The Ministry of Justice has, in coordination with other related ministries and sectors, conducted a general review of the 2015 Penal Code and detected a considerable number of errors which need to be revised before the Code comes into force on July 1.
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| NA deputies press buttons to pass the 2015 Penal Code at the 10th session of the XIIIth National Assembly__Photo: quochoi.vn |
These errors as well as a plan to rectify them will be submitted to the National Assembly Standing Committee for consideration and decision, the Phap Luat Thanh Pho Ho Chi Minh (Ho Chi Minh City Law) newswire reported.
These errors lay in both Part I - General Provisions and Part II - Crimes, of the Code. They take various forms, ranging from typing errors such as word redundancy, deficiency and repetition to overlap in quantitative identification of constituent elements of crimes. Some errors are related to inconsistencies between the provisions of Part I and Part II of the Code. In addition, there are errors and irrationalities in the National Assembly’s Resolution on the implementation of the 2015 Penal Code.
For the time being, related ministries and sectors agreed with one another that although the Penal Code has not yet come into force, it should be amended so as to fix detected errors. However, opinions remain divergent on how to conduct the revision.
According to the first type of opinions, the effective date of the Code would be kept unchanged. In other words, the Penal Code will still take effect on July 1 and will be revised by the XIVth National Assembly right at its first session scheduled for late July. Pending the revision, any arising problems will be settled on a case-by-case basis.
While agreeing that the effective date of the Penal Code should not be changed, experts of the second type of opinions held that revisions should be made to fix only errors which may obstruct the implementation of the Code, while other errors would be rectified as guided by the National Assembly Standing Committee or the Supreme People’s Court.
However, some argued that the Penal Code is an important code, so the National Assembly should issue a resolution permitting the continued application of the current Code and, at the same time, maintain the effect of new humanitarian provisions of the 2015 Code. This means that by July 1, both the current Code and the 2015 Code will become partially effective. If this plan is opted for, the Government and the National Assembly will have more time to prepare for the revision, thus ensuring the quality of the revised Code.-
