Criminal law provides for crimes, criminal liability, and penalties, while criminal procedure law provides for the procedures, processes, functions, and jurisdictions required to implement those provisions in practice. Both branches of law share the common goal of ensuring socialist legality, justice, fairness, social order, and the protection of human rights. From the perspective of philosophy of law, the close and reciprocal relationship between criminal law and criminal procedure law, as reflected in the Penal Code and the Criminal Procedure Code, this article identifies major limitations and inconsistencies in both substance and form that undermine the uniformity of Vietnam’s legal system. Consequently, the article proposes directions for further improvement of the criminal law system, thereby contributing to crime prevention and control, advancing judicial reform, and fostering the development of a socialist rule-of-law state in Vietnam in the coming period.
