Ensuring Regimes and Policies for People's Jurors in Criminal Proceedings

not fully performing their duties. Specifically, when the People's Court violates regulations, in addition to administrative and criminal sanctions, it will also be fined and have to pay compensation like other litigants.

4.2.7. Ensuring regimes and policies for people's jurors in criminal proceedings

Currently, most countries in the world have strict regulations on the protection of judges, jurors and their relatives. For example, in the Russian Federation, the Criminal Code of this country stipulates: Harming the life (murder or attempted murder) of a judge, juror, or any person involved in judicial activities... as well as their relatives, related to the examination of cases or documents in court or investigative activities, with the aim of obstructing the lawful activities of that person or taking revenge for such activities, shall be punished by imprisonment for a term of 12 to 20 years with probation for up to two years or life imprisonment or the death penalty (Article 295 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). Articles 296 and 297 of this Code also stipulate strict penalties for acts of disrespecting the court, threatening to kill or injure, destroying or damaging property related to judges, jurors or other people participating in the trial as well as their relatives... Meanwhile, Article 391 of the 2015 Penal Code of Vietnam stipulates: Anyone who, at a trial or meeting, insults or seriously offends the honor and dignity of a judge, juror, other person with the authority to conduct proceedings or a person participating in a trial or meeting or destroys property... shall be fined up to 100,000,000 VND... or imprisoned from 06 months to 02 years. If the act leads to the suspension of the trial or meeting; assaulting a judge, juror... can be imprisoned for up to 3 years. Such a provision is still simple and the sanctions are quite light. To contribute to preventing violations of court operations as well as having measures to protect judicial officials in general, People's Courts and their relatives in particular when performing their duties, the law needs to specifically stipulate heavier penalties for individuals and groups committing crimes related to this field, similar to the provisions of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.

In criminal cases, the People's Court is always under a lot of pressure, sometimes from the organizations and agencies that manage them or from outside. In cases where the People's Court does not follow the "suggestions" of superiors, such as from the Party organization, the head of the management unit, the Chief Justice of the People's Court, etc., they may not be invited to participate in the trial of subsequent cases or be considered and evaluated for their positive cooperation in work. Many times, the People's Court is influenced by public opinion, threats from forces related to the case, even bribed, "fixed", etc. Therefore, it is necessary to have a regular and comprehensive assessment and summary of the practical activities of the People's Court. Thereby, it is possible to detect difficulties and shortcomings due to policy mechanisms, in order to promptly adjust and promptly resolve practical problems and requirements; there should be specific regulations on handling cases of intervention and obstruction of the People's Court's activities; Add fines to the measures to handle violations against participants in the proceedings; develop plans and training programs, management and control forms for People's Courts in improving knowledge, skills and professional activities.

Along with correctly defining the role and tasks of the People's Court, the law needs to stipulate that the People's Court enjoys regimes commensurate with its position and work, such as financial support sources, working facilities of the People's Court, social insurance and health insurance regimes (for jurors who are not civil servants or employees). When the People's Court performs its duties as a juror, it must be considered an act of performing official duties; there must be a mechanism to ensure that the People's Court has the best conditions to perform its duties; there must be clear and strict sanctions against groups and individuals who obstruct, interfere, or cause mental and material harm to the People's Court and their relatives when performing their duties as jurors, including related cases that occur later.

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The current budget for jurors is 90,000 VND/day for trial and case file reading, which is too low and not suitable for reality. Not to mention, the mechanisms to ensure rights and protect jurors are still unclear or not applied consistently, so in reality, many jurors, when assigned to participate in court sessions, have refused for these reasons. It is necessary to identify jurors when performing their duties as a special task and to stipulate an increase in the current compensation level for jurors when participating in trials or studying case files, higher than the general income level and income level.

income that the People's Council is enjoying; consider having a monthly allowance regime for the People's Council, have a suitable mechanism for business expenses, necessary expenses for the People's Council when performing duties. Because, the trial is not a regular job, every time the People's Council is invited to participate in the trial (conduct proceedings), they have to spend time, be affected by many issues and affect their daily work. At the same time, it is possible to base on the nature, complexity of the type of case, the case and the performance of the task (for example, dividing into types of cases A, B, C) to form different levels of remuneration for judges and the People's Council. This is also one of the bases for evaluating the capacity and performance results of judges and the People's Council annually and throughout the term.

According to regulations, the jury and the judge directly try the case from beginning to end, but while the judge wears a robe (applied from January 1, 2018), the jurors' uniform is currently being implemented according to Resolution No. 214/2016/UBTVQH13 dated June 13, 2016 of the Standing Committee of the National Assembly). Recently, the Supreme People's Court has planned to design costumes for the jury and there are opinions that the jurors also need to have regulations on appropriate costumes when trying cases. However, the author of the thesis is inclined to the view that the jurors should wear appropriate costumes, and should not wear the same robe as the judge because this can easily cause the jurors to lose their image and role as representatives of the people in the trial.

4.2.8. Some other solutions

Currently, the law does not have specific instructions on what jurors are not allowed to do, the ethical and social standards, and the necessary communication and behavioral standards for each juror... Therefore, competent authorities do not have an official basis to evaluate each specific case in the process of rewarding, disciplining, and dismissing jurors. In some cases, jurors violate the law or commit serious ethical violations, affecting the reputation of the judicial agency, but there is no legal basis to handle them promptly.

According to current regulations, the People's Court is elected by the local People's Council and has a term of 5 years according to the term of the People's Council, so there are also unreasonable points. Because, the trial activities, along with professional capacity, working conditions also require time to accumulate experience and through a long-term training and development process,

Only science can achieve the best level and skills of adjudication. If at present, the election of the People's Council's judges is carried out according to the term of the People's Council but without criteria on legal knowledge, expertise and binding mechanisms, promoting the ability of the judges, it will not only cause waste in training and fostering work, and the organizational structure of the People's Council will be easily disrupted and unstable, but in some ways it will also affect the principle of independent adjudication of the People's Council. Therefore, there should be specific criteria from the time of selecting and electing the People's Council and should expand the composition and subjects of the People's Council in a public direction and the time of serving as a judge should not be prolonged (not serving as a People's Council for two consecutive terms) to have more people serving as judges and avoid negative issues that may occur.

Regarding the number of jurors, according to the provisions of Circular No. 01/2004/TANDTC-UBTWMTTQVN dated March 1, 2004 guiding the preparation of personnel and the introduction of the election of jurors, for the provincial-level jurors, for every 2 judges of the provincial People's Court, there are 3 provincial-level jurors, but the total number of jurors of a provincial-level juror is not less than 20 people and not more than 100 people, and for the district-level jurors, for every 1 judge of the People's Court, there are 2 district-level jurors, but the total number of jurors of a district-level juror is not less than 15 people and not more than 50 people. Such a provision means that the maximum number of jurors of a district-level juror is only 50 people and is equal to 1/2 of the maximum number of jurors of a provincial-level juror (100 people) [123]. Meanwhile, the number of first-instance trials (trials with the participation of jurors) at the district-level People's Court is much higher than that at the provincial-level People's Court. Not to mention, according to the general trend and proposal, the People's Court will increase in number, proportion, capacity, and professional knowledge to try each case, so it will be necessary to expand the composition and number of the People's Court.

Some legal provisions on the system of people's assessors are currently overlapping or no longer suitable to reality. For example, the implementation of professional training for people's assessors. Article 9 of the Ordinance on Judges and People's Assessors 2002 stipulates that "Chief Justices of People's Courts at all levels, within the scope of their duties and powers, are responsible for organizing professional training for judges and people's assessors", but Article 26 of the Regulations on the organization and operation of people's assessors stipulates that "Chief Justices of People's Courts of provinces and centrally-run cities are responsible for organizing professional training".

Perhaps based on the provisions of Article 26 of the above Regulations, since 2006, the funding for professional training for jurors has only been provided to provincial-level People's Courts and not to district-level People's Courts.

According to the 2013 Constitution, the People's Court is the agency that exercises judicial power, performs the adjudication function and is the only agency that has the right to make judgments on violations of the law and disputes. However, Clause 4, Article 326 stipulates that "In case the prosecutor withdraws the entire decision to prosecute, the Trial Panel will still resolve the issues of the case according to the procedures prescribed in Clause 1 of this Article. If there is a basis to determine that the defendant is not guilty, the Trial Panel will declare the defendant not guilty; if the withdrawal of the decision to prosecute is found to be unfounded, the Trial Panel will decide to temporarily suspend the case and make a recommendation to the chief prosecutor of the same-level People's Procuracy or the chief prosecutor of the immediate superior People's Procuracy." Specifically, in case the prosecutor withdraws the entire decision to prosecute, but if the Trial Panel finds that the withdrawal of the decision to prosecute is unfounded, the Trial Panel will decide to temporarily suspend the case and make a recommendation to the chief prosecutor of the same-level People's Procuracy or the chief prosecutor of the immediate superior People's Procuracy. This seems unsatisfactory. Because, it is true that during the trial stage, the prosecutor is assigned to exercise the right to prosecute and supervise compliance with the law, but along with the proceedings and trial at the court, including respecting the results of the debate, the panel of judges also has the authority to initiate a case or request the prosecutor to initiate a criminal case if, through the trial at the court, it is discovered that a crime has been overlooked (Clause 4, Article 153 of the 2015 Criminal Procedure Code), the prosecutor still has the right to appeal and the case can still be tried at the appeal stage. In particular, the general principles clearly define the role and tasks of the People's Court and the Panel of Judges in criminal cases. This shows that there is a contradiction with the spirit of the 2013 Constitution and invisibly eliminates the principle of "the Panel of Judges adjudicates independently, only obeying the law", the role of the Panel of Judges, including the People's Court, is not respected as prescribed. In order to comply with the provisions of the 2013 Constitution, while ensuring the proper roles and tasks of the People's Court, the People's Court and the People's Court in criminal proceedings, it is necessary to consider amending Clause 4, Article 326 of the 2015 Criminal Procedure Code as follows: " In case the prosecutor withdraws the entire prosecution decision, the People's Court will still resolve the issues of the case according to the procedures prescribed in Clause 1 of this Article.

If there is a basis to determine that the defendant is not guilty, the panel of judges shall declare the defendant not guilty; if it finds that the withdrawal of the prosecution decision is unfounded, the panel of judges shall still resolve the case according to regulations and notify the chief prosecutor of the same level or the chief prosecutor of the immediate superior level .

The law stipulates that the presiding judge or another member of the panel of judges shall pronounce the judgment by reading the judgment, but the law does not stipulate that the full text or a part of the judgment be read. Currently, our courts pronounce the judgment by reading the entire judgment verbatim, but in reality, many criminal judgments are long, with unnecessary content or repeated content, sometimes just for formality. Furthermore, the law also stipulates that the presiding judge or another member of the panel of judges (including the People's Court) shall read the judgment and, after reading, may further explain the enforcement of the judgment and the right to appeal (Article 327 of the 2015 Criminal Procedure Code). While the People's Court is a member of the panel of judges, from a social perspective, it represents the role of the people, so if the person who reads the judgment and participates in explaining the enforcement of the judgment and the right to appeal may reduce the solemnity of the trial and feel inappropriate. Therefore, it is possible to stipulate that when pronouncing the verdict, the court only needs to read the entire decision part of the verdict and amend Article 327 of the 2015 Criminal Procedure Code to read the verdict. In case of a closed trial, the decision part of the verdict is read. After reading, further explanation can be given about the execution of the verdict and the right to appeal .

On the other hand, currently, in localities, Jury Groups have been formed, so it is necessary to create conditions for Jury Groups to truly be professional social organizations with high autonomy and soon form a common Jury Federation of the whole country, in which Jury Groups at provincial and district levels are members. The organized unity of the Jury will contribute positively to the management, operation, exchange of professional skills and trial experience for the People's Jury. At the same time, research to soon develop a Code of Conduct and Professional Ethics for the People's Jury. This Code not only includes standard provisions in the activities and relationships of the Jury, but also contributes to supplementing legal provisions, serving as a basis and basis for management, protection of rights, assessment of rewards, discipline and handling of the People's Jury.

The current regulations on the People's Court are still scattered in many legal documents with different legal effects and areas of regulation. This causes many difficulties in determining the legal status of the People's Court as well as in exercising the rights and obligations of the People's Court; the process of resolving remuneration regimes, professional training, protection of the People's Court and their relatives when performing their duties, etc. Therefore, the Supreme People's Court needs to pay attention to reviewing, organizing experience sharing on trial work, exchanging professional knowledge with local courts in applying the law to ensure the correct and consistent implementation of the law. Through conferences, seminars and coordination with organizations and competent agencies to evaluate the activities of the People's Court, the Supreme People's Court has directions to promptly resolve difficulties and obstacles as well as to adjust or propose amendments to related regulations and activities to enhance the role and effectiveness of the People's Court in criminal proceedings.

Chapter 4 Conclusion

Analysis and assessment of regulations and practical application of the mechanism of people's representatives participating in trials and the requirements set forth show that, in order to effectively promote the role of the People's Court in current criminal proceedings in our country, it is necessary to soon study and have solutions to adjust the People's Court system in general and the People's Court in criminal proceedings in particular. Specifically:

Firstly, it is necessary to clarify the mechanism of the People's Court in the criminal procedure from the viewpoint, perception, to regulations and application to see the role of the People's Court in participating in the trial and conducting the current proceedings in Vietnam. According to theory, the People's Court is the one who brings the breath of life into the process of deciding the verdicts, helping the trial of criminal cases to be fair, effective, correct for the right person, right for the right crime, right for the law. Moreover, the selection and implementation of the People's Court model in the criminal procedure in Vietnam also reflects the nature of the regime, inheriting traditional cultural and historical values and being characteristic of the socio-economic conditions of our country. In addition, it is also based on the requirements for the trial and the People's Court in the criminal procedure to select and promote progressive experiences, in line with the current trend of integration and development.

Second, the strengthening of research and improvement of legal regulations on the People's Court system in general and the People's Court system in particular needs to be carried out synchronously, fundamentally, stably, and highly enforceable. In particular, it is necessary to review, analyze, and evaluate the advantages, limitations, and shortcomings, both in terms of regulations and practical implementation, in order to soon promulgate the Law on People's Court. The Law on People's Court was born not only in accordance with current practical requirements, when the socio-economic situation in our country has developed, many other areas of judicial activities (courts, prosecutors, lawyers, etc.) have had laws for a long time, while the People's Court system is still only regulated in the Ordinance on judges and people's court assessors in 2002 and is scattered in other legal documents, but also meets the requirements of enhancing the role of People's Court and perfecting the current legal system.

Third, it is necessary to pay attention and have effective solutions in choosing the litigation model, with attention to training and enhancing the capacity and experience of adjudication, especially legal knowledge for jurors. How to make the participation of jurors in adjudication activities truly effective, but not to judge and make

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