This direction has catalyzed further support of independent legal academicians,
but also provoked strong resistance among the procuratorial community.
To illustrate, in the recent international conference over September 4 – 5 , 2008 ,
jointly held by the People’s Supreme Procuracy and the UNDP (Vietnam)
in Hanoi, the antagonists not only defended the current independent status,
but also called for re-establishing the comprehensive authorities of general
supervision (kiem sat chung) of the procuracy which had been curtailed by the
2001 constitutional amendments. The main reason of the antagonists was that
the independent procuracy, including the full authority of supervision, is neces-
sary to implement the principle of socialist legality.^74
The influence of the resistance of the procuratorial community is considerable.
The Constitutional Proposal enigmatically ignores the organizational matter of the
procuracy and ambiguously suggests “clarifying the role and the function of the
people’s procuracies.”
75
In any case, reform of the procuracy will be one of the most
controversial matters in the upcoming constitutional amendment debate in Vietnam.
Reorganizing the court system
During the early stage of the last constitutional amendment process, reforming the
court system was the main subject. Several years later, court reform has become
even more heated, resulting in the Party’s reorganization of the court system,
articulated in the Judicial Reform Strategy.
Generally speaking, the current court system in Vietnam consists of the People’s
Supreme Court, the local people’s courts at each administrative level, and the
limitary courts. The problem is that the local courts are organized parallel to
the local administrative levels, giving rise to the interference of local governors
and local Party unit leaders in the activities of the courts.^76 Concurrently, social
demand for fair and independent judicial adjudication has considerably increased.
Consequently, the Judicial Reform Strategy suggests reorganizing the court system,
particularly by separating the local courts from local government to guarantee the
independence of the courts.
More specifically, the Judicial Reform Strategy suggests restructuring the court
system according to the jurisdiction over trial, independent of administrative unit,
and consisting of the following four levels:
(^74) Nguyen Thai Phuc, “Mot so Y kien Nghien cuu Chuyen doi Vien kiem sat thanh Vien cong
to trong Boi canh Cai cach Tu phap o Nuoc ta” (Some ideas on the transformation of the
procuracy to the prosecution), in Tai lieu Hoi thao Vien kiem sat Nhan nhan trong Tien
trinh Cai cach Tu phap (Proceedings of The People’s Procuracies in the Process of Judicial
Reform conference), jointly held by the People’s Supreme Procuracy and the UNDP
(Vietnam) on September 4 – 5 , 2008 ,p. 17.
(^75) “Constitutional Proposal.”
(^76) Best known is the Do Son corruption case. See Sidel,The Constitution of Vietnam,
pp. 177 – 8.