Jurisdiction of the Court in Administrative Procedures in Vietnam

Jurisdiction of the Court in Administrative Procedures in Vietnam (Internet image)

1. Jurisdiction of the District Court in Vietnam

Article 31 of the Law on Administrative Procedures 2015 stipulates furisdiction of district-level courts as follows:

District-level courts shall settle according to first-instance procedures:

- Lawsuits over administrative decisions or acts of state administrative agencies at the district or lower level within the same administrative boundaries with courts or of competent persons in these agencies, except administrative decisions or acts of district-level People’s Committees and district-level People’s Committee chairpersons;

- Lawsuits over disciplinary decisions on dismissal of civil servants under management by agencies or organizations at the district or lower level within the same administrative boundaries with courts, issued by heads of these agencies or organizations;

- Lawsuits over voter lists made by agencies in charge of making voter lists within the same administrative boundaries with courts.

2. Jurisdiction of provincial-level courts in Vietnam

Article 32 of the Law on Administrative Procedures 2015, the provincial-level courts shall settle according to first-instance procedures:

- Lawsuits over administrative decisions or acts of ministries, ministerial-level agencies, government-attached agencies, the Presidential Office, the National Assembly Office, the State Audit Office of Vietnam, the Supreme People’s Court and the Supreme People’s Procuracy, and administrative decisions or acts of competent persons in these agencies, which are filed by plaintiffs whose places of residence, workplaces or head offices are located within the same administrative boundaries with the courts. In case plaintiffs have no places of residence, workplaces or head offices in the Vietnamese territory, courts of localities in which agencies or persons competent to issue administrative decisions or commit administrative acts are located have jurisdiction to settle these lawsuits;

- Lawsuits over administrative decisions or acts of state agencies among those specified in Clause 1 of Article 32 of the Law on Administrative Procedures 2015, and administrative decisions or acts of competent persons in these agencies, which are filed by plaintiffs whose places of residence, workplaces or head offices are located within the same administrative boundaries with the courts. In case plaintiffs have no places of residence, workplaces or head offices in the Vietnamese territory, courts of localities in which agencies or persons competent to issue administrative decisions or commit administrative acts are located have jurisdiction to settle these lawsuits;

- Lawsuits over administrative decisions or acts of provincial-level state agencies within the same administrative boundaries with the courts and of competent persons in these state agencies;

- Lawsuits over administrative decisions or acts of district-level People’s Committees and district-level People’s Committee chairpersons within the same administrative boundaries with the courts;

- Lawsuits over administrative decisions or acts of overseas representative missions of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam or of competent persons in these missions, which are filed by plaintiffs whose places of residence are located within the same administrative boundaries with the courts. In case plaintiffs have no places of residence in Vietnam, the People’s Court of Hanoi city or Ho Chi Minh City has jurisdiction to settle these lawsuits;

- Lawsuits over disciplinary decisions on dismissal issued by heads of provincial-level agencies or organizations, ministries or central agencies, which are filed by plaintiffs whose workplaces by the time of disciplining are located within the same administrative boundaries with the courts;

- Lawsuits over decisions on settlement of complaints about decisions on handling of competition cases, which are filed by plaintiffs whose places of residence, workplaces or head offices are located within the same administrative boundaries with the courts;

- When necessary, provincial-level courts may pick up lawsuits under jurisdiction of district-level courts for settlement under Article 32 of the Law on Administrative Procedures 2015

3. Determination of jurisdiction in case both complaint and lawsuit petitions are filed in Vietnam

Article 33 of the Law on Administrative Procedures 2015 stipulates the determination of jurisdiction in case both complaint and lawsuit petitions are filed as follows:

- In case a plaintiff files a petition to institute an administrative lawsuit at a competent court and concurrently files a complaint with a person competent to settle complaints, the court shall request the plaintiff to select the agency to settle the case and notify such in writing to the court.

In case the plaintiff cannot make the petition on his/her/its own, he/she/it shall request the court to make a written record of selection of the agency to settle the case. On a case-by-case basis, the court shall:

+ Accept the case for settlement according to general procedures, and concurrently notify the case to the person competent to settle complaints and request him/her to transfer the whole dossier for complaint settlement to the court, in case the plaintiff selects the court to settle the case:

+ Base itself on Point e, Clause 1, Article 123 of the Law on Administrative Procedures 2015 to return the lawsuit petition and enclosed documents to the plaintiff, in case the plaintiff selects the person competent to settle complaints to settle the case.

Upon the expiration of the time limit for complaint settlement, if the complaint remains unsettled or have been settled but the complainant disagrees with the settlement results and files a petition to institute an administrative lawsuit at court, the court shall consider to accept the case according to general procedures.

- In case many persons institute an administrative lawsuit at a competent court and concurrently file a complaint with a person competent to settle complaints and all of them select either of these entities to settle the case, the competence to settle the case must comply with Clause 1 of this Article.

- In case many persons institute an administrative lawsuit at a competent court and concurrently file a complaint with a person competent to settle complaints and some of them select the court to settle the case, while others select the persons competent to settle complaints or in case some only institute an administrative lawsuit at a competent court while others only file a complaint with a person competent to settle complaints, the competence to settle the case shall be determined as follows:

+ In case the interests and obligations of the plaintiffs and complainants are independent from one another, the settlement of the claim of the plaintiffs falls under jurisdiction of the court while the settlement of the complaint of the complainants falls under the competence of the person competent to settle complaints;

+ In case the interests and obligations of the plaintiffs and complainants are not independent from one another, the court shall accept the case for settlement according to general procedures and notify such to the person competent to settle complaints, requesting him/her to transfer the whole dossier for complaint settlement to the court.

- In case the plaintiff does not select an agency to settle the case, the court shall return the lawsuit petition to the plaintiff.

4. Transfer of cases to other courts and settlement of disputes over jurisdiction in Vietnam

Article 34 of the Law on Administrative Procedures 2015 stipulates the transfer of cases to other courts and settlement of disputes over jurisdiction as follows:

- In the course of settlement of an administrative case according to the first-instance procedures, if the court determines that such case is a civil case but not an administrative one and the settlement thereof falls under its jurisdiction, it shall settle such case according to general procedures prescribed by the civil procedure law, and concurrently notify such to the involved parties and the same-level procuracy.

- Before deciding to bring a case to trial according to the first-instance procedures, if there is a ground to determine that the settlement of the case falls under the jurisdiction of another court, the judge assigned to settle the administrative case shall issue a decision to transfer the case file to a competent court and delete it from the case acceptance book and concurrently notify such to the involved parties and the same-level procuracy.

- After issuing a decision to bring a case to trial according to the first-instance procedures, if there is a ground to determine that the settlement of the administrative case falls under the jurisdiction of another court, the court shall hold a hearing for the trial panel to issue a decision to stop the trial and transfer the case file to the competent court.

- When trying an administrative case according to appellate procedures, if determining that the case falls into the case specified in Clause 1 or 2 of Article 34 of the Law on Administrative Procedures 2015, the appellate court shall quash the first-instance judgment or ruling and transfer the case file to the court with the first- instance trial jurisdiction for first-instance retrial of the case in accordance with law.

- When trying an administrative case according to cassation or reopening procedures, if determining that the case falls into the case specified in Clause 1 or 2 of this Article, the cassation or reopening court shall quash the legally effective judgment or ruling and transfer the case file to the court with the first-instance trial jurisdiction for first-instance retrial of the case in accordance with law.

- Involved parties may file complaints and the same-level procuracy may file a petition about a decision specified in Clause 2 or 3 of Article 34 of the Law on Administrative Procedures 2015 within 3 working days after receiving the decision.

Within 3 working days after receiving the complaint or petition, the chief justice of the court that has issued the decision to transfer the administrative case shall settle the complaint or petition.

The decision of the chief justice of the court is final and shall be immediately sent to the complaining involved parties and the petition-making procuracy.

- The chief justice of a provincial-level court shall settle disputes over the jurisdiction to settle administrative cases between district-level courts in the same province or centrally run city.

Chief justices of superior people’s courts shall settle disputes over the jurisdiction to settle an administrative case between district-level courts in different provinces or centrally run cities or between provincial-level courts under the territorial jurisdiction of superior people’s courts.

The Chief Justice of the Supreme People’s Court shall settle disputes over the jurisdiction between district-level courts in different provinces or centrally run cities or provincial-level courts under the territorial jurisdiction of different superior people’s courts.

Ngoc Nhi

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