Vietnam has applied court precedents

 Vietnam has a clear roadmap to apply court precedents. On November 24, 2014, Vietnamese National Assembly issued the Law on Organization of People’s Courts No.62/2014/QH13 (the Court Law).

Pursuant to sub Article 22.2.c of the Court Law, the Judicial Council of the Supreme People’s Court has the duty “to select standard cassation trial decisions of the Judicial Council of the Supreme People’s Court and judgments and decisions of various courts which have taken legal effect, develop them into court precedents, and publicize these court precedents for courts to study and apply in trial”. 

 n addition, sub article 27.5 of the Court Law prescribed duty of the Chief Justice of the Supreme People’s Court “to direct the review of adjudicating practices; drafting and issuance of resolutions of the Judicial Council of the Supreme People’s Court in order to ensure the uniform application of law in trial; the review, development and publicization of court precedents.”

Vietnam has applied court precedents

According to Point c, Clause 2, Article 22 of the Court Law, The Vietnamese Judicial Council of the Supreme People’s Court issued a Resolution No. Resolution No. 03/2015/NQ-HDTP dated 28 October, 2015 on the selection, publicization and application of court precedents. The new Circular will take effect from December 16, 2015.

According to Resolution No. 03/2015/NQ-HDTP, a court precedent means arguments and verdicts in a legally effective judgment or decision of the court with regard to a specific case or matter, as selected by the Judicial Council of the Supreme People’s Court and pronounced by the Chief Justice of the Supreme People’s Court, for courts of lower levels to apply in trial.

Criteria for selection of a court precedent applicable in Vietnam.

A court precedent chosen must meet the following criteria:

1. A court judgment or decision must contain arguments to clarify ambiguous provision(s) of law which may be understood in different ways; analyze and explain legal matters or events and point out principles and guidelines or legal norms for settling these matters.
2. A court judgment or decision must be of standard quality;
3. A court judgment or decision must be of precedential value in guiding trial and ensuring the uniform application of law, ensuring these details are incident, the same legal conditions must be addressed equally.

Agencies, organizations and individuals may propose the selection of legally effective judgments and decisions to the Supreme People’s Court for development into court precedents. The court precedents will be reviewed on a biannual basis, and will be publicized once selected.

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