In this chapter we explore Vietnamese socialist legality by asking to what extent law is used instrumentally or has been transformed to produce a normative conception of justice reflecting Western liberal rule-of-law principles. Drawing on He and Warren, we characterize Vietnam as a deliberative authoritarian state. At the outset we note the adoption of socialist legality, and other relevant socialist principles and practices, and set out how these have been changed in the last thirty years. Subsequently, we explore whether party instrumentalism has ceded its authority to law and legal institutions through an examination of constitutional debate and lawyer advocacy targeting the criminal justice system, particularly wrongful conviction. While socialist legality and its successor, the socialist law-based state, have and continue to be reshaped and challenged, legal instrumentalism remains the potent force constraining rights-based liberal notions of legality in Vietnam.