Perfecting Legal Regulations on People's Jury

However, up to now, it can be seen that the awareness, assessment and regulation of the jury system are still not really complete. The preliminary report on the implementation of Resolution 49-NQ/TW of the Politburo on the Judicial Reform Strategy to 2020 of the Central Judicial Reform Steering Committee pointed out that “The awareness of a number of cadres and party members about the position and importance of judicial agencies in the rule of law state and judicial reform is not really correct; there is also the idea that the organization and operation of judicial agencies are similar to state administrative agencies, have been stably formed and are operating normally;…” and “The research to determine the theoretical basis for the organization and operation of judicial agencies and judicial reform has not received due attention; Many basic theoretical issues on the position, role, functions, and tasks of judicial agencies and judicial reform in the socialist rule of law state of the people, by the people, and for the people have not been clarified. Therefore, although they have become constitutional principles, "The system of legal documents on the organization and operation of judicial agencies has not been fully developed, and has not created a full legal basis; the quality of judicial staff is uneven, and a significant number of staff are weak in both professional expertise and political and ethical qualities; they have not yet promoted a sense of responsibility in their work, and their sense of respect and compliance with the law is not high; they lack objectivity and impartiality, which undermines people's trust in judicial agencies" [2, p.121].

On the part of the masses, because they have not yet fully understood the role of their representatives in participating in the trial and from reality, they think that the jurors participate to complete the formalities of the court. Especially when attending the trial, the public sees some jurors being passive and confused, so they have an even more impression of the formality of the juror system. Regarding jurors, in addition to those who actively and proactively participate, there are also those who are too passive. It is also possible that because they have not fully calculated the factors affecting the organization and effectiveness of the jurors' activities, so far, the law has not officially assigned any agency to uniformly manage the jurors of the People's Courts. Even the names "jurors" or "HTND", "TAND jurors" are still expressed differently in many documents; The content of regulations on juries is still scattered in many places and has not been systematized... Many opinions say that juries participating in trials in criminal cases are still heavily formalistic, the role of "judge" is very vague, the image of juries is still unclear.

The People's Court in the Criminal Procedure Code does not have any clear characteristics (see subsection 2.1.2.2), but the concept, perception and regulations are no different from the People's Court when participating in the trial of civil and administrative cases.

To overcome this, in the coming time, along with deepening, more complete and timely regulations on the People's Court system, organizations and competent agencies need to continue to research and provide clear regulations and instructions on the People's Court system in our regime. It is possible to organize seminars and specialized studies to evaluate the People's Court system as well as the regulation and application of the trial organization model with the People's Court in criminal proceedings. This should be considered one of the unique and superior manifestations of a state of the people, by the people and for the people, and at the same time identified as one of the outstanding issues that need to be focused on in the current Judicial Reform Strategy and in the goal of building a socialist rule of law state in our country.

From the determination of the importance and significance of the regulation of the participation of jurors in trials, it is necessary to adjust and supplement legal documents related to the People's Court system to have appropriate regulations, close to practical requirements and development trends. At the same time, it is necessary to pay attention to propaganda work, comprehensively and systematically introducing this system. Strengthening propaganda and explaining legal regulations and activities of the People's Court need to take place regularly in many different forms; the target audience is not only the people, but also the relevant agencies and organizations, first of all the agencies and people conducting the proceedings and participating in the proceedings. Doing this work well will help awareness, coordination and support for the activities of the People's Court to be more effective. For people, when they clearly understand the role and function of the People's Council, they will support and have more trust in the Party's policies, the State's laws and policies as well as the work of the People's Council.

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Propaganda and explanation of the law also need to be strengthened for the People's Court team itself. This includes the policies and laws of our Party and State in general, as well as criminal law, criminal procedure and regulations related to the People's Court system. Propaganda and explanation of the law here also means focusing on updating information, general trial guidelines and in applying legal regulations when trying criminal cases. This will

help the social community and each people's council have a fuller and clearer awareness of the role and responsibility of the people's council, especially the people's council in the criminal procedure.

4.2.2. Perfecting legal regulations on people's juries

From the results of theoretical research in Chapter 2, the practice of regulations and enforcement of the law on the People's Court in Chapter 3 of the thesis, as well as to meet the requirements, the completion of the law on the institution of people's courts in general and the People's Court in the Criminal Procedure Code in particular is extremely urgent. In which, it is necessary to focus on the following basic contents:

First, it is necessary to soon promulgate the Law on Jury.

Vietnam is increasingly integrating with the world, the issue of human rights and new requirements are requiring the legal system to be adjusted and improved. After more than 30 years of implementing the renovation, the socio-economic situation in our country has made great strides, dozens of laws related to various areas of social life have been built, many of which have been supplemented and amended many times. While the People's Court system is identified as one of the unique manifestations, playing a very important role in the rule of law state, it has not really been focused on, after more than 70 years, the regulations are still scattered in many documents, causing many difficulties in implementation.

In order to contribute to the completion of the legal system, to regulate in a synchronous and unified manner the People's Court system in general and the People's Court system in the Criminal Procedure Code in particular, it is necessary to have a separate law on the People's Court in Vietnam. The Law on the People's Court was built and promulgated not only to codify and systematize the current regulations on the People's Court system, but also to institutionalize the Party's policies and guidelines on judicial reform in the current period.

The Law on Juries will be comprehensive and comprehensive in regulating issues related to juries in litigation, focusing on the following main contents:

- General regulations on the jury (role, position, function, ...)

- Duties, powers and responsibilities of the jury

- Conditions, standards; procedures, processes for selecting, electing, dismissing, and removing jurors

- Relationship of the jury (People's Court, military jury)

- Manage and supervise jury activities

- Mechanisms and policies to ensure the operation of the jury...

In order for the Law on Jury to be promulgated, the Supreme People's Court must soon conduct research, coordinate with relevant departments to closely follow the Party's policy on judicial reform, review legal documents, refer to progressive procedural models, assess the actual conditions of Vietnam to propose to the National Assembly in the law-making program. In particular, it is necessary to amend, adjust and supplement to ensure consistency with the provisions in the Law on Organization of People's Courts 2014, the Criminal Procedure Code 2015 and other laws and legal documents.

Second, amend and supplement regulations to enhance the role of human jurors in criminal proceedings.

In the Law on People's Juries, in addition to inheriting current regulations, it is necessary to clarify, adjust and supplement some new contents. Specifically, in addition to the principles of trial with people's jurors; judges and people's jurors are independent when trying, in criminal cases (except for cases of trial under the simplified procedure), there can be 2 options: first , if the composition of the People's Jury remains the same as it is now (2 people's jurors, 1 judge; 3 people's jurors, 2 judges or increase the composition of people's jurors in the People's Jury), then people's jurors and judges will have completely equal rights throughout the trial process of the case; second , increase the number of people's jurors (as proposed in section 4.2.3 or according to the jury model), then people's jurors will only participate in the trial and decide whether the defendant is guilty or not guilty, while the determination of crime, punishment and other responsibilities will be decided by the judge. Regarding the selection procedures, the election of the People's Council should be expanded to include more participants than at present, in a public direction so that those who are qualified can run for election, receive nominations for the local People's Council to elect for each term and not maintain two consecutive terms. To ensure objectivity, instead of the Chief Justice of the People's Court appointing the People's Council to participate in the trial of each case, randomly select the People's Council. On the other hand, to make the trial take place seriously and enhance the responsibility of the People's Council when trying criminal cases, it is necessary to stipulate additional oath-taking procedures when the People's Council is elected and before the trial of each case. In addition, there should be specific regulations and protection mechanisms for the People's Council and their relatives when they perform their duties; the management, supervision, reward and discipline of the People's Council; and the legal responsibility of the People's Council. In parallel, the law needs to supplement,

Specific regulations in the direction of increasing the level of handling and sanctions for cases of jurors' violations, acts of preventing and interfering with the performance of juror duties; more specifically defining the rights and responsibilities of jurors during trials and in litigation activities; basic requirements when assigning and performing juror duties in different fields and types of cases, etc.

For the People's Court in the Criminal Procedure Code, in addition to general regulations, it is necessary to define more clearly the conditions, responsibilities and ensuring the ability of the jury to judge and conduct proceedings.

While waiting for the development and promulgation of the law on juries, the Supreme People's Court needs to review legal documents, organize assessments of the practical activities of juries, and act as a focal point to advise and propose to the Standing Committee of the National Assembly, the National Assembly, and within its authority, coordinate with other competent agencies to abolish, amend, adjust, and supplement current regulations to suit practical requirements.

4.2.3. Perfecting regulations, applying and implementing basic principles of criminal procedure and conditions, organizing people's juries

First, on the basic principles of criminal procedure

Current Vietnamese law stipulates that when trying a People's Court, the People's Court has the same power as a judge, but the actual implementation of those powers by judges and jurors is not the same, as analyzed in section 3.3.1. To overcome this situation, there needs to be more specific and clear regulations on the conditions, powers and responsibilities of each member of the People's Court, especially for the People's Court in each work content and each stage in the process of resolving a case. How can those conducting the proceedings and each juror fully understand their roles and responsibilities in order to properly perform the assigned tasks during the proceedings and at each trial?

Regarding the principle that judges and jurors are independent and only obey the law when adjudicating. Up to now, there has been no conclusion to confirm the level of legal knowledge of jurors that is sufficient for them to demonstrate their independence, and it is impossible to require them to meet the same standards as judges. In terms of regulations and actual activities, it is very difficult for jurors to implement the principle of independent adjudication.

Survey results, answering the question "To promote the role of people's representatives in participating in the trial of criminal cases effectively, which model should be followed?" for the two popular models of selecting people's representatives to participate in the trial, which are random selection or election by term, up to 70% of opinions said that it should be "Random selection (like jurors)", only 17% agreed with the model "As it is now (election by term)" and 13% had "Other opinions" ( Chart 4.4, Appendix, p.14 ). The fact that the majority of opinions said "Random selection" on the one hand reflects the lack of trust and ineffectiveness of the form of selecting People's Courts as well as the reality of People's Courts when participating in trials, on the other hand, it also shows that the method, process, and capacity of People's Courts in the trial of criminal cases currently need to be adjusted.

The People's Court is a person who lives and works with the community, so it is easy to be influenced and pressured when participating in criminal trials. Not to mention, because the working conditions, treatment regime, and protection mechanism for jurors and their relatives are still unclear, it is difficult to ensure that they feel secure when performing their duties. On the other hand, due to the regulations on the responsibilities of jurors when participating in trials, if a case is found to be unjust, wrong, or the verdict is annulled or amended, it is still unclear, which also makes jurors not pay attention and not really responsible to give objective views and opinions.

From there, there are opinions that the jury model should be applied in criminal trials like in the US, Australia, ... and in fact in the Russian Federation, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the jury and jury models were applied alternately when trying criminal cases. Recently, there have been opinions suggesting the formation of a jury of 7 or 9 people for very serious and especially serious criminal cases (giving opinions on whether the defendant is guilty or not guilty), along with that the jury will try according to the principles as currently prescribed; the jury must be 27 years of age or older like the judge [4]. However, this is also unreasonable and not in line with general requirements, because it will increase the number of jury members in each case and the subsequent trial (decisions on punishment, civil liability and other issues are still made by the jury including the judge and the jury). In fact, the jury model in Vietnam has existed for a long time and brought about many remarkable results; historical and cultural factors in Vietnam have their own characteristics (relations between brothers, relatives, and emotional factors are highly valued, while the jury is a local person); legal awareness and the level of

The basic intellectual level of the people is still not uniform in each region and locality;... Therefore, if the jury or jury system is applied at the present time, it will be necessary to amend the Constitution and legal documents related to the criminal procedure and disrupt and affect some viewpoints, the organization and implementation, and cause costs for the State and society. Therefore, the jury model or the interweaving of the jury (jury) and the People's Court system in trials in Vietnam still need to continue to have time to study and apply when ensuring practical conditions.

Based on the practice in Vietnam (Chapter 3) and through the experience in some countries and territories (See subsection 2.5.4) 12 ,... the author of the thesis proposes to increase the number of arbitrators to 4 or 5 in the panel of judges instead of 2 or 3 as at present. Specifically, the panel of judges at first instance in criminal cases consists of 1 judge and 4 arbitrators, in cases of serious and complicated nature, the panel of judges consists of 2 judges and 5 arbitrators. As

Therefore, the Law on Criminal Procedure will stipulate as follows: “Except for cases of trial under summary procedure, the first instance panel of criminal cases consists of 4 jurors and 1 judge. For serious or complicated cases, the panel of jurors consists of 5 jurors and 2 judges. The jurors participate in the trial of the case and together with the judge decide whether the defendant is guilty or not guilty. The decision on whether the defendant is guilty or not guilty is decided by secret ballot of the panel of jurors and is valid when there are 4/5 votes or more for the panel of 5 people and 5/7 votes or more for the panel of 7 people. The judge decides on the punishment and civil liability of the case” .

The reason for this proposal is because: 1) increasing the proportion of People's Court members in the People's Court to demonstrate the representative participation of the people in the trial is necessary, in line with the general trend; 2) increasing People's Court members and secret ballots with a high consensus rate (4/5 or 5/7) ensures more democracy, demonstrates the independent will of the members of the People's Court, and limits external influences; 3) People's Court members in our country are selected and elected for a term of 5 years, along with regulations on legal knowledge, social understanding and other requirements, so they basically have the capacity to adjudicate and must be managed and bound by measures.

12 When trying serious criminal cases (criminal courts), countries stipulate: in France, there are 9 jurors for the first instance trial, 12 jurors for the appeal trial; in Italy, the criminal court consists of 2 judges and 6 amateur judges; in Japan, there are 3 professional judges and 6 non-professional judges; in Korea, there are 9 jurors; in Taiwan, there are 3 judges and 6 jurors, etc. Regarding the verdict, most countries stipulate that the jurors and jurors only participate in deciding whether the defendant is guilty or not guilty. In cases where the judge and the jurors (non-professional judges) conduct the trial together, the decision of the panel of judges is effective in France and Taiwan when 2/3 or more, etc.

sanctions; 4) The People's Court only participates in deciding whether the defendant is guilty or not guilty because the People's Court is not a professional judge and is not subject to management and professional factors like a judge; 5) The proposed regulations basically still ensure the principles and viewpoints on legal policies; do not cause disruption, are consistent with the traditions and economic and cultural conditions of Vietnam; contribute to overcoming current shortcomings and limitations and have access to the criminal procedure model of other countries. The voting ratio of the People's Court is 4/5 and 5/7 because criminal cases always require caution, objectivity and high consensus. In complex cases (the People's Court consists of 5 People's Courts and 2 judges), only 5/7 is needed because at this time the judge also plays the role of a representative of the people.

Second, on the conditions and organization of people's juries

According to current regulations, based on the proposal of the Chief Justice of the local People's Court (district and provincial levels), the local Vietnam Fatherland Front Committee will select and recommend the People's Council at the same level to elect, dismiss, and remove the People's Council. This regulation has been maintained for decades, but under current conditions, it shows that many things are no longer suitable and effective, because it is difficult to avoid emotional situations and are heavily structural and formal. For these reasons, it is necessary to study and change the regulations on standards and procedures for electing, dismissing, and removing the People's Council. Specifically:

Selection criteria for the People's Court: It should be stipulated and applied that the person selected to be elected as the People's Court along with the conditions of moral qualities, health factors, etc. must have an education level from intermediate level of law or higher or after being elected must undergo a legal training course from 2 to 3 months before participating in the selection list for criminal trial. Regarding age, the People's Court should instead of 21 years old as at present, it should be raised to at least 23 years old, because the People's Court in our country participates in direct trials, at this age they can complete the professional program and have certain experience. In practice, in the past, there were almost no jurors under 23 years old. Moreover, this was also the age that our country's law previously prescribed for jurors (period 1959-1980) and is now applied by many countries and territories (France, Taiwan: 23 years old; Russia: 25 years old; China: 28 years old, ...). In addition, it is necessary to increase the number of jurors with specialized knowledge in different fields to meet the practical requirements of adjudication.

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