On December 31, 2016, the Ministry of Justice signed and issued Decision 2700/QD-BTP approving and announcing 10 notable events in 2016 for the justice sector.
Article table of contents
At the request of the Chairman of the Annual Highlight Event Evaluation Council of the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Justice decides to approve the following 10 events:
Firstly, the ratification of the Law on Access to Information 2016:
The National Assembly ratified the Law on Access to Information 2016 on April 6, 2016. This is an important milestone, a legal event that actualizes the right to access information previously recognized in the Constitutions of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam: Constitution 1946, Constitution 1959, Constitution 1980, Constitution 1992, and Constitution 2013.
The Law on Access to Information, which takes effect from July 1, 2018, offers an opportunity for every citizen to exercise democracy, protect their legal rights and interests, contribute to ensuring equality and fairness in society, and meet the increasingly high demand for information from individuals, organizations, and businesses in their activities. It also enhances the transparency and accountability of state agencies.
The Law on Access to Information contributes to anti-corruption efforts, elevates the knowledge and participation of citizens in state management activities, and facilitates the supervisory roles of organizations, individuals, and authorities over state agencies, thus ensuring effective law enforcement.
Secondly, the ratification of the Law on Property Auction 2016:
On November 17, 2016, the National Assembly ratified the Law on Property Auction, marking an important historical milestone in perfecting and unifying the legal framework for regulating property auction activities, contributing to the coherence of the legal system.
The Law on Property Auction encompasses many innovative contents, creating mechanisms for handling assets of individuals, organizations, and the State to ensure efficiency, objectivity, and transparency; laying the foundation for raising the quality and professionalism of auctioneers, ensuring full responsibility of auction organizations to the State, individuals, and organizations.
The Law on Property Auction stipulates strict procedures and steps for property auction, reducing instances of fraud, collusion, and price manipulation, protecting the legal rights and interests of individuals, organizations, and the State.
Thirdly, significant advances in the appraisal of legal normative documents:
In 2016, the appraisal of legal normative documents (VBQPPL) witnessed positive developments, pursuant to the policy of renovating the appraisal of VBQPPL. The entire Ministry of Justice organized the appraisal of 11,885 draft VBQPPL, with the Ministry of Justice itself appraising 291 drafts.
Notably, to implement the Law on Investment and the Law on Enterprises, the Ministry of Justice appraised a series of 50 decrees on investment and business conditions, meticulously examining the appropriateness and necessity of the regulations on investment and business conditions; exploring the potential replacement of these conditions with fewer restrictive alternatives, thoroughly reviewing many administrative procedures, and cutting unnecessary procedures and licenses, thus saving compliance costs for businesses.
Concurrently with speeding up the appraisal of VBQPPL, especially decrees detailing and guiding the implementation of laws and ordinances, the Ministry of Justice coordinated actively and proactively with the Office of the Government to hasten Ministries and sectors in drafting documents, thereby significantly reducing the backlog of documents under the authority of the Government and the Prime Minister in many recent years.
Fourthly, exceeding all targets in the civil judgment enforcement system:
In 2016, for the first time, the Civil Judgment Enforcement System exceeded all targets and tasks in the context of handling the highest number of cases and monetary amounts ever recorded. A total of 530,428 cases were executed, achieving a rate of 78.53% of the executable cases, surpassing the National Assembly's target by 8.53%, and over VND 29,097 billion, achieving a rate of 33.74% of the executable monetary amount, surpassing the National Assembly's target by 3.74%, reducing the number of cases and the monetary amounts to be carried forward to the next period.
This achievement is even more significant as it coincides with the 70th anniversary of the Civil Judgment Enforcement System (July 19, 1946 - July 19, 2016). On this occasion, Mr. Tran Dai Quang, Politburo member, President, Head of the Central Steering Committee for Judicial Reforms attended the ceremony commemorating the 70th anniversary of the Civil Judgment Enforcement System, delivering an important speech praising the results and achievements of generations of officials and public employees in the Civil Judgment Enforcement System and awarded the First-Class Labor Order to the General Department of Civil Judgment Enforcement.
Fifthly, active participation in activities and movements in response to the Vietnam Legal Day:
To innovate the content and form of responding to Vietnam Legal Day, the Ministry of Justice cooperated with Ministries, central agencies, and 63 localities to direct, guide, implement, and organize the 3rd National Competition for Excellent Conciliators. The competition was widely organized across the country in a theatrical format with three segments: theoretical, case handling, and skits, attracting over 11,400 conciliators and millions of viewers.
The competition yielded positive social effects, becoming a broad political and legal activity; contributing to enhancing legal awareness among various social strata and officials and public employees.
Sixthly, receiving applications and returning administrative procedure results through public postal services:
On October 19, 2016, the Prime Minister issued Decision 45/2016/QD-TTg on receiving applications and returning administrative procedure results through public postal services. This is an important legal basis for continuing administrative procedure reform; implementing the Government's policies and directives on building a facilitating Government that serves the people and businesses.
Through this public postal service, organizations and individuals do not need to directly bring their files, documents, or papers to the state administrative agencies for submission and wait for results at that agency, thus saving time and effort for the public, reducing costs for the entire society.
Transactions through public postal services somewhat alleviate the pressure on reception and result-return sections for administrative procedures; reduce opportunities for corruption and negativity from officials in the process of resolving administrative procedures; improving the quality of public administrative reforms in the new phase of the country.
Seventhly, implementing the electronic birth registration software and issuing Personal Identification Numbers:
Implementing the Law on Civil Status and the national electronic civil status database, ensuring alignment with the Law on Citizen Identification, since January 1, 2016, the Ministry of Justice, in cooperation with the Ministry of Public Security, has implemented and gradually expanded the official deployment and application of the electronic birth registration software and issuing Personal Identification Numbers at the Ministry of Justice and 12 provinces/cities directly under the central government, including Hanoi, Hai Phong, Da Nang, Ho Chi Minh City, An Giang, Dong Thap, Ha Nam, Ha Tinh, Quang Ninh, Nghe An, Soc Trang, and Vinh Long. This is the first time in the history of the Ministry of Justice that the application of information technology at all four levels of government has been implemented; forming the basis for deploying the electronic civil status database and the civil status registration and management information system nationwide, ensuring the successful construction of the national population database, aiming to simplify administrative procedures related to citizens' documents, meeting the objectives of Scheme 896 set by the Prime Minister.
As of December 30, 2016, the entire system recorded over 378,676 birth registration cases, with nearly 303,968 newly registered cases being issued Personal Identification Numbers.
Eighthly, the legal access standard becomes a content in the National Criteria Set for New Rural Construction:
On October 17, 2016, the Prime Minister issued Decision 1980/QD-TTg on the National Criteria Set for New Rural Communes for the 2016-2020 period, in which legal access was identified as one of the contents of the National Criteria Set for New Rural Communes for the 2016-2020 period.
To achieve the goal of having 95% of communes meeting the legal access standard by 2020, the Ministry of Justice has been tasked with leading the guidance, evaluating, recognizing, and building communes that meet the legal access standards, ensuring and enhancing the legal access capabilities for citizens under the National Target Program for New Rural Construction for the 2016-2020 period (attached with Decision 1600/QD-TTg dated August 16, 2016).
Ninthly, Vietnam’s accession to the 1965 Hague Convention on the service abroad of judicial and extrajudicial documents, joining the International Development Law Organization (IDLO), and successfully organizing the 3rd extended Conference on Justice with Provinces sharing the Vietnam-Laos border:
In line with the Party and State policy on active and proactive international integration, in 2016, with the advice of the Ministry of Justice, Vietnam acceded to the 1965 Hague Convention on the service abroad of judicial and extrajudicial documents in civil and commercial matters and officially became a member state of the International Development Law Organization (IDLO), marking a new development in the international integration process, demonstrating the Government of Vietnam’s commitment to joining the international community in implementing the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals; simultaneously opening opportunities for Vietnam’s legal and judicial bodies to access technical support and international expertise to aid the perfection of national institutions and laws.
At the bilateral level, the organization of the 3rd extended Conference on Justice with Provinces sharing the Vietnam-Laos border included the signing of several cooperation agreements on justice and civil judgment enforcement between local authorities of both countries; particularly an agreement on enhancing cooperation in training and fostering legal and judicial human resources for Lao localities. The Intermediate Law School of Dong Hoi accepted over 300 Lao students for training.
Tenthly, significant contributions of Hanoi Law University to judicial reform and the construction of the Socialist Rule of Law State in Vietnam:
On the occasion of the 37th anniversary of Hanoi Law University’s establishment and celebrating Vietnam Teacher’s Day, on November 9, 2016, nearly 80 National Assembly delegates from the XIV Legislature, who had previously taught, worked, or studied at Hanoi Law University, gathered and interacted with generations of lecturers and students of the University. Many of these delegates hold high-ranking positions assigned by the Party and State, such as members of the Politburo, Central Committee Secretary, and heads of various Ministries, sectors, and National Assembly and local agencies.
This event marked an important milestone in the relationship between the University and the Ministry of Justice with the activities of the National Assembly and its members; contributing to the dissemination of the spirit, style, and image of Hanoi Law University’s alumni to the student body; linking training and scientific research activities with the practical legislative work of the National Assembly.
