Lawmakers in discussions on legal reforms

Lawmakers discussed amendments to the Civil Procedure Code in their plenary session in the morning of June 15 during the National Assembly’s ongoing ninth sitting.
Lawmakers discussed amendments to the Civil Procedure Code in their plenary session in the morning of June 15 during the National Assembly’s ongoing ninth sitting.

A majority of deputies agreed that revisions were needed to cement the Party's guidelines for legal reform. Areas addressed include the organisation of court trials, the rights and responsibilities of people involved in court proceedings and the quality of proceedings.

Vu Xuan Truong of Nam Dinh province and Dang Dinh Luyen of Khanh Hoa province asked the drafting committee to carefully review the law, explaining each change they made.

Vi Thi Huong of Dien Bien province and Pham Van Ha of Nghe An province said the Supreme People's Procuracy's role in proceedings must jibe with the 2013 Constitution. According to the Constitution, the procuracy controls and supervises trial proceedings.

Giang Thi Binh of Lao Cai province, Nguyen Minh Lam of Long An province, Nguyen Xuan Thuy of Phu Tho province and others asked the drafting committee not to change Article 21, which mandates the Supreme People's Procuracy's presence during court proceedings.

Deputies also asked the committee to adhere to the Constitution's protection of legal rights, and the interests of the Vietnamese State and its citizens.

Other topics included adjournment rights and applying legal precedents during trial.

In the afternoon, NA members discussed the amended Code of Criminal Procedure. Talk mostly focused on Article 2, which stipulates that the court cannot reject a civil case even if there are no related law articles to apply.

Nguyen Cong Hong, NA member from Ha Tinh, said the new amendment was in accordance with the Constitution 2013. He said the regulation was also in line with Government efforts to build a governance system that focused on protecting citizens' rights. Therefore, he said, it was not right for the court to reject a civil case because there "there are no laws to apply".

Hong said the rejection could lead to citizens using personal ways to deal with conflict, adding that this could be very dangerous.

Nguyen Thai Hoc, an NA member from Phu Yen province, said the new regulation would help citizens to increase their trust in courts. However, NA member Vo Thi Hong Thoai said it would not help the court if there was no legal basis to solve the case.

Speaking at the discussion, Chief Judge of the People's Supreme Court Truong Hoa Binh, said the basis for the new article was that the Government wanted to protect people's rights.

He added that Vietnam also participated in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which stipulated the legal rights of citizens and ensured the law to recognise the civil rights of the people.

Binh acknowledged that there should be further research on the shortcomings of the regulation.

However, he noted that the court would protect justice, the rights of the people and organisations, but would ensure it would strictly refuse cases that violated the law and affected the political system.-VNA

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