ALSA 2025 meeting

This study explores the prospects and challenges of adopting plea bargaining within Vietnam’s socialist criminal justice system, which is deeply rooted in an inquisitorial framework and shaped by Confucian and Soviet legal legacies. Since plea bargaining is emblematic of adversarial systems, its transplantation to Vietnam raises questions about compatibility, adaptation, and the deconstruction of foreign legal norms. While differences exist between adversarial and inquisitorial systems, global trends toward increased adversarial elements and enhanced defendants’ rights suggest that plea bargaining in Vietnam is theoretically feasible. However, the study argues that successful implementation requires careful consideration of Vietnam’s context and points out specific factors affecting the plea bargaining mechanism including collectivism, crime control model, objective truth doctrine with mandatory prosecution, and democratic centralism. In addition, drawing on China’s experience as a reference point, a country with a similar socialist system and context, the study proposes a potential plea bargaining model adapted to Vietnam’s specific circumstances, considering both the challenges posed by systemic differences and opportunities presented by ongoing legal reforms that strengthen adversarial elements and procedural rights.