Improving the Mechanism for Settlement of Administrative Disputes

The previous mechanism for Settlement of Administrative Disputes (SAD) in Vietnam namely the “minister-judge” mechanism strongly influenced by the Former Soviet Union lacked an independent judicial organ to review impartially and objectively the complained administrative decisions or actions. The foundation of the Administrative Division Courts in July, 1996 has improved the new mechanism for SAD, social democratization and the building of “Law-Based State” addressed by Public Administration Reform (PAR) commenced from the beginning of 1990s. However, the encountered problems of the existing mechanism featured by the appearance of this court model in the past years has once again triggered the legal debates on looking for the best resolution for its existence. By looking back the history of Vietnam’s experience in SAD, this work analyzes the close relation between the improvement of the mechanism for SAD and PAR in Vietnam, finding encountered problems, confirming the need for further improvement and giving the directions for its better operation in the future. Some Japanese experiences regarding the topical issues were also supported for discussion.