End of operations of the High People's Court and District People's Court

Continuing the program of the 9th Session of the 15th National Assembly, on the morning of May 8, the National Assembly listened to the Presentation and Verification Report on the draft Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on Organization of People's Courts.

Proposal to increase the number of Supreme People's Court judges

Presenting the Report, Chief Justice of the Supreme People's Court Le Minh Tri said that the draft Law amends and supplements regulations on the organization of the Court system in the direction of ending the activities of the High People's Court and the District People's Court; establishing Regional People's Courts; converting specialized First Instance People's Courts into specialized Courts within the Regional People's Courts.

Chief Justice of the Supreme People's Court Le Minh Tri. (Photo: DUY LINH)

Accordingly, the organizational model of the Court system includes: Supreme People's Court; People's Courts of provinces and centrally-run cities; Regional People's Courts (amended Article 4 of the Law on Organization of People's Courts in 2024).

Regarding the composition of the National Council for Selection and Supervision of Judges, the draft Law supplements the composition of the Council to include 1 head of a unit under the Supreme People's Court who is a Judge of the People's Court, 1 Chief Justice of the Supreme People's Court of Appeal, 1 Chief Justice of the Provincial People's Court appointed by the Chief Justice of the Supreme People's Court to replace 3 Chief Justices of the High People's Court at Point d, Clause 1, Article 40 of the current Law.

Regarding the duties, powers, and organizational structure of the People's Courts, Chief Justice Le Minh Tri stated that, based on the organizational model of the 3-level Court system, the draft Law amends and supplements the provisions on the duties, powers, and organizational structure of the Courts in the following directions:

For the Supreme People's Court, add the tasks and powers to appeal criminal cases where the judgments and decisions of the provincial People's Courts that have not yet taken legal effect are appealed or protested.

Supplementing regulations in the organizational structure of the Supreme People's Court to include the Supreme People's Court of Appeals and assigning the National Assembly Standing Committee to prescribe the territorial scope of jurisdiction of the Supreme People's Court of Appeals upon the proposal of the Chief Justice of the Supreme People's Court.

Increase the number of Supreme People's Court judges from 13 to 17 to 23 to 27 to ensure sufficient human resources to promptly and qualitatively handle the increased workload of review and retrial cases transferred from the High People's Court to meet the targets and requirements of the National Assembly.

“Because the number of Supreme People's Court judges has been adjusted, it is necessary to amend and supplement the provisions of Clause 3, Article 96 of the current Law in the direction of increasing the number of Supreme People's Court judges selected and appointed from sources outside the Court and determining no more than 3 people to ensure that the proportion appointed from sources outside the Court does not exceed 10% of the number of Supreme People's Court judges,” said Chief Justice Le Minh Tri.

For the People's Courts of provinces and centrally-run cities, amend and supplement the regulations on the first-instance trial tasks of the People's Courts at the provincial level in the direction that the People's Courts at the provincial level will try at first instance criminal cases with the highest penalty being over 20 years in prison, life imprisonment, death penalty and other serious and complicated criminal cases.

Supplementing the duties and powers of the chief judge and re-examiner of judgments and decisions of the regional People's Court that have come into legal effect and are protested against according to the provisions of law.

Amend and supplement the regulations on the organizational structure of the provincial People's Court to include the Committee of Judges, specialized Courts, and support apparatus; at the same time, assign the Chief Justice of the Supreme People's Court to decide on the establishment and stipulate the tasks and powers of the support apparatus of the provincial People's Court.

View of the meeting in the hall on the morning of May 8. (Photo: DUY LINH)

For the Regional People's Court, restructure the District, Town, City and City People's Courts under the province and the City under the Central City into Regional People's Courts.

Amending and supplementing regulations on the organizational structure of regional People's Courts, which stipulate that regional People's Courts have specialized courts including: Criminal Court, Civil Court, Administrative Court, Economic Court, Family Court and Juvenile Court.

Supplementing regulations at some regional People's Courts with Bankruptcy Courts and Intellectual Property Courts, the territorial jurisdiction of these specialized Courts is prescribed by the National Assembly Standing Committee. The Supreme People's Court plans to organize 3 Bankruptcy Courts at 3 regional People's Courts in Hanoi, Da Nang and Ho Chi Minh City; and organize 2 Intellectual Property Courts at 2 regional People's Courts in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City.

According to Chief Justice Le Minh Tri, the arrangement of specialized courts on Bankruptcy and Intellectual Property in some regional People's Courts in large provinces and cities which are the economic and financial centers of the country is necessary to improve the quality of handling and adjudicating these types of cases; at the same time, to realize the commitment and affirm Vietnam's determination in strictly enforcing intellectual property rights, improving the investment and business environment, and strongly attracting foreign investment from our country to the international community. The above provisions on specialized courts on Bankruptcy and Intellectual Property do not create new focal points, increase the staff and working headquarters.

Clarifying criteria and conditions for establishing Bankruptcy Court and Intellectual Property Court

The review report presented by Chairman of the Law and Justice Committee Hoang Thanh Tung stated that the Committee agreed with the regulations on the organization of the People's Court, including the Supreme People's Court, Provincial People's Court, and Regional People's Court (military courts are maintained according to the current Law); ending the operations of the High People's Court and District People's Court.

The review agency also approved the establishment of the Supreme People's Court of Appeal to carry out the newly assigned task of reviewing appeals of criminal judgments and decisions of provincial People's Courts that have not yet entered into legal effect and are subject to appeals or protests. It is expected that officials and judges in the sector (mainly from high-level People's Courts) will be transferred to work at the Court of Appeal.

“According to a review of trial practices, if the proposal to add tasks and powers to the Supreme People’s Court is approved by the National Assembly, the Supreme People’s Court will have to hear about 3,000 criminal cases on appeal each year. To carry out this task, it is necessary to establish the Courts of Appeal under the Supreme People’s Court,” said Chairman Hoang Thanh Tung.

The Law and Justice Committee basically agrees with the proposal of the submitting agency on the establishment of an Economic Court at the Regional People's Court; an Intellectual Property Court, a Bankruptcy Court at a number of Regional People's Courts in large provinces and cities that are the economic and financial centers of the country to meet the requirements of practice and international integration, because disputes on business, trade, intellectual property and bankruptcy settlement are increasingly common and are all difficult and complicated matters, requiring staff and judges to have specialized knowledge.

Chairman of the Law and Justice Committee Hoang Thanh Tung. (Photo: DUY LINH)

In addition, there are opinions suggesting clarifying the criteria and conditions for establishing Bankruptcy Courts and Intellectual Property Courts in some regional People's Courts; there are opinions in agreement but concerned about the need for highly qualified and specialized human resources to be arranged in these specialized Courts.

Regarding the proposal to increase the number of Supreme People's Court judges from 13 to 17 (according to current Law) to 23 to 27, the review agency also basically agreed to ensure that there is enough human resources to perform the tasks of reviewing and re-trial newly received from the High People's Court, ensuring the quality and time limit of the trial.

At the same time, agree to amend and supplement the regulations on conditions to expand the source of subjects for consideration and appointment of Supreme People's Court Judges in special cases decided by competent authorities, accordingly, the personnel proposed for appointment must be currently a People's Court Judge, have at least 5 years as Head of the Professional Department at the Supreme People's Court and the number of people proposed for appointment according to this regulation shall not exceed 10% of the total number of Supreme People's Court Judges.

According to the inspection agency, this regulation is necessary to build a team of Supreme People's Court judges who are good at expertise and profession, have political courage, moral qualities, professional responsibility, impartiality, and professionalism to meet the requirements of tasks in the new situation as set out in Resolution 27-NQ/TW./.

According to nhandan.vn

Source: https://baobackan.vn/ket-thuc-hoat-dong-cua-toa-an-nhan-dan-cap-cao-va-toa-an-nhan-dan-cap-huyen-post70654.html