Lesson 2: “Opening the Way” - Reshaping Vietnam's Judicial Map

According to Resolution 81 of the National Assembly Standing Committee, after the reorganization of the Court, there are a total of 34 provincial Courts and 355 regional Courts nationwide.

Among them, Hanoi , Ho Chi Minh City and Da Nang are the three selected localities, each with a regional court divided into zones to handle bankruptcy and intellectual property cases of 34 provinces and cities.

This is an unprecedented precedent for the operation of a regional court level - also unprecedented on the judicial map of Vietnam.

Institutionalizing the Party's viewpoint on judicial innovation

Professor, Dr. Phan Trung Ly (former Chairman of the National Assembly's Law Committee) said that Resolution 81 is not simply an administrative document on reorganizing the Court system, but is a step to directly institutionalize the Party's major orientations on decentralization, streamlining the apparatus, and improving the effectiveness of judicial power.

Mr. Phan Trung Ly believes that it is possible to identify three "opening" aspects that Resolution 81 created.

Specifically, Resolution 81 "paves the way for organizing judicial power in a modern and professional direction" by allowing the arrangement of the Court system according to new administrative units, associated with the requirement of streamlining the intermediate level, towards the model of Regional Courts instead of decentralized District Courts.

This organization facilitates the concentration of resources, enhances expertise and independence in adjudication activities, thereby overcoming fragmentation and localism – a long-standing limitation of the judicial system.

In addition, Resolution 81 also "pave the way for the mechanism of operating judicial power associated with power control" by organizing the Court by region, allowing the establishment of a control correlation between Court levels on the basis of substantive authority, minimizing overlap, while ensuring the mechanism of assignment-coordination-control of judicial power in the spirit of Resolution No. 27-NQ/TW on continuing to build and perfect the socialist rule-of-law State.

This is the premise for building a clean and honest judiciary, not allowing "judicial power to be distorted" for local interests or local relations.

In addition, Resolution 81 also helps pave the way for institutionalizing the model of e-Court, digital court and smart justice.

When arranging the Court organization in association with the new administrative level, Resolution 81 also creates a corridor for applying digital technology in the management, adjudication and operation of the Court.

This is important content to deploy e-Court, online trial, digitalization of records, step by step building a digital judiciary, for justice, serving the people.

Three months - more than 300 applications for bankruptcy proceedings

People's Court of Region 2 - Hanoi was established on the basis of merging the former Dong Da District People's Court and the former Thanh Xuan District People's Court (Hanoi).

According to Resolution 81, the People's Court of Region 2 is assigned to resolve bankruptcy cases for 18 northern provinces and cities; resolve civil, business, commercial, administrative cases on intellectual property, and technology transfer for 20 provinces and cities across the country.

These are two new, complex fields that are increasingly increasing along with the country's economic development.

In addition, the settlement of these cases often goes through many procedural steps and takes longer than other economic and commercial cases, forcing the specialized Court to prepare adequate human and material resources to meet this responsibility.

Chief Justice of the People's Court of Region 2 - Hanoi Hoang Ngoc Thanh chaired a meeting to resolve the request to open bankruptcy proceedings of the Shipbuilding Industry Corporation (SBIC). (Photo: Kim Anh/VNA)

Judge Hoang Ngoc Thanh (Chief Justice of the People's Court of Region 2 - Hanoi) assessed that Resolution 81 assigning specialized authority to the Regional Court demonstrates high specialization, creating conditions for judges to have in-depth knowledge and rich skills to resolve these special types of cases.

On the other hand, the trial of these specialized cases in the same Court will help to unify the way of handling the cases, quickly resolving cases of the same nature. This decentralization regulation also receives high consensus from other Courts in the region.

According to Judge Nguyen Hai Bang, Deputy Chief Justice of the Hai Phong City People's Court, assigning regional courts in Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi, and Da Nang the authority to try bankruptcy and intellectual property cases has helped reduce the workload for the Hai Phong City People's Court.

Thereby, the People's Court of Hai Phong city and regional courts will have more conditions to focus on other types of cases, increasing the professionalism of court staff.

With such a large scale, the People's Court of Region 2 - Hanoi will have to handle a very large number of cases.

From July 1, 2025 (when Resolution 81 takes effect) to October 2025, the People's Court of Region 2 - Hanoi has accepted and is in the process of resolving more than 300 petitions for enterprise bankruptcy and 30 petitions to resolve disputes over intellectual property rights.

Currently, the unit is handling the request to open exceptionally large bankruptcy proceedings of the Shipbuilding Industry Corporation (SBIC), a 100% state-owned enterprise, owned by the Ministry of Transport (now the Ministry of Construction) with a charter capital of VND 9,520 billion, the owner's investment capital of more than VND 6,500 billion, and SBIC's assets and subsidiaries are present in many provinces and cities.

However, the Company is currently suffering from a negative equity of up to 78,000 billion VND. According to the financial report provided by the enterprise to the Court, the number of creditors and debtors is a list of hundreds of units and individuals, spread across the country.

Judge Hoang Nghia Hai (assigned to handle SBIC's bankruptcy proceedings) said that this case is quite large and complicated. However, with his experience in handling the bankruptcy proceedings against Vinashinlines Ocean Shipping Company Limited before at the Hanoi People's Court, Judge Hoang Nghia Hai and his colleagues are confident in handling and studying SBIC's case file.

“In parallel with resolving bankruptcy proceedings for the parent company SBIC, we also have to carry out bankruptcy proceedings for our subsidiaries. Therefore, the legal issues regarding the bankruptcy resolution process will be difficult and will last for many years to come,” Judge Hoang Nghia Hai shared.

Need a synchronized solution for smooth operation

With 34 judges, since the beginning of the year, the People's Court of Region 2 - Hanoi has handled more than 7,000 cases of all kinds.

On average, each judge at the unit has to handle more than 200 cases of all kinds. In addition, the specialized jurisdiction on bankruptcy and intellectual property rights for 18 and 20 provinces and cities in the North makes it difficult for the People's Court of Region 2 - Hanoi to handle the work.

According to Chief Justice Hoang Ngoc Thanh, for general disputes, judges usually only have to resolve 1 to 3 legal relationships. However, for bankruptcy and intellectual property cases, judges have to resolve many different relationships at the same time, such as: corporate finance, taxes, debts, labor contracts, wages, insurance money, and other types of corporate disputes.

To effectively resolve these cases requires judges to have many years of experience in the economic field, and at the same time, it is necessary to create conditions for those judges to have time to focus on these specialized cases, without being distracted or influenced by other cases.

“Our biggest difficulty now is the lack of staff, facilities, and working equipment… so that we can verify, collect documents, evidence, appraise, value, and seize assets… in relevant provinces and cities, to meet the requirements of performing new tasks,” Chief Justice Hoang Ngoc Thanh emphasized.

On the other hand, in addition to difficulties in human resources, facilities, etc., there are still problems in the legal system. The Bankruptcy Law, which was enacted in 2014, has many provisions that are outdated. The Intellectual Property Law also has many provisions that are not compatible with other relevant legal provisions.

Judge Nguyen Thi Thu Huyen (People's Court of Region 2 - Hanoi) said that the process of litigation to resolve bankruptcy cases encountered many difficulties.

Typically, this is for the costs of the administrator (an individual who practices the management and liquidation of assets of insolvent enterprises and cooperatives during the bankruptcy process).

“According to Decree 22 of the Government, the cost for administrators is very high. While bankrupt enterprises are facing financial difficulties, it is difficult to pay this amount to administrators. In addition, due to the lack of specific regulations, we are quite confused when implementing the level of advance payment of costs to handle and resolve a bankruptcy case…”, Judge Nguyen Thi Thu Huyen expressed.

However, with the extensive experience of the judges at the People's Court of Region 2 - Hanoi in resolving many economic cases, resolving bankruptcy and intellectual property cases will be more convenient and proactive than other regional courts that do not have this specialization.

That is the basis for Resolution 81 to grant specialized authority to a number of regional courts, creating a strategic opening step in reforming the judicial system./.