A framework for reviewing laws and policies for climate resilience – The case of the Vietnamese Mekong Delta

Abstract

This article proposes a framework for reviewing to what extent laws and policies of a legal system support climate resilience. This article adopts the social-ecological system (SES) resilience theory and translates its core features into an operational framework which consists of four legal dimensions crucial for promoting climate resilience – adaptiveness of law, distributive justice, broad participation, and cross-scale interactions, and further identifies several indicators below each dimension. Then this article operationalizes the four legal dimensions via reviewing current Vietnamese climate adaptation laws and policies to assess to what extent they promote a climate-resilient Vietnamese Mekong Delta (VMD). While various barriers can be found in the current legal framework and policies which impede climate resilience, the latest National Climate Change Adaptation Plan demonstrates great improvement in facilitating climate resilience in a just, participatory and coordinated manner.