>>Vietnam's judiciary bodies during the anti-French war (1945-1954)
Pham Diem
State and Law Research Institute
Following the war of resistance against the French colonialists, North Vietnam was completely liberated while South Vietnam fell under the colonial yoke of the US impQerialists. Once again, the Vietnamese people had to wage the second resistance war to liberate the South and reunify the country. In such a circumstance, the North was at both peace and war. During this period (1954-1975), the judiciary system of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam existed in North Vietnam only, which was substantially consolidated and further perfected after the northern part of the country was liberated.
I. The people’s courts
Due to war conditions during the resistance war against the French colonialists, the court system was always in the state of evolution with the existence of different types of courts, but after the complete liberation of North Vietnam it was further consolidated along the direction of regularization. Some courts of special types, which were set up during wartime such as the battlefield court martial, the people’s courts in areas temporarily occupied by the enemy, the land reform courts, were dissolved after fulfilling their tasks.
The first reform in the court system started with the April 1959 Decision of the National Assembly of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, setting up the Supreme People’s Court and the People’s Central Prosecutory and at the same time separating the courts and the Procuracies from the Ministry of Justice and placing them under the Government Council.
In 1959, the National Assembly of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam promulgated a new Constitution under which the court system in Vietnam was reformed more substantially and more comprehensively than before. The new Constitution’s provisions on courts were concretized into the Law on Organization of the People’s Court.
The court system was then placed under the executive branch. According to Article 104 of the 1959 Constitution, the Supreme People’s Court had to report to the National Assembly, or to the National Assembly Standing Committee when the National Assembly was in recess, on its activities while the local people’s courts had to report on their activities to the People’s Councils of the same level.
Under Article 97 of the 1959 Constitution and the 1960 Law on Organization of the People’s Courts, the system of courts of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam included:
- The Supreme People’s Court.
- The local people’s courts, including the people’s courts of the provincial, municipal or administratively equivalent level and the people’s courts of districts, provincial capitals and towns as well as administratively equivalent level.
- The military courts, including the central military court (attached to the Supreme People’s Court), the military courts of army corps and military zones.
In case of necessity to adjudicate special cases, the National Assembly might set up special tribunals.
The apparatus and personnel of the people’s courts were specified in the March 23, 1961 Ordinance, under which:
The Supreme People’s Court was composed of the chief judge, deputy chief judges, judges, the Judges’ Committee, the All Judges’ Council, the specialized courts (the criminal court, the civil court, the court of appeal).
A people’s court of the provincial or equivalent level was composed of the chief judge, deputy-chief judges and judges. It was organized also with the Judges’ Committee but without the All Judges’ Council and specialized courts.
A people’s court of the district or equivalent level was composed only of the chief judge, deputy-chief judges and judges.
Unlike in the past when the military courts were subject to the direction by the Ministry of Defense, they were during this period subject to the direction and guidance of the Supreme People’s Court which was tasked to supervise the adjudication work of the military courts.
Under the 1959 Constitution and the 1960 Law on Organization of the People’s Courts, the people’s courts operated on the following principles:
- In adjudication, the courts were independent and abode by law only.
- The people’s courts conducted trials according to the collective regime and made decisions by majority.
- The people’s jurors were equal in rights to judges. The first-instance jury panel consisted of one judge and two people’s jurors. Judges and people’s jurors were all elected: The chief judge, deputy-chief judges, judges and people’s jurors of the Supreme People’s Court were elected by the National Assembly, and of the local people’s courts, by the local People’s Councils of the same level, for terms of office corresponding to the terms of the agencies which have elected them.
- All trials were conducted by people’s courts openly, except for special cases prescribed by law.
- The defendants’ right to defense was ensured,
- Citizens of ethnic minorities may use the spoken languages and scripts of their own ethnic groups before court.
Regarding the adjudicating competence of the people’s courts of different levels:
The people’s courts of the district or equivalent level had the following competence:
- To reconcile civil disputes.
- To conduct the first-instance trial of civil cases.
- To conduct the first-instance trial of criminal cases with penalties of two-year imprisonment or lighter.
The people’s courts of the provincial or equivalent level had the following competence:
- To conduct the first-instance trial of criminal cases with penalties of imprisonment for over two years.
- To conduct the appellate trial of criminal and civil cases which were adjudicated by district-level people’s courts but appealed.
The Supreme People’s Court had the following competence:
- To conduct appellate trials of criminal and civil cases already adjudicated by provincial-level people’s courts or criminal cases already adjudicated by the central military court, which were appealed.
- To conduct supervisory trial.
The military courts only adjudicated criminal cases which involved army men as defendants or criminal cases which directly caused harms to national defense.
II. The people’s procurary
Particularly after the promulgation of the 1959 Constitution, a new type of judiciary bodies was the system of the people’s procuracies. The 1959 Constitution’s provisions on the people’s procuracies were concretized in the 1960 Law on Organization of the People’s Procuracies.
The predecessor of the people’s procuracy was the people’s prosecutory.
According to the 1959 Constitution and the 1960 Law on Organization of the People’s Procuracies, the system of people’s procuracies was composed of:
- The Supreme People’s Procuracy.
- The local People’s Procuracies at levels corresponding to the levels of the people’s courts; specifically including: the people’s procuracies of the provincial or equivalent level, the people’s procuracies of the district or equivalent level.
- The military procuracies at levels corresponding to the levels of the military courts (army corp and military zone levels).
Under Article 108 of the 1959 Constitution, the Supreme People’s Procuracy had to report on its activities to the National Assembly or to the National Assembly Standing Committee when the National Assembly was in recess. The people’s procuracy system was organized vertically with the lower-level people’s procuracies being subject to the leadership of the higher-level people’s procuracies, and to the uniform leadership of the Supreme People’s Procuracy.
Organizationally, a people’s procuracy was composed of a head, deputy-heads and procurators. The head, deputy-heads and procurators of the Supreme People’s Procuracy were all elected by the National Assembly according to its term of office. Meanwhile, the heads, deputy-heads and procurators of the people’s procuracies of other levels were all appointed by the chairman of the Supreme People’s Procuracy.
According to Article 105 of the 1959 Constitution and the 1960 Law on Organization of the People’s Procuracies, the people’s procuracies had the tasks and function of supervising the law observance by State bodies, public servants and citizens. Concretely:
- The Supreme People’s Procuracy supervised the law observance by agencies under the Government Council, the State bodies, public servants and citizens at the central level.
- The local people’s procuracies supervised the law observance by the State bodies in localities, public servants and citizens in localities.
- The military procuracies supervised the law observance in the army.
The contents of supervision of law observance included:
- Supervision of law compliance in legal documents of agencies under the Government Council and of State bodies in localities.
- Supervision of law observance by public employees.
- Investigation of criminal offences and prosecution of criminal offenders before courts.
- Supervision of law observance in investigation by investigating bodies.
- Supervision of law observance in adjudication by courts and in execution of judgments.
- Supervision of law observance in detention by detention camps, prisons.
- Prosecution, participation in legal proceedings in important civil cases relating to the interests of the State and people.
So, the establishment of the system of people’s procuracies marked a new step of development and perfection of the system of judiciary bodies in Vietnam.
III. Other judiciary bodies
Unlike the people’s courts and the people’s procuracies, other judiciary bodies during this period saw almost no reform nor big step of development.
1. Regarding the investigating bodies:
In the late ‘50s and early ‘60s, in couple with the emergence of the people’s procuracies and the promulgation of a number of laws ensuring the citizens’ rights to freedom of body, the investigating activities of the police force were re-organized. Specifically, the Scout Boards of the Provincial Police Departments and the Scout Department of the Ministry of Public Security were entitled to initiate legal actions against cases and to arrest offenders in urgent circumstances. In reality, the Executive Office of the Police Force undertook the investigation of political cases while the criminal scout agencies were all entitled to initiate legal action and conduct investigation against other criminal cases which would be later transferred to the Executive Office for prosecution or further investigation in case of lack of important evidences.
According to the Government Council’s Decree No.32-CP of February 22, 1973 re-assigning tasks among units of the Ministry of Public Security, the work of questioning, compilation of dossiers for prosecution of criminal offences related to social security and order was assigned to the Criminal Police Department. Only until 1975, was the responsibility for economic cases assigned on the principle that the Executive Office only processed political cases and crimes of infringing upon the State property as well as complicated and serious economic cases, while simple and less serious cases were undertaken by economic scout police agencies.
2. On lawyers’ organizations
In 1957, the Ministry of Justice promulgated Decree No. 01 and Circular No. 101 on people’s counsels, thereby mass organizations might designate people to act as counsels and defend their members who were prosecuted before courts or in civil lawsuits.
Since 1975, bar associations have been set up in a number of big cities as Hanoi, Hai Phong, having composed of lawyers and people’s counsels already put on the lists at courts.
Panoramically, during the 1954-1975 period, the system of judiciary bodies in the Democratic Republic of Vietnam witnessed new steps of development and perfection, with the regularization of the court system and the establishment of the procuracy system, which are considered key and important agencies within the system of the judiciary bodies. Meanwhile, other judiciary bodies such as the investigating agencies, lawyers’ organizations and public notaries witnessed almost no changes as compared to the previous period.-