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Vietnam People's Courts and People's Organs of Control
Vietnam's judicial bodies are the Supreme People's Court, the
local People's Courts at the provincial, district, and city
levels, the military tribunals, and the People's Organs of
Control
(see Internal Security
, ch. 5). Under special
circumstances, such as showcase trials involving breaches of
national security, the National Assembly or the Council of State
may set up special tribunals. Judges are elected for a term
equivalent to that of the bodies that elected them, and trials
are held with the participation of people's assessors, who may
also act as judges. The Constitution guarantees defendants the
right to plead their cases. Cases are prosecuted by a procurator.
The Supreme People's Court is the highest tribunal and is
charged with the supervision of subordinate courts. As a court of
first instance, it tries cases involving high treason or other
crimes of a serious nature; and as the highest court of appeals,
it reviews cases originating with the lower courts. Appeals are
infrequent, however, because lower courts tend to act as final
arbiters.
Local people's courts function at each administrative level
except at the village level, where members of the village
administrative committees serve in a judicial capacity.
Proceedings of local courts are presided over by people's
assessors.
The Supreme People's Organs of Control function as watchdogs
of the state and work independently of all other government
agencies, although they are nominally responsible to the National
Assembly. They are subordinate to the People's Supreme Organ of
Control also known as the People's Supreme Procurate, which, in
turn, is headed by a chief procurator or procurator general.
These organs exercise extraordinary powers of surveillance over
government agencies at every level, including the court system
and agencies for law enforcement.
A new Penal Code was adopted in January 1986, replacing a
1950 code of justice based on the French Civil Code. Under the
new code, crime is defined very broadly. Authorities interpret a
wide range of antisocial behavior as potentially criminal, such
as graft, petty corruption, hoarding, and currency malpractice
(see
fig. 15).
Data as of December 1987
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