Decree No. 52/2015/ND-CP dated May 28, 2015 of the Government on the national law database

DECREE

On the national law database[1]

Pursuant to the December 25, 2001 Law on Organization of the Government;

Pursuant to the June 29, 2006 Law on Information Technology;

Pursuant to the June 20, 2012 Law on Law Dissemination and Education;

At the proposal of the Minister of Justice,

The Government promulgates the Decree on the national law database.

Chapter I

GENERAL PROVISIONS

Article 1.Scope of regulation

This Decree provides the building, management, maintenance, updating, exploitation and use of the national law database; responsibilities of ministries, ministerial-level agencies and other central state agencies (including the Supreme People’s Court, the Supreme People’s Procuracy and the State Audit Office of Vietnam), and People’s Committees of provinces and centrally run cities (below referred to as provincial-level People’s Committees) in the building, management, maintenance, updating, exploitation and use of the national law database.

Article 2.National law database

1. The national law database is a collection of legal documents and documents consolidating legal documents (below collectively referred to as documents) in the form of e-document, which is placed under the unified management by the Government and consists of component databases: database of central legal documents and database of local legal documents.

2. The national law database shall be uniformly built and commonly used nationwide in order to provide documents in an accurate and prompt manner to meet the demand for state management and serve law dissemination, research, application and enforcement activities of agencies, organizations and individuals.

Article 3.Information on documents in the national law database

1. Documents in the national law database:

a/ Legal documents promulgated by central state agencies on their own or in coordination with one another and legal documents promulgated by provincial-level People’s Councils and People’s Committees in accordance with the Law on Promulgation of Legal Documents;

b/ Documents consolidating legal documents (below referred to as consolidated documents).

2. Basic information on a legal document:

a/ The number, code, subject, content and type of the document, promulgating agency, full name and title of the person signing the document for promulgation, promulgation date, effective date and effective status of the document;

b/ Relevant documents, including documents serving as legal grounds for the promulgation of the document and documents referred to in the document;

c/ The process of change of the effect of the document;

d/ Other necessary information (if any).

3. Basic information on a consolidated document:

a/ The number, code, subject, content and type of the document, agency conducting the consolidation, full name and title of the person signing the document for authentication and authentication date;

b/ The amended document and amending document(s);

c/ Other necessary information (if any).

Article 4.Use of documents in the national law database

Documents in the national law database shall be officially used in state management and law dissemination, research, application and enforcement activities of agencies, organizations and individuals.

Article 5.Funds for building, management and maintenance of, and updating of documents to, the national law database

1. Funds for building the national law database shall be allocated from the state budget and other lawful sources in accordance with law.

2. Funds for management and maintenance of, and updating of documents to, the national law database by ministries, ministerial-level agencies, other central state agencies and local state agencies and units shall be allocated from the state budget according to decentralization.

Article 6.Prohibited acts

1. Sabotaging the information infrastructure system or obstructing the operation, stability and constancy of the national law database.

2. Illegally accessing the national law database to falsify, modify, delete or destroy data.

Chapter II

BUILDING, MANAGEMENT AND MAINTENANCE OF,
UPDATING OF DOCUMENTS TO, AND EXPLOITATION AND USE OF DOCUMENTS IN, THE NATIONAL LAW DATABASE

Section 1

BUILDING, MANAGEMENT AND MAINTENANCE OF
THE NATIONAL LAW DATABASE

Article 7.Principles of building, management and maintenance of the national law database

1. The national law database shall be built into a centralized and unified one.

2. The national law database shall be strictly managed, ensuring safe and permanent caches.

3. The national law database shall be maintained so as to ensure uninterrupted, stable and smooth operation, meeting needs of agencies, organizations and individuals for exploitation and use of documents.

Article 8.Building of the national law database

1. The building of the national law database must ensure:

a/ The database be in line with the national information system architecture, meet database standards, information technology standards and technical regulations and techno-economic norms;

b/ The database’s system and applied software be designed in a way that ensures compatibility, integrability and information sharing and expandability of data fields.

2. The structure design of the national law database must facilitate its expansion and development.

Article 9.Operation, maintenance, monitoring, upgrading and development of the national law database

1. To ensure the information technology infrastructure system, equipment and environment for the installation and operation of the national law database.

2. To take measures to ensure physical and environmental safety at the electronic data center. To adopt measures to control travel in and out of this area.

3. To take data backup measures so as to ensure the restoration of the system upon occurrence of incidents. Backup data shall be safely protected, periodically checked and restored on a trial basis so as to be ready for use when necessary.

4. To take measures to maintain and repair the national law database so as to ensure that it can operate uninterruptedly around the clock.

5. To monitor the national law database so as to give warnings about acts threatening the safety of the database.

6. To periodically review and propose plans to upgrade and develop hardware and software systems of the national law database to suit practical demand.

Article 10.Assurance of safety for the national law database

1. To apply a user encryption and verification channel for signing in system administration; logging in applications; automatic sending and receipt of data between servers; data input and editing.

2. To encrypt transmission lines of the national law database.

3. To apply measures to ensure the authenticity and protect the integrity of data in the national law database.

4. To record traces of any creation, change or deletion of data and information, serving the system management and monitoring.

5. To establish and maintain a backup system to ensure uninterrupted operation of the system.

6. To take other necessary measures to ensure safety for the national law database.

Article 11.Management of administrator accounts of the national law database

The Ministry of Justice shall manage administrator accounts as follows:

1. To grant and revoke administrator accounts of the national law database.

2. To delegate the right to administer each component database.

3. To limit, review and inspect the right to administer the national law database of delegated persons.

Section 2

UPDATING OF DOCUMENTS TO THE NATIONAL LAW DATABASE

Article 12.Principles of updating documents

1. To update documents in an accurate, prompt, integral and complete manner.

2. To use digital signatures to authenticate contents of documents updated to the national law database.

3. Not to publish documents on the list of documents and materials classified as state secrets or documents not for public disclosure on the internet.

Article 13.Responsibilities to update documents

1. Responsibilities to update legal documents

a/ Ministers, heads of ministerial-level agencies and heads of other central state agencies shall update legal documents promulgated or drafted by their ministries or agencies.

The Minister of Justice shall update documents promulgated by the National Assembly or jointly promulgated by the National Assembly and other entities but not drafted by ministries, ministerial-level agencies and other central state agencies;

b/ Provincial-level People’s Committee chairpersons shall update legal documents promulgated by provincial-level People’s Councils and People’s Committees.

2. Responsibilities to update consolidated documents:

a/ Ministers, heads of ministerial-level agencies and heads of other central state agencies shall update consolidated documents which their ministries or agencies have consolidated according to their competence as prescribed in the Ordinance on Consolidation of Legal Documents;

b/ Ministers, heads of ministerial-level agencies and heads of other central state agencies shall update documents consolidating documents promulgated by the National Assembly, which were drafted by their ministries or agencies.

c/ The Minister of Justice shall update consolidated documents other than those to be updated by the agencies specified at Points a and b, Clause 2 of this Article.

3. In case ministries, ministerial-level agencies and other central state agencies are divided or merged, the responsibilities to update documents are as follows:

a/ In case an agency is divided into several new agencies, these new agencies shall update documents in the fields under their management, which are promulgated by the divided agency before the division.

b/ In case many agencies are merged together into a new agency, the new agency shall update documents promulgated by the merged agencies before the merger.

4. In case of adjusting the administrative boundaries of provinces and centrally run cities (below collectively referred to as provinces), the responsibilities to update documents are as follows:

a/ In case a province is divided into several new provinces, the People’s Committee of the new province where the People’s Committee of the divided province is located shall update documents promulgated by the People’s Council and People’s Committee of the divided province before the division.

b/ In case many provinces are merged to form a new province, the People’s Committee of the new province shall update documents promulgated by People’s Councils and People’s Committees of the merged provinces before the merger.

5. Legal affairs sections shall assist ministers and heads of ministerial-level agencies; provincial-level Justice Departments shall assist provincial-level People’s Committee chairpersons, in updating documents.

6. For agencies without legal affairs sections, their heads shall assign an attached unit to update documents.

Article 14.Process of updating documents

1. The updating of a document shall be conducted in the following process:

a/ Using the original document for updating;

b/ Checking and comparing the electronic version of the document with the original so as to ensure accuracy, completeness and integrity of the document contents;

c/ Updating information of the document as specified in Clauses 2 and 3, Article 3 of this Decree;

d/ Attaching files to the document:

The format of attached files must comply with that stated in the list of technical regulations on application of information technology in state agencies promulgated by the Ministry of Information and Communications. One of these attached files shall be affixed with a digital signature to authenticate the integrity of the document contents;

dd/ Ratifying and publishing the document.

2. Agencies responsible for updating documents shall base themselves on results of review of legal documents under the Government’s Decree No. 16/2013/ND-CP of February 6, 2013, on review and systematization of the system of legal documents, to compare and update information of documents in the national law database.

Article 15.Checking of document updating results

1. Documents in the national law database shall be checked in order to detect and correct errors in e-documents compared to their originals.

2. To-be-checked contents:

To use original documents to check the displayed information specified in Clauses 2 and 3, Article 3 of this Decree.

3. Responsibilities to check documents:

a/ Agencies responsible for updating documents prescribed in Article 13 of this Decree shall check document updating results;

b/ Documents shall be checked regularly at the time prescribed by ministries, ministerial-level agencies, other central state agencies or provincial-level People’s Committees on the principle of ensuring accuracy and timeliness of updated documents.

Article 16.Time limit for provision of documents

1. Within 2 working days after a legal document is promulgated or signed for promulgation or a consolidated document is signed for authentication, the unit assisting the minister, ministerial-level agency head, central state agency head or provincial-level People’s Committee chairperson in drafting the document shall send the paper document and its electronic file to the unit in charge of updating documents.

2. The following legal documents shall be sent to the units in charge of updating documents right on the date of promulgation or date of signing for promulgation:

a/ Documents that provide implementation measures in state of emergency, documents promulgated to meet natural disaster and epidemic prevention and control requirements in accordance with the Law on Promulgation of Legal Documents.

b/ Documents that take effect on the date of promulgation or date of signing for promulgation.

Article 17.Time limit for publishing documents

1. Within 15 working days after receiving a document prescribed in Clause 1, Article 16 of this Decree, the unit in charge of updating documents shall publish the document on the national law database.

2. Within 2 working days after receiving a document prescribed in Clause 2, Article 16 of this Decree, the unit in charge of updating documents shall publish the document on the national law database.

Section 3

EXPLOITATION AND USE OF DOCUMENTS IN
THE NATIONAL LAW DATABASE

Article 18.Principles of exploitation and use of documents

1. The national law database must guarantee the right of organizations and individuals to access, exploit and use documents; and ensure convenient document search and reference.

2. Agencies, organizations and individuals may exploit and use documents in the national law database free of charge.

Article 19.Responsibilities of agencies, organizations and individuals in exploitation and use of documents

1. To comply with current regulations in use of information in the internet.

2. To comply with regulations on exploitation and use of documents in the national law database.

3. Document exploiters and users are encouraged to promptly report errors in published documents to agencies having updated such documents for correction. In case of impossibility to identify the agencies having updated the documents, exploiters and users should report errors to the Ministry of Justice for the latter to request the agencies having updated the documents to correct the documents.

Article 20.Correction of documents

1. When detecting or receiving reports on a difference between an e-document and its original regarding the information specified in Clauses 2 and 3, Article 3 of this Decree, the agency having updated the document shall correct the document.

2. The correction of the document shall be promptly carried out within one working day after errors are detected or reported.

3. After correcting the document, the agency having updated the document shall publish corrected contents on the national law database.

Article 21.Extraction from, connection to and integration with the national law database

1. The page or section “legal documents” on portals or websites of ministries, ministerial-level agencies, other central state agencies and provincial-level People’s Committees must be extracted from the national law database.

2. Upon upgrading or building of other specialized databases where documents are used, their connectability and integrability with the national law database must be ensured.

3. Units in charge of information technology of ministries, ministerial-level agencies, other central state agencies and provincial-level People’s Committees shall perform the jobs prescribed in Clauses 1 and 2 of this Article.

4. The connection and exchange of documents between the national law database and other information systems containing documents shall be carried out under the technical guidance on transferability between document management and administration systems of state agencies.

Chapter III

RESPONSIBILITIES OF STATE AGENCIES FOR
THE NATIONAL LAW DATABASE

Article 22.Responsibilities of the Ministry of Justice

1. To assist the Government in performing the state management of the national law database and have the following duties and powers:

a/ To submit to the Government for promulgation, or promulgate according to its competence, legal documents on the national law database;

b/ To build, manage and maintain the national law database; to ensure technical infrastructure for uninterrupted and stable operation of the national law database;

c/ To formulate and submit to the Government for consideration and approval, or consider and approve according to its competence, plans on upgrading and development of the national law database;

d/ To guide and provide training and retraining in editing, updating, ratification and checking of documents in the national law database.

dd/ To monitor, inspect and urge the updating of documents to the national law database;

e/ To request agencies updating documents to correct documents upon detection of errors.

2. The Information Technology Department of the Ministry of Justice shall advise and assist the Ministry of Justice in performing the state management of the national law database.

Article 23.Responsibilities of ministries, ministerial-level agencies and other central state agencies

1. To ensure the accuracy of contents of, and information relating to, documents which they update to the national law database.

2. To ensure the safety of their national law database administrator accounts.

3. To adopt measures to handle units and individuals under their management that commit violations in updating documents so as to ensure safety in exploitation and use of the national law database.

4. To direct their attached agencies and units to promptly, fully and accurately provide documents to units in charge of updating documents for updating to the national law database.

5. To coordinate with the Ministry of Justice in ensuring safety, sharing, connection, integration and extraction of data.

6. In December every year, to submit reports on the updating of documents to, and exploitation and use of documents in, the national law database to the Ministry of Justice.

Article 24.Responsibilities of provincial-level People’s Committees

1. To perform the tasks prescribed in Clauses 1, 2, 3, 5 and 6, Article 23 of this Decree.

2. To direct local agencies and organizations to promptly, fully and accurately provide documents to provincial-level Justice Departments for updating to the national law database.

Chapter IV

IMPLEMENTATION PROVISIONS

Article 25.Transitional provisions

1. Ministries, ministerial-level agencies, other central state agencies and provincial-level People’s Committees shall not build new databases of legal documents and consolidated documents from the effective date of this Decree.

2. Ministries, ministerial-level agencies, other central state agencies and provincial-level People’s Committees shall complete the extraction of documents from the national law database to the page or section “legal documents” on their portals or websites before December 31, 2016.

3. Updating of documents promulgated before the effective date of this Decree:

a/ Documents promulgated before the effective date of this Decree which remain valid shall be fully updated; it is encouraged to update documents which have ceased to be effective to the national law database;

b/ The sources of documents promulgated before the effective date of this Decree which are used for updating include: original documents; original versions of documents; true copies of documents; document duplicates made by competent agencies;Cong Bao(Official Gazette); volumes of systematized legal documents printed and circulated by ministries, ministerial-level agencies and other central state agencies.

c/ Ministries, ministerial-level agencies, other central state agencies and provincial-level People’s Committees shall elaborate plans and roadmaps for updating legal documents promulgated before the effective date of this Circular to the national law database and, at the same time, coordinate with the Ministry of Justice in completely conducting the updating before June 30, 2016. The responsibilities to update documents must comply with Article 13 of this Decree;

d/ Ministries, ministerial-level agencies, other central state agencies and provincial-level People’s Committees shall check and review information on documents already updated to the national law database according to Article 3 of this Decree so as to ensure accuracy;

dd/ The process of collecting and updating documents promulgated before the effective date of this Decree is as follows:

Making a list of documents to be collected and statistics on documents from identified sources and those from unidentified sources.

Documents from the sources specified at Point b, Clause 3 of this Article shall be updated with sufficient information as prescribed in Clauses 2 and 3, Article 3, and attached files as prescribed at Point d, Clause 1, Article 14, of this Decree;

Documents not from the sources specified at Point b, Clause 3 of this Article shall be updated with basic information on type of document, serial number, subject, date of promulgation and other information, if any.

Article 26.Effect

1. This Decree takes effect on July 20, 2015.

2. Article 4 of this Decree shall apply to documents in the national law databases which have been affixed with a digital signature.

Article 27.Reference provisions

In case legal documents or regulations referred to in this Decree are modified, supplemented or replaced, the new legal documents shall prevail.

Article 28.Implementation responsibilities

1. The Minister of Justice shall, within his/her functions, duties and powers, organize, guide and inspect the implementation of this Decree.

2. Ministers, heads of ministerial-level agencies, heads of other central state agencies, provincial-level People’s Committee chairpersons and related agencies, organizations and individuals shall implement this Decree.-

On behalf of the Government
Prime Minister
NGUYEN TAN DUNG