Trade. Investment and Economic Development Harvard Law SchoolMimeograph. Paper presented at the Seminar on "Viet-Nam: The Emerging Tiger". at the University of California at Berkeley, in May, 1994. The paper also reported that in 1992 the court was able to enforce only 11,594 cases out of a total 32,803 judgements rendered.