Judicial System
Court system
Vietnam has a two tier court system, including courts of first instances and courts of appeal. The judgments are then susceptible to further reviews under special circumstances. The court system consists of the Supreme Court, the provincial People’s Courts and the district People’s Courts. There are specialised courts at the Supreme Court and at the provincial level. These include the Criminal Court, Civil Court, Economic Court, Administrative Court and Labour Court.
The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court is elected by the National Assembly, has the term corresponding to the term of the National Assembly and can be re-elected. Other Justices of the Supreme Court are appointed and removable by the President and have the term of 5 years. The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court appoints and removes judges of the inferior courts.[xi]
Under the law, Vietnamese courts render their judgments independently. However, there are still many concerns on the independence of the courts.
The tribunal panels at the first instance are composed of both judges and people’s jurors (usually one judge and two people’s jurors). People’s jurors at each level are lay people elected by the People’s Council of the same level at the recommendation of the Vietnam Fatherland Front and could be re-elected.[xii] The participation of these jurors who are not qualified legal expert and who are elected by the local government raises questions on their capacity and on the influence of the local government on the court’s activities.
The law in 2002[xiii] centralized the appointment of the judges by the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court instead of appointment by the local People’s Council. The budgeting of the local courts, previously decided by the provincial Departments of Justice, is now decided by the National Assembly. This hopefully will make the local courts more independent from the local government.
Another factor leading to the concerns on the independence of the courts is the unwritten practice of the local court requesting for opinion from the superior court in complex cases.[xiv]
Judgments in Vietnam are not publicly published and it is difficult to get access to past judgments.
People’s Prosecutor
The People’s Prosecutor has the mandate of public prosecution and judicial supervision. Similarly to the structure of the court, the People’s Prosecutor is organized into three levels: the Supreme People’s Prosecutor, provincial People’s Prosecutor and district People’s Prosecutor.
In criminal cases, the People’s Prosecutor carries out the public prosecution role. In non-criminal cases, the People’s Prosecutor supervises the resolution of the cases and has the prerogative to participate in any part of judicial proceedings except the conciliation process. [xv] Usually, it reviews the file, listen to evidence and argument and make a recommendation to the tribunal panel.[xvi]
In addition, the People’s Prosecutor supervises the enforcement of the judgments.