Applying the law in resolving land use disputes at the People's Court

The moral qualities of a number of court officials and civil servants at all levels have not really met the requirements and demands of the new situation. Some judges still lack the awareness to strive to learn and practice to improve their professional qualifications and to cultivate the character and moral qualities of court officials. In particular, there are still judges, court officials and civil servants who violate discipline, even violate the law and are prosecuted for criminal liability.

Resolving land use rights disputes is very complicated, requiring judges to have broad, comprehensive and profound knowledge, but there are judges who do not try to study and research documents carefully, as well as update information, leading to a lack of comprehensive objectivity in assessing evidence, leading to wrong decisions, even in individual cases of negative actions, violations of the law, and violations of public duties. In some local courts, the work of organizing staff has not been done well, leading to the recruitment and training planning of judges' appointment sources not keeping up with the requirements. The number of judges is still lacking, especially in district courts. The management of staff of some units in the industry is not strict; internal inspection and examination to detect, prevent, correct and handle violations is not timely, in some cases, disciplinary action is still light and not effective enough to prevent violations.

In the current situation, the qualifications and capacity of some officials and judges are not up to par with the requirements of the new situation, their knowledge of socio-economics, state management, foreign languages and information technology is still limited. The backlog of cases and cases that have exceeded the legal deadline in many courts is due to many reasons, including the lack of judges. Due to having to try many cases in a month, the study of case files is sometimes not thorough. Land use rights disputes are very complicated, requiring the study of many types of documents and the documents in each period are also different, so the selection and application of legal documents is mainly focused on the Judge - Presiding Judge.

The court session, meanwhile, the judges on the wings participating in the trial do not have time to study the files. With the number of cases assigned to resolve, with the increasing complexity of the cases, it has affected the quality of law application in the trial.

Specific manifestations of the weakness in professional qualifications and expertise in the process of applying the law by judges often occur in the stage of researching documents and evidence in case files, in the stage of finding and selecting appropriate legal norms to issue judgments and decisions of the Court. The weakness in professional qualifications of judges often goes hand in hand with a careless and irresponsible working style when researching documents and evidence in case files. Due to the weakness in professional qualifications, judges have not been able to determine which evidence is important, has key significance, and is central to the case in order to evaluate the evidence and make a judgment. The weakness of judges in resolving land use rights disputes is reflected in the failure to logically systematize the objective developments in the process of implementing the State's land policy, and to detect unreliable and contradictory evidence for comparison, assessment and examination in accordance with the provisions of law.

Maybe you are interested!

On the other hand, the weakness is also shown in the failure to update documents and information on the land sector, easily ignoring documents and evidence with legal value, which are meaningful to prove the case to resolve correctly according to the provisions of law. The weak professional capacity of the Judge, in addition to not being able to evaluate evidence, is also shown in the incorrect understanding and selection of legal norms that are not suitable to the objective circumstances of the case.

e. Limiting shortcomings in the people's jury system.

People's assessors have an indispensable important position in judicial activities. Together with judges, local courts in

Over the years, the People's Jury has tried hundreds of thousands of cases of all kinds under the first-instance procedure. Many People's Jury have effectively promoted their role and contributed much experience to the Judges in trial activities. As of 2012, the People's Jury of the whole sector currently has 15,906 people (1,790 People's Jury of the Provincial People's Court and 14,116 People's Jury of the District People's Court) [17]. The Jury are all people with legal knowledge and conditions to participate in trial work, so the process of operation has made many positive contributions to the trial work of local Courts. Local Courts have created conditions to maintain the activities of the People's Jury Groups; ensure full implementation of the State's regimes and standards for People's Assessors and up to now, all provincial People's Courts have organized professional training for People's Assessors for the 2011-2016 term in their localities according to a unified program of the Supreme People's Court.

However, in response to the requirements of the new tasks, in addition to continuing to affirm and well implement the principle of " The Court has the participation of People's Assessors ", " When trying a trial, People's Assessors are equal in power to Judges ", the People's Assessor institution needs to be studied to overcome shortcomings and minimize negative impacts on the quality of trials of the People's Court.

Through the practice of trials at the Court of First Instance, it is shown that the legal level of the People's Assessors is not commensurate with the assigned tasks to perform " equally with the Judges ". The proportion of People's Assessors accounts for the majority in the Trial Panel but the responsibility regime is not clear, so their participation is mainly formal. Due to lack of qualifications, they rely on the Judges or have different opinions from the Judges but cannot demonstrate the correctness of their legal awareness. Participants

People's Jury members of the Court are very diverse, such as teachers, cadres of the Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union, cadres of residential groups, cadres of the Women's Union and cadres in administrative agencies. However, for many reasons, they cannot participate in the trial, causing difficulties in opening the trial. There are provincial and district People's Courts that have to postpone the trial because the People's Jury is busy with unexpected work and cannot participate in the trial. There are People's Jury members whose names are on the list but do not participate in the trial of any case during the entire term. Because there is no form of gathering or activities, the People's Court Jury members have few opportunities to study and exchange trial experiences on professional issues. People's Jury members only work together when assigned to try the same panel. The trial result after the Court announces the first instance verdict also means the end of the People's Jury member's duty in the case, they do not care about the trial result. In case the judgment or decision is appealed, protested and the superior level makes amendments, the People's Jury is not responsible. Current law stipulates that the legal qualifications of the People's Jury are not high, only legal knowledge, that is, a certain level of legal understanding is required to be elected to the People's Jury, so it is very difficult for the People's Jury to have " equal rights " with the Judge.

The People's Jurors do not fully understand the technical issues in resolving disputes over land use rights, such as: when a land use rights transfer contract is invalid, how to resolve the consequences of the invalid contract? Is the transfer of land use rights in each period consistent with the law of each period? Does the land use rights transfer contract ensure the content and form according to the provisions of law? Because there are no conditions to understand such specialized issues of land law, the People's Jurors must rely on the opinion of the Judge who is the presiding judge of the trial. Because

Thus, the responsibility for adjudication is placed entirely on one Judge (the presiding judge) from the stage of studying the case file, preparing for the trial, questioning at the trial, deliberating, announcing the verdict and making the decision. The principle of " The Court adjudicates civil cases collectively and decides by majority ", and the principle of " when adjudicating, the People's Jury is equal in power to the Judge " when resolving land use disputes is not really accurate and convincing.

Also due to the inadequacy of the legal qualifications of the People's Jury, in a few cases where the People's Jury does not understand the law on land, and there are litigants who are relatives of the Jury, so they have different opinions from the Judge, because the Jury is the majority, the Judge is forced to declare a verdict according to the majority that is not in accordance with the law and then report to the higher Court for consideration of the appeal. When a case is revised, amended, or annulled, the responsibility of the Judge is clearly and strictly defined, while the responsibility of the Jury is not clear. On the other hand, the requirements for the trial work are increasingly high, the Trial Panel must have in-depth knowledge, apply the law accurately, the judgments and decisions of the Court must ensure quality, and there must be no injustice, mistakes, or violations of the rights and legitimate interests of citizens.

f. There are negative phenomena in the activities of the People's Court sector.

The summary report of the work of the People's Court has revealed that the current staff of the Court is still lacking, the professional qualifications and political will of a number of civil servants are still weak; there are even cadres who have declined in quality, ethics and professional responsibility, so they have violated discipline or violated criminal law, negatively affecting the reputation of the People's Court sector. Specifically: in 2009, the whole sector had 22 cadres who violated and were disciplined and 04 people were prosecuted for criminal liability; in 2010, the whole sector had 25 cadres who violated and were disciplined and 05 people were prosecuted for criminal liability; in 2011, the whole sector had 26 cadres who violated and were disciplined.

law and 05 people were prosecuted for criminal liability. The violations were in many forms, including accepting bribes, intentionally falsifying case files, issuing illegal judgments, etc. The reason was that some officials and judges still had a strong sense of individualism; lacked awareness of training and cultivating ethics and lifestyle; were not aware of the responsibility, ethics, and style of court officials; had a loose, pragmatic, opportunistic lifestyle; and did not seriously implement the Code of Conduct for officials and civil servants of the People's Court. The leaders of some local courts have not done a good job of educating revolutionary ethics and professional ethics for officials and judges; their management level is still limited, they are not close to the work of managing officials, and they lack appropriate forms and measures to manage and inspect the training and cultivation of officials and judges, so they have not been able to promptly detect and correct from the beginning the wrongdoings of judges, officials and civil servants to prevent violations; Internal inspection and control work has not been done well, so prevention is not high [17].

To overcome these shortcomings and deficiencies, the People's Court sector will pay more attention to the quality of cadres right from the recruitment stage, ensuring political standards, professional expertise, and ethical qualifications; strengthen political and ideological education, professional ethics, and sense of responsibility in the work of cadres and civil servants; strengthen internal inspection and examination to promptly detect errors of cadres and judges; resolutely not appoint or re-appoint judges who have made serious violations in their work; cases showing signs of crime will be transferred to the investigation agency for handling according to the provisions of law; continue to organize and effectively implement the campaign " Improving political capacity, ethical qualities, and lifestyle of judges, cadres, and civil servants of the People's Court sector "; widely deploy the study and follow of Ho Chi Minh's moral example throughout the industry, with the motto " Serving the public, following the law, being fair and impartial", "Must be close to the people, understanding the people, helping the people, learning from the people "

The reality of the Court sector in recent years shows that acts of bribery, bribery brokerage, bribe taking, and taking advantage of positions and powers for personal gain have been attacking the law enforcement activities of judicial agencies, including the Court. Corruption in the activities of People's Courts at all levels is a burning issue affecting the reputation of the sector. For various reasons, some officials and civil servants have not been able to resist material temptations. Although the number of Judges and Court Secretaries prosecuted is very small compared to the total number of Judges and Court Secretaries nationwide, it has caused a bad reputation for the sector and the law enforcement activities of the People's Court sector. When resolving disputes over land use rights, the victory or defeat in the case greatly affects the parties, so the application of the law to determine which party's request has a legal basis and which party has no legal basis to decide whose property belongs to which party is extremely important, requiring the Judge to be truly impartial, quick-witted, and accurate in choosing legal norms, in reviewing and evaluating evidence. If the application of the law to adjudicate, issue a verdict, or make a decision is considered a " favor " for the parties to extort, then the application of the law in resolving disputes over land use rights will certainly be distorted. Land and houses of one person will be decided by another.

If the harm of bribery and corruption in all aspects of social life is serious, the harm of bribery in the application of the law in trials conducted by judges is many times more serious. Because, when judges receive money, property, and material things from litigants, they must find ways to resolve them in their favor, so that their legitimate rights and interests are thoroughly protected, while poor people who do not have the financial ability to " run the case " will have to bear unfavorable judgments or even "go empty-handed ". That not only seriously affects the legitimate rights and interests of the people (which should be protected by law) but also makes

Justice is not served, social order and social justice are disrupted and more importantly, people lose confidence in the People's Court. In addition, if a judge does not have a clear political viewpoint, is not determined to protect the law, and is not impartial, he or she will be easily influenced by people in positions of authority, or by relatives, leading to mistakes in applying the law. The practice of trying a land corruption case in Do Son, Hai Phong city has caused much outrage in society. This is a great lesson about the " independence of adjudication " of the Court. The process of applying the law in resolving land use disputes shows that there are cases where people in positions of authority or their family members ask the judge to pay attention, and there are even cases where they do not ask for " attention ", but because of respect, the judge is not objective, impartial and fair in the trial.

On the other hand, in addition to work relationships, judges also have all normal social relationships like all other people in society such as family members, relatives, neighbors, friends, and colleagues. Asking for help to resolve disputes that are beneficial to them often happens and is a normal thing in life. If judges are not steadfast and determined to protect the law, the application of the law to resolve disputes will no longer be correct, and the judgments and decisions will not meet the necessary standards. In a letter to the Court, comrade Tran Duc Luong - Member of the Politburo of the Central Executive Committee of the Party, President of the State wrote:

Each of your decisions is not only a matter of clarifying right and wrong for the plaintiff and defendant in the case, but at the same time must be a lesson for each individual and organization to know how to protect freedom and democracy for themselves and the entire social community. Therefore, public opinion always closely follows your work.

Applying the law in resolving land use disputes at the People's Court - 9

Comment