The Relationship Between the High People's Court in Hanoi and State Power Exercising Agencies

The levels are the Regional People's Court of First Instance, the People's Court of Province or City under Central Government, the High People's Court and the Supreme People's Court.

The document of the 13th National Party Congress on building and perfecting the Socialist Rule of Law State of Vietnam clearly stated: Continue to build a professional, modern, fair, strict, honest, serving the Fatherland and the people in Vietnam's judiciary. Study and promulgate the Strategy for building and perfecting the Socialist Rule of Law State of Vietnam until 2030, with a vision to 2045, including the Strategy for law and judicial reform. The Party Executive Committee of the Supreme People's Court is studying and developing the Project "Innovation and reorganization of the People's Court apparatus to ensure streamlining, effective and efficient operations to meet the requirements of the new situation according to Resolution 6 of the 12th Party Central Committee" to ensure good performance of tasks in the new situation, contributing to the successful implementation of the Resolution of the 13th National Party Congress. The project focuses on the following main contents: Continuing to build a professional, modern, fair, strict, honest, serving-the-country, serving-the-people system of the People's Court. Judicial activities, with a focus on trial activities, are conducted effectively and efficiently, fulfilling the responsibility of protecting justice, protecting human rights, civil rights, protecting the socialist regime, protecting the interests of the State, protecting the legitimate and legal rights and interests of organizations and individuals, meeting the requirements of "The People's Court is the judicial body of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, exercising judicial power". Continuing to innovate the organization, improving the quality, effectiveness, efficiency and prestige of the People's Court... The innovation of the People's Court organization must ensure the absolute and comprehensive leadership of the Party. Implementing the core policies of the Party as affirmed in the Resolution of the 13th National Congress and resolutions on judicial reform.

The documents of the 13th National Party Congress on judicial activities and judicial reform in the Socialist Rule of Law State show that promoting judicial reform is a consistent, steadfast, focused and key viewpoint of the Party. Judicial reform and the construction of the judiciary are always implemented synchronously with the construction of the state administration and the innovation of the quality of the National Assembly's activities. The Party affirms that judicial reform aims to protect human rights and is a driving force for socio-economic development, taking the goal of socio-economic development for the people as the basis for implementing the goals and tasks of judicial reform. This shows that the Party's viewpoint on continuing to build the Socialist Rule of Law State associated with judicial reform is increasingly expressed in a more specific, practical and easier to apply in life when determining not only the implementation roadmap but also pointing out the most effective ways and methods of implementation. On that basis, it is necessary to continue to promote and institutionalize the Party's policies and guidelines on judicial reform and innovation of the court system in laws on apparatus, criminal, civil, procedural, execution of judgments, etc. Because the court is the agency exercising judicial power, the Party's leadership method with the court also has specific features. Accordingly, it is not allowed for Party committees, Party organizations, Party members of state agencies or organizations, or persons with authority to directly intervene in the trial work of the Court on behalf of the Party. Party members working in the trial must comply with the Party's regulations to ensure that the Court's judgments are fair, upright, protect justice, and are closely linked to the requirement of promoting democracy on the constitutional principle that all State power belongs to the people .

2.1.2. Provisions of current law

On November 28, 2013, the 13th National Assembly of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, 6th session, passed the Constitution, which stipulates that the People's Court is the judicial body of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, exercising judicial power, demonstrating a clear division of State power, and promoting the responsibility of the Court in exercising judicial power; the Court

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The Court has the duty to protect justice, protect human rights, civil rights, protect the socialist regime, protect the interests of the State, and the legitimate rights and interests of organizations and individuals. This is the first time in the constitutional history of our country that the Constitution clearly stipulates that "the Court exercises judicial power". The Constitution also stipulates that the Socialist Republic of Vietnam is owned by the People; all state power belongs to the People, the foundation of which is the alliance between the working class, the peasantry and the intelligentsia. "State power is unified, with division, coordination and control among state agencies in the exercise of legislative, executive and judicial powers".

Institutionalizing the Party's viewpoints, guidelines, policies and regulations of the Constitution, the Law on People's Courts, the Criminal Procedure Law, Civil Procedure Law, Administrative Procedure Law, Ordinances, Resolutions of the National Assembly Standing Committee, Resolutions of the Supreme People's Court Council of Judges, Circulars, Joint Circulars have specified the principles of operation, authority, functions and positions of the Court system at all levels. Accordingly, the organization and operation of the Courts are as follows:

The current people's court system includes courts arranged in a pyramid-like hierarchy, at each level including one or more courts of equal position called "court levels". There are currently 4 court levels. At the highest level of the court system is the Supreme People's Court. Below the Supreme People's Court is divided into two branches of courts of unequal size. - The first branch can be called the civil court branch. The reason it is called a civil court is because the courts of this branch resolve disputes among the people, including disputes under civil, criminal, economic, marriage, family, labor, and administrative law. At the lowest level are the district-level people's courts, established in all district-level administrative units (Article 49 of the Law on the Organization of People's Courts 2014) and the provincial-level people's courts, established in all provincial-level administrative units. Above the provincial-level People's Court and below

The Supreme People's Courts are the High People's Courts. There are currently 3 High People's Courts located in Hanoi, Da Nang and Ho Chi Minh City with territorial jurisdiction.

The second branch is the military court branch: The courts of this branch only try criminal cases in which the defendant is a military member on active duty (Article 49 of the Law on Organization of People's Courts 2014). This branch also includes 3 levels of courts but is not established according to territorial administrative units but according to military units. At the lowest level are the regional military courts; above are the military courts of the military region and equivalent (for example: military courts of military branches and services); above that is the Central Military Court.

In addition to being organized according to the territorial administrative level, Vietnamese courts are also organized according to the trial level: First instance is the first trial level for a dispute. Appeal is the second trial level for a dispute that has been tried for the first time but the judgment has not yet come into effect and the parties have exercised the right to appeal or the People's Procuracy has exercised the right to protest. First instance and appeal are two levels of trial, meaning that at these trials, the Court must make a decision on who is right and who is wrong in the dispute and the corresponding legal sanctions for violations. The level of review and retrial is not actually the level of trial. At this level, the Court does not directly decide who is right and who is wrong among the parties, but decides on where the judgment or decision that has come into effect of the lower court is wrong and why it is wrong. In short, the subject of the trial of the Court of First Instance and the Court of Appeal is the dispute itself, while the review and retrial are to consider the correctness of the effective judgment of the Court of First Instance and the Court of Appeal.

Vietnamese courts are currently organized according to trial levels, meaning that each court is assigned its own jurisdiction, which is specifically regulated in procedural law. However, the jurisdiction of the courts is generally determined as follows:

- The District People's Court only has the authority to hear first-instance cases because this is the lowest level of the Court system. The District People's Court can be considered the main "machine" for hearing first-instance cases, and the number of cases under the jurisdiction of the District People's Courts is very large.

- The provincial People's Court has the authority to hear at first instance cases that are not under the jurisdiction of the district People's Court, and at the same time has the authority to hear at appeal cases tried by the district People's Court whose judgments and decisions have not yet come into effect and are appealed or protested.

- The High People's Court has the authority to hear appeals for cases that have been tried at first instance by the Provincial People's Court, but the judgments and decisions have been appealed or protested before they have come into force. In addition, the High People's Courts also have the authority to hear final judgments and retrials of judgments and decisions of lower-level Courts that have come into legal effect.

- The Supreme People's Court has the authority to review and re-examine judgments and decisions that have come into effect of lower-level courts. According to the provisions of current procedural law, the Supreme People's Court reviews and re-examines judgments and decisions that have come into effect of people's courts at all levels.

Each Court in the Vietnamese court system has its own jurisdiction in terms of territory and content of the case. Although arranged in a hierarchical system, it is difficult to say which Court is subordinate to the People's Court at a higher level in the sense of administrative or important subordinate. The District People's Court cannot be considered less important than the Provincial People's Court because whether the dispute is resolved immediately in the first instance depends on this Court. It is also impossible to say that the Provincial People's Court's appeals are different from the District People's Court's first instance, which means that the District People's Court has made a wrong decision. Each Court has its own jurisdiction, is independent and is responsible for itself.

responsibility when conducting trials. This is the principle that "people's courts are organized independently according to their jurisdiction" stipulated in the current Law on Organization of People's Courts (Article 5 of the Law on Organization of People's Courts 2014).

Regarding administrative organization, each level of court in Vietnam is organized like a "machine" with departments linked together administratively to organize the implementation of the functions of the Court (Council of Judges, Committee of Judges, specialized Courts, support units). Each level of Court, or the same level of Court but different in the number and nature of cases, and the administrative organization of the Courts is also not uniform.

According to the principle of collective trial by majority decision, each time a case is accepted, the Chief Justice or Chief Judge of the People's Court at all levels establishes panels to try it. Of course, there is an exception to this principle, which is when applying the simplified procedure according to the provisions of the corresponding procedural law, only one judge will conduct the trial. The composition of the Trial Panel varies according to each trial level and according to the provisions of the corresponding procedural law.

Regarding administrative and professional titles in the Court: There are many titles such as: Chief Justice, Deputy Chief Justice, Chief Judge, Deputy Chief Judge, Judge, Jury, Court Clerk, and Examiner. Currently, these are called professional administrative titles and judicial titles. However, only judges and juries are directly responsible for adjudicating cases. If a judge is also the Chief Justice, when sitting in the trial panel, that judge has the capacity of a judge, not the capacity of Chief Judge. Thus, judges and juries are two titles that directly participate in the Trial Panel to perform the trial function of the court. Both of these titles have special formation procedures, in accordance with the professional requirements for their work. These two titles have different qualifications and different formation methods according to the "regime of appointing judges; electing and electing juries" - (Article 7 of the Law on the Organization of People's Courts 2014). Duties and powers of the titles

Judicial expertise and titles are specifically regulated by law in organizational law and procedural law.

2.1.3. Relationship between the High People's Court in Hanoi and state power exercising agencies

According to the provisions of the 2013 Constitution and current legal documents related to the organization and operation of the State apparatus and the system of judicial agencies, the legal status of the People's Court is affected by objective and subjective factors, such as legal provisions, the organization of the system of government levels or the delimitation of administrative boundaries in each country, or basic groups of relationships such as:

One is: The relationship between the People's Court and the authority and executive agency.

On the basis of the constitutional principle "State power is unified and belongs to the people", "State power is unified, with division of labor, coordination and control among state agencies in the exercise of legislative, executive and judicial powers" and the principles "The National Assembly is the highest state power agency of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam" [25], "The People's Council is the local state power agency" [25]. The High People's Court is the agency exercising judicial power, a court level but has the specific authority to hear appeals, review and retrials of many judgments and decisions of many provincial and district courts in different territorial areas, with jurisdiction not according to administrative units. To ensure the unity of state power and the mechanism of power control, the Supreme People's Court is subject to the supervision of the following power and executive agencies:

Based on the form of control, the current judicial control mechanism of the Court in our country can be divided into two groups: the mechanism of self-control of judicial activities of the Court and the control mechanism from outside the Court. In the mechanism

External control can be divided into two groups: external control with state power and external control without state power.

The self-control mechanism is that the Supreme People's Court, based on legal provisions, controls the organization and management of staff, the trial activities of courts at all levels, and handles discipline in judicial activities.

External control of state power can be divided into two groups: direct control of the judicial power exercise by the Court (executed by the People's Procuracy); indirect control, through the supervisory activities of elected bodies and other political and social institutions.

External control without state power is the entire monitoring activity of the mass media, of all legal entities without state power. This control activity is guaranteed by the law on press, information and communication, the law on complaints and denunciations, etc.

Thus, the court system at all levels both coordinates with elected bodies, agencies exercising executive power, and simultaneously exercises the function of controlling power over other agencies through adjudication. On the contrary, other agencies control the judicial power of the Court, which is the entire binding relationship for the Court system to operate in accordance with the standards prescribed by law, ensuring that the judicial power is exercised by the Court with high efficiency and effectiveness.

Second : The relationship between the Court and the President. The Constitution clearly defines the President as the head of state of Vietnam. In the relationship with the Court, the President has the right to supervise and inspect the quality of the Court's activities through the report of the Chief Justice of the Supreme People's Court. Propose to the National Assembly to elect, dismiss, or remove the Chief Justice of the Supreme People's Court; based on the resolution of the National Assembly, appoint, dismiss, or remove judges of the Supreme People's Court; appoint, dismiss, or remove Deputy Chief Justices of the Supreme People's Court;

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