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DOI: https://doi.org/10.34069/AI/2022.55.07.33
How to Cite:
Nguyen, Q.H., & Ivanovskaya, N.V. (2022). History of formation and development of liability for damage caused by sources of
extreme danger in Vietnam: Issues of legal influence. Amazonia Investiga, 11(55), 318-326.
https://doi.org/10.34069/AI/2022.55.07.33
History of formation and development of liability for damage caused
by sources of extreme danger in Vietnam: Issues of legal influence
История становления и развития ответственности за причинение вреда
источниками повышенной опасности во Вьетнаме: Вопросы правового воздействия
Received: August 24, 2022 Accepted: September 20, 2022
Written by:
Quang Huy Nguyen144
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2333-1286
Nataliya Vladimirovna Ivanovskaya145
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4136-8752
Abstract
This article analyzes the influence of Western
legal ideology and socialist law on the formation
and development of liability for damage caused
by sources of extreme danger in the law of
Vietnam. The authors have examined all the
important legal documents that are associated
with the issue of liability for damage caused by
sources of extreme danger. The research
materials are also based on the works of Western
and Eastern authors writing about Vietnam
during this historical period. To achieve this goal,
the authors used the following methods:
comparative legal, analysis, synthesis and
historical method. The conclusions of the study
showed that: under the influence of French legal
ideology during the period of French
colonization, liability for harm caused by sources
of increased danger first appeared in the law of
Vietnam. For the first time in Vietnamese civil
law, the term "source of extreme danger" is used
with the adoption of the Circular of the Supreme
People's Court No. 173-TANDTS dated March
23, 1972. From 1986 to the present, this liability
has been created and developed under the
influence of old Soviet law and current Russian
law.
144
Postgraduate student of Law, Department of Civil Law and Procedure and Private International Law, Law Institute, Peoples'
Friendship University of Russia, Moscow, Russian Federation.
145
Professor, PhD in Law, Department of Civil Law and Procedure and Private International Law, Law Institute, Peoples' Friendship
University of Russia, Moscow, Russian Federation.
Nguyen, Q.H., Ivanovskaya, N.V. / Volume 11 - Issue 55: 318-326 / July, 2022
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Keywords: tort obligation, history of formation
and development, sources of extreme danger,
French legal ideology, socialist law.
Introduction
In every society, the national ideology is the
basis, the foundation of all legal systems, all legal
policies. In every historical era and civilization,
ideology determines most of the processes in
society, predetermining state policy. The history
of Vietnam is characterized by the struggle to
build and defend the country to free the people
from the shackles of feudalism and colonialism.
Along with the formation and development of the
government, the Vietnamese legal system was
influenced by many factors, including Eastern
and Western ideologies or other socialist legal
ideologies. Under the impact of these ideologies,
many new norms have been fixed in Vietnamese
legislation, one of which can be called the
institution of liability for damage caused by
sources of extreme danger.
Liability for for damage caused by sources of
extreme danger is one of the types of non-
contractual obligation. A special characteristic of
this liability, in contrast to a contractual
obligation, is that a non-contractual obligation
does not require a contractual relationship
between people (Wallinga, 2020). Its purpose is
to force those who commit illegal or guilty acts
to compensate for the damage they cause.
The study of the history of the formation and
development of civil liability for damage caused
by sources of extreme danger from the
perspective of the influence of French legal
ideologies and socialist legal ideologies helps to
understand the legal policy at each stage as well
as the development trend of this legal institution
in the Vietnamese legal system. American
scholar Jim Phillips argues that the study of legal
history can learn about the nature of law,
including the contingencies that led to it
(Phillips, 2010). The historical context can
deepen our knowledge of the legal system and
improve our understanding of the law's practical
and theoretical operation (Raack, 1988). It is also
noted that we cannot resolve questions about the
future of the law without an adequately
understood past (Raack, 1988).
The purpose of this study is to analyze the
influence of Western legal ideology and socialist
law on the formation and development of liability
for damage caused by sources of extreme danger
in the law of Vietnam.
In Vietnam, the formation and development of
legal provisions on liability for damage caused
by sources of extreme danger are mainly studied
through the division of historical periods under
the perspective of the Vietnamese Constitution.
A typical work to mention is “Liability for
damage caused by sources of extreme danger
according to Vietnamese civil law” by scholar
Hoang Dao (Hoang, 2011). In the above work,
the formation and development of the liability
regime for the damage caused by sources of
extreme danger are divided into five stages:
before 1945, from 1945 to 1983, from 1983 to
1995, from 1995 to 2005 and from 2005 up to
now. With this approach, the author asserts that
civil liability for damage caused by sources of
extreme danger was first recognized in
Vietnamese law in 1972 with Circular
173/TANDTC of the people's court. In “Liability
for damage caused by property under
Vietnamese Civil Law” (Nguyen, 2017), scholar
Nguyen Van Hoi also takes this guideline and
introduces a similar statement. The results of
mentioned authors' studies led to a conclusion
that the institution of liability for damage caused
by sources of extreme danger was mainly
approached from the birth of the Democratic
Republic of Vietnam and its constitutions.
However, does Vietnam have a legal institution
of civil liability for damage caused by sources of
extreme danger before the country gained
independence? What factors influence the birth
and development of this institution?
Scholar Dao Tri Uc, in his work “Basic
Information for Legal Research - A Case Study
on Vietnam”, stated that Vietnamese legal
thought throughout its long history has always
been influenced and dominated by Eastern and
Western legal ideologies. Although many
generations have experienced numerous ups and
downs in history, Vietnamese people have
learned to absorb ideological and cultural values
in general and legal ideas in particular from
countries with historical relations with Vietnam
to build national bravery for existence and
development (Dao, 2003). The influence of
Eastern and Western thought has become a
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significant turning point in the change of the
Vietnamese legal system. Besides, in “Law at
war Vietnam 1964-1973” by scholar George S.
P., it is affirmed that the French heritage remains
heavy in the entire legal system, military, and
civilian (Prugh, 1975). The older, more
renowned lawyers and judges are often found to
be French-educated, French and non-English
speaking. Professional works are often
published in French. The French trappings, as
well as institutions, are adapted by the
Vietnamese, and these are superimposed over the
Vietnamese society without much change. The
Napoleonic Code's influence is naturally strong,
and the civil code system, as distinguished from
the common law, is employed (Prugh, 1975: 21).
Using the existing statements of leading scholars
in the study of Vietnamese legal history, the
authors delve deeper into Vietnam's legal
documents in order to answer the question of
whether there is an influence of foreign legal
ideologies on the formation and development of
the legal institution of liability for damage caused
by sources of extreme danger. What is the
development trend of this institution in Vietnam
in the current period?
Methodology
The authors use a civilizational-cultural approach
in legal studies to research the influence of
French legal thought ideology and socialist law
on the formation and development of the
institution of liability for damage caused by
sources of extreme danger. Accordingly, in
modern jurisprudence, law is considered a
phenomenon of civilization and culture
(Nemytina, 2017). It is consistent with the
civilization-culture approach, the concepts of
“civilization” and “culture” are combined.
Observation of the legal system of Vietnam from
a cultural and civilizational point of view, which
is influenced not only by traditional factors but
also by external factors (foreign legal
ideologies), as well as the process of Vietnam's
active integration into the international economy;
and the fluctuations of those factors are the basis
for the authors to divide the development stages
of the mentioned above institution. Thus, the
study of this topic will be more comprehensive
with this approach. It not only clarifies the matter
in the period before Vietnam gained
independence without a constitution but also
shows the role of the factors leading to the
formation and development of the above
institution in Vietnam.
In this article, the authors used the following
scientific methods: analysis and comparative
legal. Accordingly, the analysis method is used
to analyze and clarify the essence of legal
provisions on liability for damage caused by
sources of extreme danger. In addition, this
method helps to understand Vietnamese
legislators' legal and scientific thinking when
building this liability.
Based on the comparative-legal method, the
authors compare the legal provisions on liability
for damage caused by sources of extreme danger
in the three Civil Codes of the French colonial
period with the legal provisions of Circular №
172/TANDTC. In addition, this method is used
to compare the provisions on liability for damage
caused by sources of extreme danger in the
Vietnam Civil Codes 1995, 2005, and 2015 with
the legislation of the former RSFSR and the law
of Russia today.
Legally supporting documents: report on the
renovation results from 1986 to 1990, the sixth
national party congress document, and the
government's report on the 1995 Civil Code
project of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.
Results and Discussion
1. Timeline of the establishment of the
institution of liability for damage caused by
sources of extreme danger in Vietnam.
Under the profound influence of French legal
ideology, the liability for damage caused by
sources of extreme danger first appeared in
Vietnamese legal documents in Vietnam during
the French colonial period.
French law and its legal ideology also influenced
most of the legal documents in Vietnam during
this period. Several important codes of law are
considered to be copies of civil laws promulgated
by the French or by Vietnamese kings: the
Abbreviated Civil Code 1883 (Bộ Dân luật Giản
yếu) in the South, the Civil Code Implements in
Vietnamese Courts in the North 1931 (Bộ Dân
luật thi hành tại các Tòa Nam án Bắc kỳ) in the
North, the Central Vietnam Civil Code 1936
(Hoàng Việt Trung kỳ Hộ luật) (Bui, 2006).
Chapter IX of The Abbreviated Civil Code 1883,
a provision on liability for damage caused, states:
Especially for liability for damage caused by
vehicles, liability arises when an act causes
damage in the use or operation of a vehicle itself.
In addition, this Code also defines the liability for
damage incurred by vehicles in specific cases,
such as damage caused to pedestrians or
passengers; or damage caused during vehicle
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theft. Article 711 of the Civil Code Implements
in Vietnamese Courts in the North 1931 and art.
763 of Central Vietnam Civil Code 1936 provide:
“People are responsible not only for the damage
they caused themselves but also for the damage
caused by those they, whom they have
guardianship over, or the property owns by them.
If an inanimate object causes damage by itself, its
custodian is presumed to be at fault, regardless of
whether the object was touched with the hand or
not. Evidence is needed to disprove this
assumption. Liability is imposed on all of the
above cases unless the responsible person has
evidence that the arising act of such
responsibility cannot be prevented”. According
to the above mentioned, a property (inanimate
objects) can cause damage in two ways. The first
case is because the property manager has
committed an intentional or unintentional fault in
the property's management, operation, and use,
resulting in damage (damage caused by illegal
acts, at the fault of the owner or manager of the
property). In the second case, the property causes
damage through no fault of anyone (damage
caused by the property). The fault of the owner
(property manager) in this case is presumed (if he
had taken all the precautions, the property would
not have made any damage). Therefore, the
owner (property manager) must compensate for
the damage. He can be released from liability for
damage only in two cases: when he can prove
that the damage was caused by an illegal act of a
third party's fault or the damage was caused by
force majeure (when he cannot prevent the cause
of the damage). Compared with the French Civil
Code, it can be argued that the content of the
above laws is copied from article 1384 of the
Napoleonic code 1804 (French Civil Code),
according to which “Everyone is liable not only
for the damage caused by his own actions, but
also for the damage caused by people for whom
he is responsible, or by the property he
manages”. Example: Parents are liable for the
torts of their minor children living with them. In
case of the father’s death, the responsibility is on
the mother. The above-mentioned liability exists
only if the responsible person is unable to prove
that he could not prevent the commission of the
act entailing this liability. Moreover, in our
opinion, the specificity of the provisions on
liability for damage caused in the three legal
documents issued during the French colonial
period is reflected in the failure to use the term
“source of extreme danger” to imply damage
caused involving inanimate objects, for example,
damage caused by using or operating vehicles.
There is no major difference in comparing the
above regulations with Circular 173/TANDTC.
2. Stages of formation and development of
liability for damage caused by sources of
extreme danger in Vietnam.
Before the French colonial rule, the liability for
damage caused by sources of extreme danger was
not specified in Vietnamese legal documents
(Hoang, 2011: 28). The cause of this lack of
regulation was, first of all, the feudal state of
Vietnam at that time had formed with a
predominantly agricultural economy. As a result,
Vietnam's science and technology in this period
were still underdeveloped, leading to a lack of
conception of the source of extreme danger.
Secondly, the development of law in the feudal
legal system of Vietnam is influenced by Eastern
and Confucian thought (Vu, Nguyen and Pham,
2019). The influence of Eastern thought (i.e.,
Chinese thought) on Vietnamese feudal
legislation is clearly shown through the content
of two ancient Vietnamese feudal laws: the Le
Dynasty Code of 1483 (Nguyen, 2021). Le
dynasty legislators selectively copied the
Chinese legal system while following the
Chinese legal system on the one hand and on the
other hand combining it with Vietnamese
cultural traditions (Insun, 1990). The law code of
the Le dynasty defended the people's legal
ownership and even it could be compared in
many aspects to the law viewpoints from the
West. The Nguyen Dynasty Code of 1811 was
built based on amendments and references to the
Le Dynasty Code but was also mainly taken from
the Qing Dynasty of China (Nguyen, 1989;
Nguyen, 2002). Studying the content of the two
codes above shows that the general limitation of
Vietnamese feudal law is the prevalence and
dominance of the criminal legal norm (Dao,
2003: 196)(Nguyen, 2011). The law of this
period did not have a clear division between
criminal and civil law. In addition, with the
provisions of the feudal codes of Vietnam, the
king's position was elevated, and he became the
person with the supreme power and made all
classes of people respect (Vu, Nguyen and Pham,
2020). Any act infringing upon the king's
interests can be considered disloyal and severely
punished by law (Dao, 2003: 201). In our
opinion, the reason for these limitations is that
the king promulgated Vietnamese feudal law to
ensure social order and maintain the king's
position. Despite that, Vietnamese feudal law has
provisions on the owner's responsibility to
compensate for damage caused by the property
under his/her ownership (art. 581 of the Le
Dynasty Code), (6th book of the Nguyen
Dynasty Code). From our perspective, although
the legal system is still limited, the legislators of
this period had initially laid the basis for making
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regulations on liability for damage caused by
sources of extreme danger in Vietnam for the
next period.
When the French colonialists appeared in
Vietnam, Western legal ideology initially
influenced the transformation of Vietnam's
feudal legal system. However, along with the
influence of the feudal state regime and political
ideas, the regulations on liability for damage
caused by sources of extreme danger continued
to develop. To better understand the role of
French legal ideology and socialist legal
ideology in the formation and development of
liability for damage caused by sources of extreme
danger in Vietnam, we suggest re-classifying the
transitional stages of this institution based on the
civilizational-cultural approach in legal studies.
From 1858-1954.
René David argued that the Roman-Germanic
legal family expanded to the world in two ways:
first, through the colonial conquests of the
countries of continental Europe; secondly,
through voluntary accession due to the need for
modernization or the desire for Westernization of
legislation in countries that are not colonies of
continental European countries (David and
Brierley, 1978). Thus, French law belonging to
the Roman-German family of laws expanded into
Vietnam along the first path that had historical
milestones in 1858 (French and Spanish troops
began to use force to invade Vietnam) (Tran,
2008), in 1867 (French troops finished invading
all six southern provinces, turning this place into
a French colony), and 1884 (A peace treaty
signed between Vietnam and France made
Vietnam completely lose its status as a legally
independent country, becoming a protectorate of
France) (Vu, 1973). It can be said that the French
colonialists not only invaded Vietnam in terms of
territory but also on the ideological front with the
introduction of French legal ideology into
Vietnam. Accordingly, Vietnam started using
French law in the late nineteenth century
(Quigley, 1988). A special feature of the law of
this period is the separation of civil liability from
criminal liability. Specifically, under French
colonial rule, Vietnam was divided into three
parts. With the profound influence of the French
legal ideology, three codes were enacted that
apply to three parts of Vietnam's territory with
the aim of establishing the colonial governing
regime in Vietnam, which included provisions on
liability for damage caused by sources of extreme
danger.
With the victory of the August Revolution in
1945, Vietnam abandoned the French colonial
regime, and the Democratic Republic of Vietnam
was born (now the Socialist Republic of
Vietnam) as Southeast Asia's First People's
Democratic State. However, Vietnam still cannot
escape the influence of French legal ideology on
the Vietnamese legal system. Scholar Bui N. S.
asserts that French Civil Law continued to
influence Vietnam even after the country
regained its independence from France (Bui,
2017). Remnants of the colonial legal system
persist more than a decade after the 1946
Constitution declared Vietnam independent from
French rule (Gillespie, 2006).
On October 10, 1945, the provisional
government of the Democratic Republic of
Vietnam issued Decree 47/SL on the temporary
application of legal documents of the old regime.
This decision is because the fledgling
government of Vietnam cannot immediately
enact a new legal system, while the country
cannot one day be without laws (Pham, 2011).
Therefore, the first and foremost fundamental
task of the Communist Party of Vietnam was to
establish its power over the whole country and
then to create a mechanism that ensures the
Party's power is maintained and accepted by the
majority of the people (Smith, 1978: 575).
From 1954-1986
This period can be considered a period of
Vietnamese legal thought's interference when
French legal ideology gradually reduced its
influence, and socialist legal thought was
introduced into Vietnam.
On July 20, 1954, the Geneva Agreements were
signed, forcing France to accept the armistice
throughout Indochina, committing to withdraw
its troops from here. This event is considered a
milestone marking the decline of French
influence in Vietnam (B. C. 1956).
Before the French colonialists withdrew from
Vietnam, the policy of building socialist law was
set forth at the First Congress of the Vietnam
Workers' Party in September 1951 (Hoang,
1962). The Third Party Congress of 1960
adopted the Soviet doctrine of “socialist
legitimacy” (sotsialisticheskaia zakonnost)
(Tran, 1971). The difference between the
introduction of socialist and French legal
ideology is reflected in the fact that the
Vietnamese Party and government actively
approach the socialist legal ideology. The
introduction of socialist legal and political
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thought in Vietnam in the 1960s and 1970s is
demonstrated by explaining the similarities
between Soviet and Vietnamese legal thinking in
the Vietnamese approach to borrowed legal
documents (Gillespie, 2005). The transition from
French legal ideology to socialist legal ideology
was identified by the Communist Party of
Vietnam as a tool of the dictatorship of the
proletariat to defeat the enemy, protect the
democratic rights of people (Dinh, 1961). The
Party determines the content of the law. The
combination of Party policy and law allows the
Party and state to use the law as a management
tool to regulate or balance social relationships
(Dinh, 1961). It was not until the 1970s that
Vietnamese legislators unanimously accepted the
imported socialist legal thinking as their own
(Pham, 1970) (Ngo, 1982).
A unique feature of the law of this period is that
instead of legal certainty, Vietnamese legislators
are interested in creating legal documents to
ensure the compliance of society. This interest is
expressed in an effort to improve the legal
terminology, making it more familiar to all
citizens. As a result, Vietnamese legislators have
replaced many Sino-Vietnamese legal terms with
everyday Vietnamese terms (Dinh, 1964).
Moreover, it seems that on the basis of inheriting
the promulgated legal regulations and trial
experience for many years: Circular of the
Supreme People's Court № 173-TANDTC of
March 23, 1972, on the guidelines for the
consideration of a case for compensation for non-
contractual damage and Circular № 03/TATC,
April 25, 1983, of the Supreme People's Court on
guidance in dealing with certain issues of
compensation for damage caused to motor
vehicles. In general, in comparison with previous
legal documents, the content of the provisions on
liability for damage caused by sources of extreme
danger in these two circulars is essentially the
same. The difference between the circulars is
manifested in the fact that for the first time in
Vietnamese legal documents, the term “source of
extreme danger” is used to refer to objects in the
physical world that possess hazardous properties
in damage caused to others. In addition, these
circulars clearly define the conditions for liability
for damage caused: the existence of damage; the
unlawful action of thein-doer; the causal
relationship between an illegal action and
negative consequences; the fault of the harm-
doer. However, in the situation when damage is
caused by a source of extreme danger, a person
is held liable under three conditions as mentioned
above, except for the “fault of the harm-doer”.
From 1986 to present
Since 1986, Vietnam has started a
comprehensive renovation of the country. In the
process of transforming the economy from a
centralized and subsidized mechanism to a
market mechanism, it is required that laws,
especially civil laws, be changed in proportion to
commodity-monetary relations (Gillespie and
Pip, 2005). Along with the development of the
market economy, Vietnamese law has gradually
integrated into regional and international legal
life. Socialism and legal changes in Vietnam are
actively seeking access to capital and
international markets. Commercial laws and
practices are introduced to ensure these
advantages (Gillespie and Pip, 2005: 4). The
influence and process of introduction into
Vietnam of some democratic and progressive
legal institutions in the East and the West have
contributed to the extensive improvement of the
legal system. The legal system, which was
subjective and voluntary in the period of the
centralized economic mechanism, has changed in
the direction of the legal system of the socialist-
oriented market economy. However, Western or
Eastern values are simply an addition to
Vietnam's efforts in renovating the Vietnamese
legal system to suit the country's development
situation, leading the country to progress to
socialism. However, they cannot replace
Vietnam's traditional and cultural values (Dao,
2003: 213).
At the end of the first five-year renovation plan
(1986-1990): GDP increased by 4.4%/year; the
total value of agricultural production increased
by an average of 3.8 - 4%/year; industry
increased by 7.4%/year on average, of which the
production of consumer goods increased by 13-
14%/year; export value increased by 28%/year.
This growth is considered the initial success of
concretizing the content of socialist
industrialization in the first stage. Most
importantly, this is the stage of a fundamental
transformation of the old management
mechanism to the new one, taking a step in
renewing socio-economic life and initially
liberating the productive forces, creating a new
driving stimulation for development (Do,
Nguyen, 2013). In addition, the primary motto is
to constantly expand comprehensive cooperation
with the Soviet Union in all fields and various
forms.
The new advances in comparative economics and
legal thinking show that different situations
require different institutions to balance, stabilize
society, and eliminate dictatorship (Djankov et
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al., 2003). Learning from the collapse of the
Soviet Union, on the one hand, Vietnam
promotes the development of a market economy;
on the other hand, it still preserves the traditional
values of the nation and maintains close relations
with other countries of the world (Pham, 2005:
86).
From 1986 to now, Vietnam has had three Civil
Codes, respectively the Civil Code 1995, 2005,
and 2015. Among them, the liability for damage
caused by sources of extreme danger is specified
in art. 627 of Civil Code 1995, art. 623 of the
Civil Code 2005, and art. 601 of the Civil Code
2015. Accordingly, “Sources of extreme danger
are motorized vehicles, power transmission
systems, industrial plants in operation, weapons,
explosives, inflammable, poisons, radioactive
substances, wild animals, and other sources of
extreme danger prescribed by law. The owner,
possessor, and user of a source of extreme danger
are obliged to compensate for the damage even
in the absence of fault, except for the following
cases: a) the damage was caused entirely through
the intentional fault of the aggrieved party; b) the
damage occurred due to an event of force
majeure or an urgent situation unless otherwise
provided by law”. The common point of liability
for damage caused by sources of extreme danger
in the above codes is the construction method of
openly listing the objects as sources of extreme
danger without providing a specific definition of
the term “source of extreme danger”. Compared
with the laws of other countries, this construction
method is recognized in art. 404 of the Civil Code
of the RSFSR 1922, art. 454 of the Civil Code of
the RSFSR 1964, art. 90 of Fundamentals of
Civil Law 1961, art. 128 of Fundamentals of
Civil Law 1991 and art. 1079 of the current Civil
Code of the Russian Federation. Accordingly,
legal entities and citizens whose activities put
others at increased risk (use of vehicles,
mechanisms, high-voltage electrical energy,
atomic energy, explosives, potent poisons, etc.;
construction and other related activities, etc.)
are obliged to compensate for damage caused by
sources of extreme danger, unless they prove that
the damage was a result of force majeure event,
or by the aggrieved parties' intent. Based on the
comparison above, the authors believe that the
way to build the institution of liability for
damage caused by sources of extreme danger in
Vietnamese civil law is influenced by Soviet law
and Russian law today.
Conclusion
By using a civilizational-cultural approach in
legal studies - a not yet popular method in
Vietnam when studying the institution of liability
for damage caused by sources of extreme danger
- new knowledge about the establishment and
development of this institution along the
historical flow of Vietnam has been opened up. It
is to redefine the time of emergence and redefine
the stages of development of the institution of
civil liability for damage caused by sources of
extreme danger based on fluctuations in French
and socialist legal ideology as well as the
country's context and the Party's policy towards
the construction of the legal system.
This article shows that the institution of liability
for damage caused by sources of extreme danger
first appeared in Vietnam under the influence of
French legal ideology with the manifestation of
three codes: the Abbreviated Civil Code 1883 in
the South, the Civil Code Implements in the
Vietnamese Courts in the North 1931 in the
North, the Central Vietnam Civil Code 1936.
After the French left Vietnam, the French legal
ideology gradually reduced its influence,
creating conditions for laying the foundation of
socialist legal thought in Vietnam. Liability for
damage caused by sources of extreme danger in
this period is recognized by a change in legal
terminology, whereby the term “source of
extreme danger” is included for the first time in
Vietnamese civil law documents (Circular
173/TANDTC). In the current period, the way of
building this institution is influenced by the ideas
of Soviet or Russian legislators.
However, the provisions of the current law on
civil liability for damage caused by sources of
extreme danger in Vietnam have shortcomings
that need to be addressed. The objective reason
for such shortcomings is that science and
technology are constantly developing, which
leads to the emergence of new objects with a high
potential to damage people around them.
Meanwhile, the speed of legal changes has not
kept pace with the development of science and
technology.
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Bui, N.S. (2017) The Law of China and Vietnam
in Comparative Law. Fordham International
Law Journal, 41(1), 135–206. Available at:
https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/144232658.
pdf (accessed 1 June 2022).
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