Vietnam's Land

NOTE: I was/am an international lawyer. This is the same expertise I shared with George Clooney's wife, star-lawyer Amal. However, in my case, I specialize in foreign direct investment and  private international law.   In 1994, I covered Southeast Asia first for Baker & McKenzie and then for Mobil Corporation during President Clinton's lifting of the trade embargo against Vietnam.  I studied the Vietnamese Constitution during that period of time and subsequently. See my article, the Vietnamese Woman: Warrior and Poet published by University of Washington Law School (1999). 

This is what I remember from my research and understanding:

VIETNAM'S LAND

Under its Constitution, Vietnam's Communist Party is the voice of the land,  the central exclusive authority of governance, allegedly for its people.  "Communism" comes from the word "commune," which denotes a concept of the supreme state and collective ownership -- there is supposedly no private property in a communist state.  However, with Vietnam's market economy, the  only "communist" flavor left in the Constitution is also reflected in the country's Land Law, which provides that all land and natural resources belong collectively  to the Vietnamese people.  Hence, there is NO private land ownership.  There can only be "leases" that last 99 years or beyond.  So even individual Vietnamese citizens lease land from the "people" for  99 years, although they can own the structure that sits on the land, such as their houses, their trees (but not if the "trees" are considered "natural resources" like oil, coal,  and minerals).  A fortiori, when Vietnamese citizens sell land to a Viet Kieu," the Viet Kieu only holds a leasehood for 99 years!

So, now, if the government decides to lease land to a foreign state for 99 years, it is in effect implementing its Constitution or Land Law. 

But, in other nations such as the U.S., the government or Congress also has the statutory right to review and block all acquisitions of domestic property by foreign interests if certain statutory criteria are met, primarily for national security reasons.  This is the kind of law that controls "inbound" direct foreign investment for the sake of the country.  The government body that conducts and acts on such review is called CFIUS.   So, when China wanted to acquire the California-based oil company UNOCAL, CFIUS acted, the statute on foreign direct investment came into play, and Congress put a stop to China's proposed acquisition of UNOCAL. 

In Vietnam, is there such a law?  Even if there were, who would make decisions or implement such law? Naturally, it's the supreme and exclusive Community Party of Vietnam. The country's Constitution and Land Law allow the leasing of Vietnamese land to any individual or entity for 99 years, although the perpetual ownership of land rests in the Vietnamese people.  That's what Vietnam's Constitution says.   Who speaks for "the people"?  Under the same Constitution, it's the Vietnamese Communist Party.   

One should also distinguish between/among:

-- a bilateral treaty (signed by two sovereign states) that redraws national boundaries permanently as an act of consent "by the people";
--an act of territorial conquest or adverse possession, which has been outlawed under public international law, as of the end of colonialism in the 20th century -- this is the unlawful act of taking "property" from the people by force!;
--versus a governmental decision to allow a "leasehold" of 99 years! 

it all boils down to Abe Lincoln's Gettyburg words (adopted by the Vietnamese communist revolution):  whether a governmental is OF the people,  BY the people and FOR the people!