The principle of ensuring the impartiality of litigants or participants in the proceedings in Vietnamese Criminal Procedure Law – theoretical and practical issues - 11


These are: Wife, husband, biological father, biological mother, adoptive father, adoptive mother, biological child, adopted child; Paternal grandfather, paternal grandmother, maternal grandfather, paternal grandmother, biological brother, biological sister; Paternal great-grandfather, maternal great-grandfather of one of the above persons; paternal uncle, paternal aunt, paternal aunt; paternal grandchild whose surname is paternal uncle, paternal aunt, paternal aunt.” [24].

These people have certain emotional relationships with the accused, defendant, victim, civil plaintiff, civil defendant and people with rights and obligations related to the case. The power of blood relations will make people behave in a biased manner, protecting each other when there is a matter affecting the rights and interests of their relatives. Therefore, if the THTT conducts activities to resolve a criminal case against their relatives, it is inevitable that they will "inadvertently" be biased in favor of the relatives.

Thus, if the THTT person is also the subjects analyzed above, they cannot THTT. Because then, the assessments and decisions they make will no longer come from impartiality and will hardly be convincing. The consequence is creating arbitrary orders and lack of objectivity in the litigation process, which can even lead to criminals being let go, innocent people being wrongly convicted, justice not being enforced, and more seriously, reducing people's trust in the fairness of the law.

Second: the THTT person participated as a defender, witness, expert, or interpreter in that case.

Maybe you are interested!

According to this regulation, the person performing the procedural activities in accordance with their functions and duties is not allowed to perform the procedural activities in accordance with their functions and duties if they have participated in the case as a defender, witness, expert, or interpreter. Defenders, witnesses, experts, and interpreters are the persons performing the procedural activities out of duty or to protect justice. Their rights and interests are not affected by the criminal settlement decisions of the procedural people, but the Law on Procedures still stipulates that if a person has performed the procedural activities in the above capacity, if assigned to perform the procedural activities in the same case, they must refuse or will be replaced. This regulation is aimed at avoiding subjective prejudices of the procedural people in resolving criminal cases.

A defense attorney is a person invited by a detainee, suspect, or defendant to protect his or her rights or is assigned by the criminal investigation agencies to defend the suspect or defendant according to the provisions of law. The purpose of a criminal investigation attorney is mainly to clarify

The principle of ensuring the impartiality of litigants or participants in the proceedings in Vietnamese Criminal Procedure Law – theoretical and practical issues - 11


exculpatory or mitigating circumstances and assisting the accused in legal matters. Thus, the defense counsel has formed a view of the case in a direction that is favorable to the people they are defending. If they are the litigants, the people who have the obligation to prove in a criminal case, it is easy to confuse their duties if they play both the role of litigator and defender. Therefore, the law stipulates that a person who has participated as a defense counsel cannot participate as a litigator and vice versa. At the same time, at Point 2, Clause 1, Article 56 of the Criminal Procedure Code, it is also stipulated that they cannot act as defenders when they are relatives of those who have or are litigating in that case. With this provision, not only the litigator in that case cannot become a defender, but even relatives of the litigator cannot become defenders. According to the guidance of Resolution No. 03/2004/HDTP, in cases where the accused, defendant, or their legal representative has hired a defense attorney in previous stages of the proceedings and now continues to hire that person to defend them, it is necessary to consider whether that person is related to the Judge, Jury, or Court Secretary assigned to the case. If there is a relationship with someone assigned to the case, it is necessary to assign another person who is not related to the person assigned to defend them to replace the defense attorney and issue a defense attorney certificate to that person. Such a provision is reasonable because if the defense attorney has participated in defending the accused from the investigation stage, to the first instance or appeal trial stage, the assigned defense attorney is a relative of the defense attorney, then the defense attorney will not be assigned to defend the accused anymore, but will not replace the defense attorney to avoid difficulties in the defense of the accused because if another person is invited to defend, the new defense attorney will have to start over from the beginning, wasting time, effort and often ineffective.

Witnesses, experts, and interpreters are the people who assist the investigation agency at the request of the investigation agency. Their participation is to provide the investigation agency with necessary information and documents (sources of evidence) such as witnesses providing what they know about the case, experts giving expert conclusions at the request of the competent authority or interpreters, third parties, acting as intermediaries between the investigation agency and the person who assists the investigation agency in the process of proving the truth of the case. Therefore, if they


It is very difficult to be objective when one is both the provider and the evaluator of the information and documents they provide. Therefore, they cannot be the reviewer at the same time.

Third : There are other clear grounds to believe that the THTT person may not be impartial in the performance of his duties .

This is a general basis and anticipates situations that may occur while resolving criminal cases. In reality, it is impossible to list in the law all the cases that may lead to the lack of impartiality of the arbitrators. In society, there will be many situations that can easily lead to the lack of impartiality of the arbitrators, but to apply this basis, it is required that the arbitrators, when refusing or the person with the right to change or request a change, must provide clear evidence to prove the lack of impartiality or lack of impartiality of the arbitrators. With this basis, according to the guidance at Point c, Section 4, Part I, Resolution 03/2004/NQ-HDTP of the Council of Judges dated October 2, 2004:

…c) There is another clear basis to believe that they may not be impartial while performing their duties. In addition to the cases specified in Clause 1 and Clause 2, Article 42 of the Criminal Procedure Code, in other cases (such as in love relationships, in-law relationships, work relationships, economic relationships, etc.), there is a clear basis to affirm that the Judge, the Jury, and the Court Secretary cannot be impartial while performing their duties. For example: The Jury is the sworn brother of the suspect or defendant; the Judge is the son-in-law of the defendant; the victim is the Head of the agency where the Judge's wife works... and there is clear basis to prove that in their lives there is a close emotional relationship, an economic relationship, etc.

It is also considered that there are other clear grounds to believe that they may not be impartial in the performance of their duties if, in the same criminal trial, the Prosecutor, Judge, Jury and Court Clerk are related to each other [24].

Thus, the guidance of the Council of Judges has provided a number of cases that may lead to lack of impartiality when performing the duties of a THTT person, however, it is not possible to list all the cases that may occur in life. Based on the guidance, it can be seen that the factors leading to lack of impartiality of a person


Emotional, material, and spiritual factors of others affect the person with emotional factors, causing them to have behaviors and decisions that are beneficial or disadvantageous to the person with emotional factors.

The emotional factor can be understood as in addition to the kinship relationship guided in Resolution No. 03 of the Council of Judges as analyzed above, in society, people can have many other relationships that give rise to feelings with each other, which can be feelings between people who have gratitude for each other, between people who love each other, know each other or between them have certain conflicts. Those relationships create an attitude of love or hate between the THTT and the TGTT. Therefore, if in the process of resolving a case, between the THTT and the TGTT there are such feelings, it will lead to the inability to suppress the emotions inside while performing their responsibilities and from there will be actions that are not impartial when resolving criminal cases.

Material factors also have a significant impact on the impartiality of the THTT when conducting criminal proceedings. As human life needs are increasingly improved, material things are an important factor, determining the existence and development of human beings. People work and participate in social relations with the first purpose of ensuring the lives of themselves, their families and their loved ones. Currently, if those who have responsibilities and roles in resolving criminal cases are not guaranteed by the State, meeting the needs of material life or those who have unclear professional conscience, it will lead to them being unable to avoid the temptation of money and from there will lead to not being impartial when performing their duties.

The spiritual factor is a difficult factor to determine in the relationship between people, but it has a significant impact on human behavior in their activities. One of the spiritual relationships that has a great impact on human perception, including the THTT and the TGTT, is the relationship of power. Interventions by leaders who do not have direct authority in resolving criminal cases or the fact that the offender is a "son of a boss" will lead to THTT and the TGTT being unbiased and objective because of respect or pressure from "superiors". Therefore, it is required that THTT and the TGTT must be clear-headed, impartial and have solid professional qualifications to be able to carry out their responsibilities.

Thus, if there is clear basis for the THTT person and the TGTT person to bear the cost


The combination of emotional, material and spiritual factors while performing their responsibilities needs to be changed immediately or these people themselves need to refuse if they realize that they cannot be impartial in resolving criminal cases.

Fourth: A person may not hold multiple positions of a judge in the same case as stipulated in Point b, Clause 1, Article 44, Point b, Clause 1, Article 45, Point c, Clause 1, Article 46, Point b, Clause 1, Article 47 of the Criminal Procedure Code. If a person has held a trial as an investigator, he/she may not hold a trial as a prosecutor or judge and vice versa.

The Law on Criminal Procedure stipulates that the settlement of criminal cases goes through different stages of proceedings and is carried out by different procedural subjects. Each stage of proceedings has a clear assignment of tasks and powers to the procedural person. So, a person who has conducted the procedural matter at the previous stage, they have certain assessments of the case, at the next stage, they take on the role of the procedural person and continue to evaluate the case, then certainly there will be certain prejudices towards their assessments. If the investigator has concluded the investigation that the defendant is guilty, then when conducting the procedural matter in a different capacity from their subjective belief, they will only focus on the evidence of the crime and disregard the evidence of exoneration, and may even use many other measures to force the defendant to confess or vice versa, if before that if they had good thoughts and feelings for a certain procedural person, they will continue to be influenced by that feeling. All of these cases lead to the resolution of criminal cases lacking impartiality and objectivity, easily letting criminals escape and wrongfully convicting innocent people, and at the same time failing to achieve the purpose of the activities of the next stage of the proceedings, which is to check the correctness and basis of the activities of the previous stage of the proceedings. In addition, at Point c, Clause 1, Article 46 of the Criminal Procedure Code, it is also stipulated that: Judges and Jurors must refuse to participate in the trial or be replaced if they have participated in the first instance or appeal trial of that case. With this provision, at Point c, Section 6, Part I of Resolution 03/2004/NQ-HDTP, it is stipulated that: "Having participated in the first instance or appeal trial... in that case" (Point c, Clause 1, Article 46 of the Criminal Procedure Code) means having participated in the resolution of the case and having issued a first instance or appeal judgment or a decision to suspend the case. If a Judge or Juror is assigned to participate in a first-instance or appeal trial but only participates in making decisions: returning the case file for further investigation, temporarily suspending the case, canceling the decision to suspend the case, or postponing the trial, then


The case is still allowed to continue to be resolved. According to this provision, the Judge who is changed in this case is not the Judge who participated in reviewing the judgment or decision that has come into legal effect of the Court according to the procedure of cassation or retrial. And not all cases of Judges and Jurors will have to refuse or be changed, but only the Jurors and Judges who issued the judgment of first instance, the judgment of appeal or the decision to suspend the case must refuse or be changed. These are Judges and Jurors who have participated in resolving the case in terms of content, have made their own assessments of the case through procedural decisions, therefore, it is difficult to be objective, overcome their own prejudices to re-try the case that they have resolved.

Fifth: The Judge and the Juror are on the same Trial Panel and are related to each other .

This basis comes from the fact that a person is only considered guilty when there is a legally effective verdict of the Court and all issues under the jurisdiction of the Trial Panel are only the Judge and the Jury. Members of the Trial Panel must decide all issues of the case by majority vote. Therefore, the relationship of relatives will affect the "voting by majority". This can be the relationship between Judge and Judge, Judge and Jury, Jury and Jury. When there is a relationship of relatives with each other in the same Trial Panel, there may be discussions and mutual influence in the process of assessing the details of the case as well as making the Court's judgments, affecting the settlement of the criminal case. Therefore, the Law on Criminal Procedure requires those who have a close relationship in the same Trial Council to refuse or be changed. However, according to Point a, Section 6, Part I of Resolution No. 03/2004/NQ – HDTP, it is stipulated that “…when there are two close relatives, only one person must refuse or be changed.” This provision is appropriate because changing only one person is enough to eliminate that close relationship.

* Grounds for refusal, change of appraiser, interpreter

In addition to ensuring the impartiality of the expert witness in the process of resolving criminal cases, the impartiality of the expert witness and the interpreter is very necessary. These are the expert witnesses because of legal obligations. They help the expert witness to resolve


to decide the case quickly, correctly and objectively. Therefore, they must stand in an objective and impartial position when performing their duties. Therefore, they must also refuse or be changed when there are certain grounds.

According to the provisions of Clause 4, Article 60, Clause 3, Article 61 of the Criminal Procedure Code, the expert and interpreter must refuse to provide expert advice or be replaced if:

- The expert or interpreter is also the victim, civil plaintiff, civil defendant; a person with rights and obligations related to the case; a legal representative or relative of those people or of the accused;

- There are other clear grounds to believe that the expert or interpreter may not be impartial in the performance of his or her duties;

- An expert or interpreter who has participated in the trial as the Head, Deputy Head of the Investigation Agency, Investigator, Chief, Deputy Chief of the Procuracy, Prosecutor, Chief Justice, Deputy Chief Justice of the Court, Judge, Juror, Court Secretary or has participated as a defender, witness, or has participated as an expert shall not participate as an interpreter and vice versa in that case.

Above are three grounds for which an expert or interpreter must refuse or be replaced if participating in a criminal proceeding. These grounds are similar to the grounds for refusal or being replaced for a person conducting a criminal proceeding. However, the third ground stipulates that an expert or interpreter must refuse or be replaced when they have acted in the role of all persons conducting a criminal proceeding, not just those directly conducting the proceedings, as they would have to refuse or be replaced when they have acted in the capacity of the Head or Deputy Head of the Investigation Agency or as the Chief Prosecutor or Chief Justice of the Court.

b. Right to request or request a change of the mediator or mediator

According to the provisions of the Law on Administrative Procedures, in addition to the refusal of the mediators and mediators themselves when they find themselves unable to be impartial in performing their duties, the competent persons also have the right to change them when they see grounds stipulated in the Law on Administrative Procedures. However, the competent persons to change the mediators and mediators do not always know that these persons are not impartial, so the Law on Administrative Procedures stipulates the persons who have the right to propose and request the change of the mediators and mediators.


According to Article 43 of the Criminal Procedure Code, the following persons have the right to request a change of the investigator: First , the Prosecutor: this is the investigator who represents the Procuracy to perform two functions of exercising the right to prosecute and supervising compliance with the law in judicial activities. Therefore, with these functions, the Prosecutor is the person who can detect cases showing signs of non-objectivity and non-impartiality of the investigator and from there propose a change of the investigator. In addition, at Point b, Clause 2, Article 36 of the Criminal Procedure Code stipulates the duties and powers of the Chief Prosecutor and at Clause 3, Article 112 stipulates the duties and powers of the Procuracy when performing its functions in the process of resolving criminal cases, it has the right to request the Head of the Investigation Agency to change the Investigator. However, Article 37 of the Criminal Procedure Code stipulates the duties, powers and responsibilities of the Prosecutor, but does not stipulate the right to request a change of the investigator for the Prosecutor; Second are the accused, defendant, victim, civil plaintiff, civil defendant and their legal representatives. As analyzed above, these people are people whose interests are affected by the decisions of the court. Therefore, they want fairness and objectivity in the process of resolving criminal cases. They are always concerned about the impartiality and impartiality of the court. Once the court still has doubts about the impartiality of the court, they will no longer trust the decisions of the court and from there will no longer trust the law. Therefore, in order for the court to be assured of the actions and decisions of the court, the Law on Criminal Procedure stipulates that the accused, defendant, victim, civil plaintiff, civil defendant and their legal representatives have the right to request a change of the court to protect their interests. This right of the mediators is clearly affirmed when regulating the rights of these people in Point d, Clause 2, Article 49, Point d, Clause 2, Article 50, Point c, Clause 2, Article 51, Point c, Clause 2, Article 52 and Point d, Clause 2, Article 53. However, the Law on Criminal Procedure does not stipulate that the mediator is a person with related rights and obligations as prescribed in Article 54 of the Criminal Procedure Code who has the right to request a change of the mediator. Although Article 54 of the Criminal Procedure Code does not provide the concept of a person with related rights and obligations in a case, in reality, their rights and interests may also be affected by the decisions of the mediator, because they themselves do not have the right to request a change of the mediator even though they see grounds, so their legal representatives do not have this right;

Comment


Agree Privacy Policy *