The National Assembly discussed the revised Law on Adoption, the revised Law on Lawyers, and the revised Law on Property Auction — VNA/VNS Photo

HÀ NỘI — Lawmakers on Monday began reviewing overhauls of the adoption, lawyer and property auction laws, with proposals to tighten who may adopt a child, open law firms to outside investors and penalise winning bidders who back out of land purchases.

Justice Minister Hoàng Thanh Tùng presented the three bills, saying they would cut administrative procedures through digitisation and fix problems that have emerged in practice.

Lawmakers broadly backed the revisions but pressed drafters to refine or clarify numerous provisions.

The adoption bill would restrict adoption to abandoned children, those orphaned of both parents and those with no one to rely on, apart from adoptions within extended families, so children are not separated from their birth families unnecessarily.

People facing prosecution, serving non-custodial sentences, on conditional early release or given suspended prison terms would be barred from adopting, as would anyone ever convicted of serious offences ranging from violent crimes and incest to drug and national security offences.

Vũ Minh Đạo, an NA deputy of Lai Châu Province, backed tighter screening but urged drafters to distinguish between intentional and negligent crimes.

“The issue is how to guard against the risk of child abuse without setting restrictions so broad that they reduce children’s chances of finding a replacement family,” he said.

He also asked whether children who have living parents but cannot safely live with them because of abuse or neglect would be eligible for adoption.

Other deputies urged barring anyone administratively penalised for domestic violence or child abuse from adopting, a position also reflected in the legislature’s review report.

Hoàng Minh Hiếu of Nghệ An Province said the bill ends care obligations between adopted children and birth parents but leaves their mutual inheritance rights untouched, so birth parents who abandoned a child could still inherit from the adoptee, alongside the adoptive parents, if there is no will.

He proposed 'full' adoption for abandoned, orphaned or otherwise unsupported children, severing all legal ties including inheritance, and 'simple' adoption within extended families, preserving those rights.

Thái Thị An Chung, also of Nghệ An, urged lawmakers to permit grandparents to adopt grandchildren in exceptional cases, such as when both parents die in an accident. Grandparents can currently serve only as guardians.

Nguyễn Thị Hồng Phượng of Đồng Tháp said same-sex couples, whom Vietnamese law does not recognise as spouses, are treated as single people when adopting even if both raise the child, and asked for specific guidance on their rights and obligations.

She also proposed an upper age limit for adopters, saying those in their 70s or 80s may struggle to care for a child.

Nguyễn Việt Thắng of An Giang objected to automatically ending an adoption when both adoptive parents have life-threatening illnesses, saying an adoption should end only if they can no longer care for the child.

A police officer gives her adopted daughter a new schoolbag.

Other proposals included weighing children’s wishes when several applicants compete, expressly banning gender discrimination and respecting a child’s ethnic origin, language and culture.

The lawyers bill proposes shortening the path to becoming a lawyer from four steps to two. An independent, multi-sector council set up by the justice minister, with the Vietnam Bar Federation’s president as permanent vice chair, would assess candidates for practicing certificates.

The draft also adds standards of political steadfastness and integrity and makes annual training in political awareness and professional skills mandatory.

One of the most debated changes would enable law firms organised as multi-member limited liability companies to admit non-lawyers who contribute capital, subject to conditions on size, years of operation and capital share.

Phan Chí Hiếu, chairman of the Committee on Law and Justice, said the panel backs a comprehensive revision but urged careful consideration of the proposal, or a limited pilot with separate oversight, because it touches on professional independence.

The committee also asked drafters to assess the impact of letting people with a master’s or doctorate in law, but no bachelor’s degree, become lawyers.

Trần Thị Hồng Thanh of Ninh Bình backed the aim of building larger firms but warned that investors’ profit motives could override lawyers’ professional judgement and compromise client confidentiality.

If the provision stays, she proposed capping non-lawyers’ stakes at 30 per cent of charter capital and setting out penalties for interference in the law itself.

Lê Thị Nga, another NA deputy, said conditions such as capital limits and governance rights should be set in the law rather than left to government decrees.

Some lawmakers also said the council should preserve the Bar Federation’s role in the national lawyer exam, citing Party Secretariat guidance on self-governance by lawyers’ bodies.

The auction bill would let anyone with a university degree become an auctioneer, rather than only graduates in fields such as law, economics and finance, and allow auction firms to be set up under general business law.

It would ban individuals from taking part in residential land auctions if they won one and then walked away from the purchase, and winners whose violations lead to annulled results would lose their deposits.

National Assembly Vice Chairman Nguyễn Hồng Diên backed a comprehensive revision to boost transparency, curb collusion and price suppression and promote digitisation, but said several provisions need rework.

He questioned a clause treating anyone who attends an auction as agreeing to pay at least the starting price, with a lottery to pick a winner at that price if there are no valid bids.

Attendance cannot be presumed to be a bid, Diên said, and such an auction should instead be declared a failure. If the lottery stays, he said, the law should spell out how it works and what happens to deposits if every participant refuses.

The legislator backed higher deposits to deter people from bidding high and then abandoning purchases, a problem seen in Hà Nội and other provinces and cities.

Bidders drop sealed bids into a box at a land-use rights auction in the northern province of Hưng Yên.

But he said the proposed range of 20 per cent to 50 per cent for land-use rights sold to individuals could deter genuine users and weaken competition, and asked drafters to justify it with data.

He also said any ban on winners who breach payment obligations restricts property and business rights, so the law itself should set its duration, grounds, procedures and appeal rights and distinguish deliberate violations from force majeure or mistakes by authorities.

Good-faith buyers who have made payments and taken possession should be protected if a result is later annulled, Diên said, adding that clear rules would underpin stable transactions and public confidence in auctions. — VNS