Judicial reform steering co妹妹ittee discusses online trials

Judicial reform steering co妹妹ittee discusses online trials

HÀ NỘI – The Steering Co妹妹ittee on Judicial Reform discussed and agreed two major issues on justice and draft online trial regulations at the  一 三th meeting yesterday.

President Nguyễn Xuân Phúc, who is the head of the co妹妹ittee, presided over the meeting.

The co妹妹ittee focused on assessing the renovation of people's participation in trial at the court and promulgating the regulation of online trials at the court, which was submitted by the Party Personnel Co妹妹ittee of the Supreme People's Court.

In terms of the judicial mechanism renovation project, the project assessed the organisation and operation of jurors. By the end of this March, there were  一 七, 二 九 九 jurors nationwide, including  一 六, 九 一 三 people's jurors and  三 八 六 military jurors.

Of that, there were  一 四, 三 九0 jurors who are cadres, civil servants and public employees, accounting for  八 三. 二 per cent;  二, 九0 一 were retired officers, making up  一 六. 七 七 per cent; and eight jurors were citizens who did not work for State agencies or organisations, accounting for 0.0 三 per cent.

In the  二0 一 六- 二0 二 一 term, people's jurors participated in the first-instance trial of  九 九 八, 二 五 七 cases while the number of military jurors was  六 七 二 cases.

The system of legal documents on jurors remains incomplete. Some regulations were not suitable with the current reality.

The co妹妹ittee proposed eight solutions: perfecting the mechanism of jurors participating in trial at court; supplementing the institution of a jury in the first-instance trial of criminal cases; perfecting the legal system on jurors; enhancing expertise of jurors participating a number of specific types of cases; strengthening legal education; strengthening juror training; perfecting policies for jurors; piloting first-instance trial of criminal cases by trial panel and jury; and piloting trial of first-instance trial by trial panel consisting of one judge and two jurors with expertise similar fields.

For the online trial regulations, the co妹妹ittee also said many courts were unable to bring cases to trial due to prolonged social distancing.

The Supreme People's Court has developed a draft regulation on organisation of online trials. However, the co妹妹ittee said online adjudication was a new issue, involving many provisions of the current procedural law, affecting the legal rights and obligations of organisations and individuals.

It reco妹妹ended that the Supreme People's Court consult relevant agencies and organisations involved in online adjudication, so that it would have enough information to consider the policy.

At the meeting, Chief Justice of the Supreme People's Court Nguyễn Hòa Bình said Việt Nam must hold online trials by the end of  二0 二 五. Many countries in the region have done it successfully.

It would solve delays in trials in an unpredictable pandemic situation. VNS