| Summary: | This thesis is designed to study the participation of the civil society organisations (CSOs) in the law-making process in Vietnam with reference to the United Kingdom. Public participation is a factor that can contribute to the process of legal reform and renovate the law-making process in Vietnam. The study is motivated by three research questions: (1) Why the participation of CSOs in the law-making process is important and how this participation may enhance the quality and quantity of laws in Vietnam, (2) Why democracy plays a vital role in the law-making process and (3) What are the appropriate frameworks and supportive factors for CSOs to enable them to participate in the law-making process in Vietnam, with lessons learned from the UK?. Applying diverse research methods including literature review, fieldwork, policy transfer, and case studies, the research has achieved certain significant findings. The thesis has proposed the definition of CSO with its particular features, the concept of CSOs in Vietnam and the UK, analysed the values of legislation and the current context of law-making in two countries. The thesis also investigated the case studies to examine the actual impact of the CSOs in the law-making process before making the proposal for a mechanism to recognise and effectively encourage the participation of CSOs in the law-making process. Accordingly, the role of CSOs is confirmed throughout the whole law-making process, through various activities such as analysis, new evidence provision, lobbying, and petitions. The research also analysed the necessity and the role of the value of democracy in relation to other values of legislation in the law-making process. Social democracy was selected as the main model of democracy to adopt among several models of democracy worldwide. Several proposals were made as to conclude the research: the transparency in the legislative process should be enhanced, the use of information technology to support the activities of the legislator and facilitate the participation of CSOs in the legislative process should attract more attention and investment from the government. In addition, the communication channels between the legislators and CSOs should be improved so that the ‘trust’ can be strengthened. Most fundamental and most difficult, the political culture that encourages people and CSOs to criticise and contribute their opinions to political, legal and social issues need to be encouraged. Otherwise, the values of legislation and the participation of CSOs in the law-making process cannot be maximised or achieved.
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