Center for Legal Advice – CELA is a body under the Institute of State and Law (ISL), Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences. CELA was established under the Decision No. 85/QD-NNPL dated 24 March, 2010 by the Director of ISL.

The services provided by CELA focus on the following areas:

Hoạt động của CELA tập trung vào các mảng sau đây:

(i) Provision of legal information: Legal information provided by CELA includes legal documents, general legal knowledge and specialized studies. Annually, CELA organizes legal knowledge training courses for organizations, businesses and people per request.

(ii) Provision of legal aid for those with financial difficulties under the Law on Legal Aid: This activity is carried out based on the social responsibility of the Institute of State and Law in providing free of charge legal services. Since its establishment, CELA has provided free legal advice and assistance to hundred of cases for people in financial difficulties and vulnerable groups . In 2019, CELA provided legal aid for 33 cases.

(iii) Provision of policy consultancy: With the advantages of a body under the Institute of State and Law, CELA’s personnel are also researchers. In addition, there are collaborators who are legal researchers working in ministries and provincial authorities. Moreover, through the Institute of State and Law, CELA has established relationship with agencies, ministries as well as other policy advisory and research institutions. Over the years, CELA has provided comments on many legal document drafts as assigned by the Institute of State and Law, and has organized research projects and policy consultancy in various fields such as platform economy, sharing economy, chemical safety, regulation of wine and craft beer production.

(iv) Collaborating with organizations and experts to conduct interdisciplinary research and consultancy: In addition to coordinating with researchers and research institutes under the Academy of Social Sciences (VASS), CELA also collaborates with experts outside VASS. The list of collaborators who are experts in education, social protection, association development and private sector development has been constantly expanding over the years.