Highly approve of having foreign judges in the Special Court

Late in the afternoon of December 5, National Assembly deputies discussed in the hall the draft Law on Specialized Courts at the International Financial Center.

Chief Justice of the Supreme People's Court Nguyen Van Quang spoke to explain and clarify a number of issues raised by National Assembly deputies on the afternoon of December 5. Photo: QUANG PHUC

The delegates all agreed: the draft Law on Specialized Courts at the International Financial Center is a breakthrough institutional step. For the first time, we have built a specialized, internationalized judicial institution right on Vietnamese territory, aiming to handle global trade disputes and enhance Vietnam's legal competitiveness in the region.

Regarding judges of specialized courts, the draft law stipulates that they include Vietnamese citizens and foreigners who meet the regulations. Opinions are that, in the current context, when Vietnamese judges are not sufficient in quantity and do not ensure quality, especially foreign language proficiency, it may be difficult to perform adjudication duties, leading to limited effectiveness. In particular, inexperienced judges will find it difficult to compete with specialized courts in other countries around the world .

Therefore, opinions are unanimous in expanding the source of foreign appointments suitable to meet the requirements in the current period. This will contribute to attracting high-quality, experienced human resources, at the same time creating a good environment for Vietnamese judges and clerks to have the opportunity to learn experience, improve their capacity and professional qualifications.

Delegate Thach Phuoc Binh ( Vinh Long ). Photo: QUANG PHUC

Analyzing this issue in depth, Deputy Thach Phuoc Binh (Vinh Long) said that international experience shows that the team of judges is the decisive factor in the competitiveness and prestige of the court. Successful models such as the Singapore International Commercial Court, Dubai Court, Abu Dhabi Court, and Qatar International Court all build a team of judges that combines domestic and international judges, ensuring professional qualifications, independence, efficiency and transparency according to international standards.

These courts all choose a mixed-judge model, combining domestic and international judges. This diversity helps to increase the credibility of the courts in the eyes of investors and international financial institutions, while creating a balance between understanding of the domestic legal system and international experience.

Therefore, the delegate proposed that it is necessary to classify judges not only by nationality but also by function, including specialized judges, international judges and part-time judges who are senior experts.

Delegate Nguyen Thi Thuy (Thai Nguyen). Photo: QUANG PHUC

Deputy Nguyen Thi Thuy (Thai Nguyen) hopes that when international investors have disputes, they will send their documents to Vietnam's specialized court instead of sending them to other countries. According to the Deputy, to attract investors, procedures must be quick and the trial must be professional, and to do so, human resources must be focused on. Many investors said that just by looking at the list of judges, they already know how much trust is guaranteed. Therefore, it is necessary to expand the source of foreign judges.

“In the long term, we need to develop domestic human resources, but in the first stage, we need to use reputable international human resources. We suggest giving priority to retired former judges from the UK and Australia, as well as choosing judges from countries that have invested heavily in Vietnam to create trust,” said Deputy Nguyen Thi Thuy.

Afternoon session on December 5. Photo: QUANG PHUC

Explaining to the National Assembly, Chief Justice of the Supreme People's Court Nguyen Van Quang emphasized that to ensure the financial center operates effectively and efficiently, one of the requirements is to attract investors. And to ensure the confidence of investors, one of the requirements is to have a mechanism to ensure the resolution of disputes that occur in the financial center.

“One of the important mechanisms is to have a court in the International Financial Center. This is a very new issue, Vietnam has no experience, the requirement is that the mechanism of the specialized court must ensure superiority and at least be equal to the existing courts in other international financial centers,” said the Chief Justice of the Supreme People's Court.

According to the Chief Justice of the Supreme People's Court, we must apply the common law system in the settlement, because this is one of the requirements to ensure a court to resolve disputes in the International Financial Center. We are learning as we go, but the spirit is that we must approach the common law system, ensuring competitiveness, so that when there is a dispute, investors will choose courts in Vietnam instead of choosing other countries.

Regarding the criteria for foreign judges, the Chief Justice of the Supreme People's Court proposed that the National Assembly allow the Chief Justice to be responsible for developing a set of criteria for selection when submitting them to the President for appointment.

LAM NGUYEN

Source: https://www.sggp.org.vn/tan-thanh-cao-co-tham-phan-toa-an-chuyen-biet-la-nguoi-nuoc-ngoai-post827131.html