Hanoi (VNA) – Vietnam is accelerating the development of a national legal data infrastructure and expanding the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in lawmaking and enforcement as part of broader efforts to advance judicial reform and modernise the legal system under the Politburo's resolutions.
Research by the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) shows that AI adoption in the legal sector remains constrained by fragmented, unstandardised and weakly connected legal databases. A unified national legal data ecosystem has yet to be established, while big data and AI applications are still largely confined to pilot programmes and have not been integrated across the full legislative process, including drafting, appraisal, review and inspection of legal documents.
Pham Quang Hieu, Director General of the MoJ’s Information Technology Department, said AI applications in legal practice continue to face challenges related to accuracy and reliability. Key functions such as assessing constitutional compliance and identifying cross-sector legal conflicts remain inefficient, while pilot systems still generate high error rates and require extensive human verification, reducing automation efficiency. Technical infrastructure and human resources also remain limited, he added.
Initial assessments further show that the lack of interoperability among legal databases has hindered efforts to build a comprehensive overview of the legal system. The MoJ is currently gathering feedback on two major initiatives focused on developing a national legal big data system and promoting AI applications in lawmaking and enforcement.
The ministry plans to transform the legal database into a national data infrastructure integrating legal documents, precedents, court rulings, legislative records, administrative procedures, and feedback from citizens and businesses.
Deputy Minister of Justice Nguyen Thanh Tinh said legal data serves as the foundation, AI as the engine of innovation, and digital legal platforms as the breakthrough solution. Building a skilled workforce in data and AI must go hand in hand with a shift toward data-driven governance, he noted.
The roadmap includes restructuring the national legal database, converting all legal documents into machine-readable formats, and fully digitising legislative drafting processes and records. Authorities also plan to establish a centralised legal data repository and develop a national legal knowledge graph to support intelligent search, analysis and digital applications in lawmaking and enforcement.
An open public-private partnership model is expected to create greater opportunities for Vietnamese technology firms to participate in the process instead of limiting implementation to the public sector.
According to Bui Thanh Minh, Deputy Director of the Office of the Private Economic Development Research Board under the Prime Minister’s Advisory Council for Administrative Procedure Reform, the push to overhaul the growth model is placing new demands on the legal system. Legal big data and AI should be positioned as part of Vietnam’s digital institutional infrastructure, helping address enforcement bottlenecks while opening up new digital legal business and service models.
From the perspective of citizens and businesses, Minh said the main challenge lies not only in access to legal information but also in turning regulations into practical, low-cost actions. Citizens need clear and user-friendly legal guidance, while businesses require tailored advice based on sectors, locations and compliance risks to seize opportunities promptly.
Meanwhile, Dr. Chu Thi Hoa, Deputy Director of the Institute of Legal Science under the MoJ, said efforts to build data infrastructure and deploy AI in public administration continue to face legal barriers due to the unprecedented nature of technologies such as generative AI and big data.
She said sandbox mechanisms would play a key role in testing shared data infrastructure models and AI tools supporting legal drafting and review before formal adoption into the legislative process. However, clear accountability and liability exemption mechanisms are needed during the pilot phase to ease concerns among officials and implementers.
Tran Thi Hong Hanh, Deputy Director of the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Justice, proposed building an integrated legal database system linking central and local authorities, while standardising data structures, technical standards, and data cleansing and updating mechanisms to ensure the system remains “accurate, sufficient, clean, live, unified and shareable”./.
