The provisions on life imprisonment in the legal system enables to differentiate criminal liability and individualizes the penalties for particularly serious crimes. This punishment acts as an intermediary between the determinate imprisonment of maximum to 20 years and the capital punishment, enabling the penalty system to remain its internal unity. However, the practice of applying the punishment has been posing many problems that need to be studied in order to come up with solutions to improve the provisions related to the penalty and its effectiveness in the fight against crimes. The article summarizes the law on life imprisonment sentence in the current criminal law to highlight its characteristics and role in the Vietnam’s Penal Code. It also suggests some solutions to improve the law and its effectiveness to prevent and combat crimes.
