Decision to pave the way for a professional judiciary - Final article

To build a professional, honest, and people-serving judiciary, it is necessary to strongly innovate the institutions, organization, and operating mechanism of the Court, with key solutions being to perfect the institutions and laws, innovate the organization and improve the capacity of the staff, increase publicity, transparency, and strongly apply information technology. From this orientation, Resolution 81 on streamlining the Court organization towards streamlining, effectiveness, and efficiency was born as an institutional turning point in the process of judicial reform in Vietnam.

Final Article: Institutionalizing the Judicial Reform Vision

Institutional turning point

Chief Justice of the People's Court of Region 6 - Son La Luong Long Binh assessed that the increase in authority under Resolution 81 has created favorable conditions for expanding the scope of trials and promoting the professional capacity of the team of judges.

Professor, Dr. Phan Trung Ly (former Chairman of the National Assembly 's Law Committee) affirmed that Resolution 81 is not only a decision on organizational structure, but also an institutional turning point that opens up strategic opportunities for improving the quality of operations of the Vietnamese Court system.

Accordingly, the reorganization of the Court system by region will be an opportunity to professionalize the team of judges and court officials, forming a team of competent and specialized judges who can try a variety of cases with higher quality.

This is also a step to enhance the independence and objectivity of the Court's adjudication. With the scope of jurisdiction not limited to small administrative units, the Regional Court will be less pressured by local administrative-social relations, contributing to realizing the principle of "Judges and People's Assessors adjudicating independently, only obeying the law".

In addition, Resolution 81 is also an opportunity to increase transparency, publicity and accountability. The new organizational structure facilitates standardization of work processes, unified management of records, increased publicity of judgments and decisions online, and the establishment of an internal accountability mechanism linked to the assessment of trial effectiveness – core elements of a modern rule-of-law state.

According to Professor, Dr. Phan Trung Ly, this is also an opportunity for digital transformation in judicial activities. Resolution 81 helps the Court to restructure the management system, invest in synchronous digital infrastructure, thereby deploying digital courts, electronic records, online trials, artificial intelligence in decision support, towards a smart judiciary - an inevitable trend in the new era.

From practical application, Chief Justice of the People's Court of Region 6 - Son La Luong Long Binh said that the increase in authority according to Resolution 81 facilitates the People's Court of Region 6 - Son La in expanding the scope of trial and promoting the professional capacity of the team of judges. Cases are resolved in a more centralized and unified manner, limiting overlapping and prolongation. The model of the People's Court of the region allows for the concentration of human resources, reducing the dispersion of judges and clerks as before; the assignment of cases is more effective and uniform, thereby improving the quality of resolving all types of cases.

Chief Justice Luong Long Binh cited, typically, the fact that the Regional Court does not have to transfer civil, family, and commercial cases that have been accepted and guided but are not under its jurisdiction (such as cases with foreign elements, requests to cancel individual administrative decisions, administrative complaints where the defendant is the chairman of the People's Committee at the district level or higher...) to the Provincial People's Court for settlement according to its jurisdiction as before. This creates conditions for the settlement of cases quickly, promptly, and saves costs for the people.

Challenges of "mind and vision" for judicial officers

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).

Resolution 81 sets out new responsibilities for the three levels of the Court, in which the Regional Court model has a larger scale and authority than the previous District Court, so improving the professional qualifications, capacity and quality of officials and judges is a big challenge. The team of judges needs to clearly understand their role and responsibility as those who are trusted with the responsibility of "weighing and measuring" in protecting justice and fairness. Each judgment not only demonstrates the ability to apply the law but also demonstrates political courage, professional ethics and profound social responsibility.

Chief Justice Luong Long Binh shared that, identifying human resources as the key factor in determining the effectiveness of the implementation of new authority, the unit has focused on comprehensively improving the capacity, courage and qualities of the team of judges and secretaries who are "politically steadfast, professionally skilled, proficient in their profession, and ethically pure". Accordingly, the District Court of Region 6 - Son La regularly organizes professional exchanges and draws experiences after each trial to unify the understanding and application of the law; strengthens training, research, and learning to apply information technology in practical work. Each cadre and civil servant is thoroughly imbued with strict public discipline, upholding professional ethics, and a sense of responsibility "serving the public, abiding by the law, being impartial and impartial". In addition to professional training, the Court also sets out requirements for standardizing the team, recruiting highly qualified people to meet the professional and ethical requirements of the court staff in the context of judicial reform.

At the Hai Phong City People's Court, the work of cassation and retrial is considered a new type of work (after 10 years of changing the Law on the Organization of People's Courts), so judges and examiners will have many surprises when approaching the new litigation process. Therefore, the unit focuses on providing in-depth and systematic training on cassation and retrial procedures for judges, examiners, and clerks of the City Court; creating conditions for judges of regional courts to further improve their professional skills in adjudication fields, especially disputes with many difficult cases such as civil, economic, financial, etc.

Deputy Chief Justice of Hai Phong City People's Court Nguyen Hai Bang said that in the process of implementing Resolution 81, the unit has creatively proposed many solutions and targets to encourage judges and court officials to improve their responsibility in handling work. A typical solution is the solution "Processing applications on the same day" to overcome cumbersome administrative procedures, causing difficulties for people in the process of submitting lawsuits and requests. Specifically, all lawsuits and requests from people must be processed on the same working day upon receiving the application. In case the application needs to be amended or supplemented, the court officials must be responsible for guiding the applicant on all the contents and issues that need to be amended or supplemented; they are not allowed to request amendments or supplements to the application multiple times.

For citizens' requests, suggestions, complaints and denunciations, the Hai Phong City People's Court directs that they must be received immediately and processed within the time limit prescribed by law. If requests, suggestions, suggestions, complaints and denunciations are unclear, they must be guided immediately in the spirit of service, respect, modesty, care, and thoughtfulness; ensuring that all contents requiring guidance must be supported immediately, and the receipt and processing of petitions must be recorded in a closely monitored logbook.

In addition, the People's Courts at two levels of Hai Phong city also launched the movement of judges "Close to the people - Understand the people - Help the people - For Justice", creating a competitive atmosphere in the unit. Each judge must be imbued with Uncle Ho's teachings, must be close to the people, understand the people, help the people, learn from the people; the trial process must ensure fairness and impartiality through concrete actions, by working scientifically, seriously, impartially, objectively, rationally, and emotionally.

These efforts of each judge, officer and court unit are aimed at contributing to the completion of assigned tasks, meeting new requirements as prescribed in Resolution 81. This Resolution not only creates a legal corridor to streamline the court organization, but also lays the foundation for a professional, modern, humane and transparent judiciary. This is a turning point that opens the way for a strategic innovation of the Vietnamese judicial system, paving the way for a professional, honest and serving judiciary - truly a foundation of trust, a place to protect justice, human rights and civil rights in the new era./.

Source: https://baotintuc.vn/thoi-su/quyet-sach-mo-duong-cho-nen-tu-phap-chuyen-nghiep-bai-cuoi-20251109082717443.htm