Judicial transparency in Viet Nam - the research gap to be further studied in the age of change

Minh bạch là một trong các thuộc tính làm nên bản chất tiến bộ của nền tư pháp văn minh; thuộc tính này không những bảo đảm khách quan, công bằng trong quá trình giải quyết vụ án mà cò[r]

JUDICIAL TRANSPARENCY IN VIET NAM- THE RESEARCH GAP TO

BE FURTHER STUDIED IN THE AGE OF CHANGE

Assoc Prof Dr Nguyễn Ngọc Chí – The Law Faculty,

Viet Nam National University, Hanoi

Foreword

Judicial transparency is one of the essential attributes for the advanced modern judicial literature This not only helps to guarantee the impartial and fair trial or hearing but also paves the way for people to exercise their rights to monitor judicial activities, that will make contribution to the protection of justice and human rights Judicial transparency through the lenss of the United Nation is defined as the follows: ―judicial transparency in trial or hearing represents itself as an important value, which is often quoted as ―Not only must Justice be done, it must also be seen to be done‖

Judicial transparency is also regarded as a key rule in international human rights instruments, of which the rights to access to a public hearing and to be publicly informed of the charges against someone serve as the basis for the rights to a fair trial473

In the western judicial literature, hundred years old-studies have been efficiently assisting and enhancing the productivity of the courts as well as its transparency through designing people-monitoring system, the assessment and evaluation system carried out by indepent institutions

Due to their well-awareness of the important role of judicial transparency and openness in fostering social development, the assessment system and methods of quantitative analysis are designed in a scrutinized manner and are considered to be improved constantly

On the contrary, in the developing countries including Viet Nam, judiciary and court,

in the name of an independent branch of power to protect justice, still remain young institutions which lack of relevant philosophy, methodology and stable structure

In this context, studying the judicial transparency and openness of judicial system and court has become an urgent need, particularly in the fast-changing world, where international integration and globalization appear to be the irreversible trend of our age Besides, the need

to respect and protect human rights in all aspects of our society has become more and more essential and the requirements to address opportunities and challenges arising from the new industrialization revolution 4.0 turn out to be more significant than ever

In this context, this article is designed to provide an overview of studies on judicial transparency and judicial system in Viet Nam and recommend related issues to be further studied in the context of the fast-changing age with a view to making contribution to the development of legal science relating to judicial transparency

473

The United Nations, Resource Guide on strengthening judicial integrity and capacity (in Vietnamese), New York, 2011, p 85

1 Overview of studies on judicial transparency

a International studies on judicial transparency

First, Studies related to theory of judicical transparency and openness as well as assessment on transparency, publiciy of trial and on exercising court’s judicial power

Since the ancient times, the ideologists like Plato and Aristotle, Cicero had paid attention to judicial power implicated in the studies on states, separation of power (legislative, executive and judicial) and law enforcement though these were merely initial inceptions

In the early middle ages, Augustinis, Thomas von Aquin and Marsilius von Padua had focused on studying organizing and exercising state power These authors were of the view that state power consisted of different branches, which need to be separated In the middle ages, there were several famous thinkers studying this issue namely J.Bodin, Th.Hobbes và V.L.von Seckendorff In the early modern age (1900s) there were John Locke, Montesquieu,…were among those who were interested in studying this issue This was the period when controversy surrounding the state power broke out Many hold that in order to control power and promote anti-monopoly, the separation of power (among legislative, executive and judicial power) should be observed

In the official mainstream of German philosophy on state and judiciary, it is critical to mention I.Kant, G.W, F Hegel and K Marx Many of their studies displayed the conception

of the separation of power in exercising state power as well as designing public institutions relating to law enforcement and execution However, further studies on judicial and court, especially the judicial transparency and court‘s productivity have just been considered in late XIX century and early XX century

In late 70s of the XX century, assessment methodologies on the efficiency and impacts

of legal policies in the Western countries had been considered as methodology of analysis relating to politics- administration and judiciary

Due to the pressure of budget constraints generated by the oil crisis in 1973 and the criticism raised by the new freedom group on state‘s social welfare increase, there came out many studies on budget control spent on policies and programs towards assessment of ―inputs- effectiveness‖, which prevails ―outputs- enforcement‖ Some of the outstanding studies on this

tendency are Impoving Productivity and Productivity Measurement in Local Government by

Harty H., Fish D.474; Productivity in the Local Government Sector by Ross J Burkhead475

In these studies, the authors attached great importance to matters related to transparency and productivity which go along with the search and development of management rules with a view to improving the quality and productivity measurement of public authorities

These studies also identified the need enhance productivity measurement of administriative and judicial instituions These studies focused on the need to fill the gap of information shortage relating to productivity measurement of adiministrative and judicial institutions through analyzing the process and effectiveness of assessment and the socio-economic impacts of national programs

Studies on productivity of administriave and judicial activities in this period not only aim at improving quality of management or monitoring budget but more importantly they also recommend policies on using the available resources in a more effective manner

In the middle of the XX century, thanks to the support of the United Nations, internationals meetings and conferences gathering experts on state management had been regularly organized Within the framework of United nations‘s development programs, many studies on judicial integrity in general and transparency assessment of the court in particular had been conducted Besides, comparative studies on assessment methodologies and many countries‘ achivements related to this field had also been effectuated

Since then, experts of the United Nations have been making great contribution to popularize the outcome of these studies in different parts of the world They also recommended a variety of judicial reforms and assessments of them while taking into account the particularities of each country

In the new tendency of judicial reforms, the assessment of judicial institutions‘ productivity plays such an important role given the increasing budget deficit, pressure posed

by tax payers and addressing the bureaucracy Hence, assessment and improvement of judicial integrity has become one of the key focus of states

In this period, many studies supplemented and completed the doctrines of productivity improvement and access to studies on management methodology in private sectors to be

applied in the public sectors, namely Productivity Impovement Technique by Matzer J.476;

Partitioners Guide to Public Sector Productivity improvement by Morley E.A.477; Evaluation

and Effective Public Management by Wholey J F.478

Second, comparative studies relating to the assessment of transparancy and openness

in trial/hearing and exercising judicial power in several countries as well as experience sharing for Viet Nam

Comparative studies appear to be an important supplementary to the process of applying international experiences to related national issues In Viet Nam, the judicial models

of East Asia has recently been paid due attention to by the technocracy circle and scientists

The reason is that countries in this region share common cutural values with Viet Nam while having achieved impressive socio-economic developments and developed social institutions, especially Japan, Korea and China Court plays a key role in judicial system and have

476

Matzer J (Chủ biên), Productivity Impovement Technique, ISMA: Washington, 1986

477 Morley E.A., Partitioners Guide to Public Sector Productivity improvement, Van Nostrand Reinhold: New York, 1986

478

Wholey J F., Evaluation and Effective Public Management, Little: Boston, 1983

great influence on political, socio-economic life In this context, studies on the role of court vary widely from the relation between court and other public institutions to the role of court in facilitating people‘s access to justice and the judicial integrity of court in trial and hearing

Prof Kin Sung-Ho (Yonsei University) in his publication ―The Constitutional Soul of

Korea‘s democracy‖ analysed the increasingly important role of Constituional court and the

conflict between the Constituionalism and Democracy, which was seen as a tendency of

―judicialization of politics‖ In addition, Dr Cha Dong-wook, in his publication ―The

Constitutional Court: Political or Legal‖479, upon analyzing the practice of court trials including two outstanding cases in 2004 (The President‘s impeachment and capital moving),

he concluded that although politics has impacts on almost all aspects of Constituional

court-the procedures to select judges, how individual and organizations access to court, cases that had been tried and responses to an indictment However, the Constituional court has to persuade people that their decision is not based on the biased political considerations among different Parties but it objectively rooted in law even though that decision is a matter of controversy over the source or political consequences

The Court needs to convert the controversy over the public policy into the intepreation

of the Constituion that is decided by documents, procedures, rules and is considered by the majority as law not politics

Comparative studies in East Asian countries attract mmore and more attention of regional as well as international scholars One of the outstanding regional scholars is Prof Wen-chen Chang, the National University of Taiwan, who owned many comparative studies

on the development of Constitutionalism and advantages of judicial system in East Asia with the role as a center of power

She has several outstanding publications such as ―East Asian Foundation for

Constitutionalism: Three Models Reconstructed‖ 480 ; ―The Emergence of East Asian

Constitutionalism: Features in Comparison‖481, ft Prof Jiunn-Rong Yeh, the National

Universary of Taiwan ―Strategic judicial responses in politically charged cases: East

Asian experiences‖482 In these articles, she compared experience of Taiwan and Korea in putting high ranking politicians on trial…

Third, studies relating to development of criteria for assessing the transparency and openness of trial and in exercising judicial power by courts: lesson learnt for Viet Nam

In 2011, The United Nations published a document named ―Resource Guide on

strengthening judicial integrity and capacity‖ 483

with a view to assisting under-developed

481 Wen-chen Chang (2011), ―The Emergence of East Asian Constitutionalism: Features in Comparison‖, American Journal

of Comparative Law, Vol 59, trang 805

482 Wen-Chen Chang (2010), Strategic judicial responses in politically charged cases: East Asian experiences, I.CON (2010), Vol 8 No 4 885-910

483 The United Nations, Resource Guide on strengthening judicial integrity and capacity (in Vietnamese), New York, 2011, p 85 – 128

and developing countries It displays a common understanding that in these countries, after economic reforms which result in improvement of living standards and social welfare, the majority of people, especially the poor people still face difficulties in protecting their rights and interests due to the lack of transparency of the judicial instituions and the trial is not as public, accountable and indifferent as what said by the politician and public authorities

This document indicates a common understanding about the transparency of courts including: people and media‘s access to procedures of courts; the access to indictments and related information; public awaress, access and understanding of legal information…

Another important componant of this document is the guidance on how to assess court‘s activities and prodcutivity including: selecting important indicators for assessment, data and resource selection, analytic methodology, international guidelines on development of assessment system, indicators, monitoring systems of courts and last but not least the consequence of assessment activities relating to courts and judicial reforms

This document has been translated into Vietnamese, which encouragingly faciliate the access to knowlegde and insights contained in this document by Vietnamese people However, as the content of this document is the combination of international experiences, it does not entirely suitable for Viet Nam Hence, the reference to international experience is relatively restricted in the context of domestic situation

The concept of applying private sector‘s productivity measurement into the puclic sectors with a view to assessing the producvtivity and performance of public instituions has recently been widely recognized and supported by scholars as well as states In the article named

The Aspects of Performance Measurement in Public Sector Organization484, the author hold that

nowadays, organizations of public sector is operating in a constantly changing environment and conditions Consequently, the productivity measurement is such a managerial function, which need to be further studied indepently, as a part of new management science so as to meet the requirements of administrative management in the context of fast changing technology science and social landscape

There is a variety of methodologies to implement the productivity measurement of public institutions so as to objectively and comprehensively assess the performance of these instituions though they are complex processes

Applying business‘s productivity measurement into organizations of public sectors will help to address their core problems, encouraging the development of internal procedures and the working motivation of staffs As a result, this aim at enhancing the organization‘s productivity and is considered as an indicator to define the extent of improvement of the organization as well as a criteria for comparison with other public organization which does not apply this measurement in term of effectiveness assessment

484 Ingrida Balaboniene, Giedre Vecerkiene; ―The Aspects of Performance Measurement in Public Sector Organization‖; Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences Vol 213 (2015) pp 314 – 320

In light of this, this article underlines that: i) Productivity measurement in public sector is

an essential function of state management; ii) Effectiveness assessment of public sector, in the context of the advanced development of technology and social landscape, requires further independent study and to become a branch of science in term of management; iii) ―Productivity measurement‖ applied in public sector is considered as an effective indicator for assessing the effectiveness of the organization towards identifying core matters in functional operation of that public organization as well as encouraging working motivation in their internal system

Identifying factors that affect the productivity of a public organization has become one

of the interested issues to be further studied Identifying these factors will help develop effective solutions to enhance the productivity of the organization in a positive manner According to recent studies, these factors are economics, politics, institutions, people, psychology, traditions,…However, it depends on the different approaches of each author to identify which factor should be emphasized

b) Overview of related studies by Vietnamese authors

First, studies relating to the theory of transparency, openness and assessment of transparency, openness in court trial and exercising the judicial power of court

In line with definition of Black‘s Law Dictionary, the judicial power is the authority granted to court and judges to consider and decide what really happened, what should be done about it and pass a sentence which is binding and requires compulsory enforcement They also have the power to intepret and apply laws when there is a conflict arising from an argument

whether this thing is compatible or not with the laws adjusting it.485 In this context, we should first and foremost review the studies which identify the nature, feature of judicial power and the main functions of court in administrative system of Viet Nam

There are several highlights namely 486: ―The nature, feature and primary rules of judicial power‖ by Dao Tri Uc; ―The judicial power in a rule-based state‖ by Le Van Cam;

―The Judicial system of a rule-based state‖ by Nguyen Ngoc Chi; ―The indepence of judicial power in a rule-based state‖ by To Van Hoa; ―The history of Judicial system in Viet Nam‖ by Nguyen Dang Dung; ―Judicial power and primary rules of the Socialist law-based state in Viet Nam‖ by Phi Thanh Trung487

488 See, Nguyễn Huyền Ly, The role of court in the Socialist rule-based state of Viet Nam (Law Master Thesis), The Law

Faculty- Viet Nam‘s National University, Ha Noi, 2012

At the recent conference on ―Strategy of judicial reform in the People‘s Court: the Orientation towards 2030‖ organized by the Supreme People‘s Court of Viet Nam in 20 June

2019, Prof Dr Vo Khanh Vinh489 highlighted a term ―the advanced judicial system‖, which

is perceived as ―a judicial system of independence, democracy, advancement, transparency, openness, easy to access, sustainability, rule of law, gradually mordenization, justice and human rights promotion and protection…‖ He also identified the attributes of judicial transparency, openness towards people‘s access to justice

In the same conference, Prof Dr Nguyen Tat Vien mentioned the review of judicial integrity monitoring systems of some countries around the world and suggested a potential judicial integrity monitoring system for Viet Nam490

Judicial transparency, openness and integrity started to attract attention and interest of

many Vietnamese scholars, which is implicated in many publications namely: ―The primary

matters relating to judicial integrity in the process of developing a socialist law-based state in Viet Nam‖ by Dao Tri Uc; ―Judicial integrity in court‘s activities: experience sharing extracted from the study on national judicial integrity system of Viet Nam‖ by Vu Cong Giao;

―The integrity in the operation of law enforcement institutions: experience sharing extracted from the study on national judicial integrity system of Viet Nam‖ by Tuong Duy Kien491

These studies have made a first step in identifying the criteria for assessment of judicial transparency, openness, which are considered as the quantitative symbol of judicial integrity

The studies on experience and lessons learnt for Viet Nam attracted great attention by

Vietnamese and international scholars are: ―The International and Vietnames judicial

monitoring system‖ by Nguyen Manh Cuong; The integrity of Lawyers‘ activities: international and Vietnamese standards‖ by Luu Tien Dung; ― Judicial independence:

international and Vietnamese legislative system‖ by Scott Ciment492

The judge‘s independence- a factor reassuring the judicial integrity in the Federation

of Russia‖ by Mai Van Thang493

489

Vo Khanh Vinh, The development of judicial transparency and openness to enhance people‘s access to justice, in the

Conference ―Judicial reform Strategy for the People‘s Court towards 2030‖ organized by the Supreme People‘s Court in

20 June 2019, Hanoi

490

Nguyễn Tất Viễn, The development of the monitoring mechanism for judicial integrity, international experience and

lesson leanrt for Viet Nam in the conference ―Judicial reform Strategy for the People‘s Court towards 2030‖ organized

by the Supreme People‘s Court in 20 June 2019, Hanoi

491 These studies are published in the document: IPL – TI, Judicial integrity: International standards and Vietnamese Legislation, Hanoi, 10 October, 2014

importance to the court‘s role and fucntion have reflected the need to enhance judicial transparency and opennes in court‘s activities in Viet Nam Many scholars started to draw their interest into studies about the mechanisms to adjust the court‘s implementation of

judicial power in Viet Nam, as manifested in several articles, such as: ―The key role of court

in the judicial reform strategy in Viet Nam and the conception on the 2013 Constitution-based criminal procedures‖ by Dao Tri Uc; ―The Constitution 2013 rules on court: prospect and challenges towards judicial reform‖ by Dang Minh Tuan494

The transparency and openness of court will not be guaranteed without paying due attention to factors that may have negative impacts on trial, the impartiality and independence

of judges and even simply the legal procedures This argument is defined in some articles

namely: ―Factors impacted on the independence of court‖ by Pham Hong Thai; ―The

independence of judges and judicial integrity‖ by Vu Cong Giao and Nguyen Minh Tam;

―Enhancing the impartiality in judge appointment and the working conditions for judges‖ by

The International Transparency Organization

―Asministrative procedures reform in court to enhance the access to justice‖ by

Nguyen Hung Quang495

Besides, in the articles named ―The rule of openness in trial in the criminal procedure

of Viet Nam‖ by Ngo Quang Vinh496

and ― The rules in trial, judges and independent jury and the rule of law: practice and reform recommendations‖ by Nguyen Quang Hien497

, the authors concretized the rule of transparency and opennes by illustration of court activities, rule on opennes of the prosecution including publication of time and place of the trial court before it starts, publication of evidence, investigation related documents and indictments… After the trial, the sentencing must be public and maybe published on press, radio or other mass media for people to access relating information

In order to assure the rule of openness to be consistently implemented, the law on criminal procedures stipulated specific rules such as rules on procedures of preparation for trial, procedues on opening a court, interrogation, discuss and sentencing

Third, studies related to development criteria for assessment of judicial transparency and openness in trial and exercising judicial power by court in Viet Nam

Recently, in their studies, most of scholars, researchers have recognized and underlined the necessity and objective need of judicial transparency and openness assessment

in trial and exercising judicial power498 At the same time, the criteria for assessment of the

496 Ngo Quang Vinh, ―The rule of public trial and hearing in the criminal procedures of Viet Nam‖, Dan chu Phap luat

Journal: http://tcdcpl.moj.gov.vn/qt/tintuc/Pages/dien-dan-cong-tac-tu-phap.aspx?ItemID=119 (20 August, 2018)

497

Nguyễn Quang Hiền, The rule ―during trial or hearing, the judge and independent jury only obey the rule of law‖ –

Practice and recommendations, source: http://tks.edu.vn/thong-tin-khoa-hoc/chi-tiet/79/282 (15 August, 2018)

498 Articles written by Prof Dr.Vo Khanh Vinh, Prof Dr Nguyen Tat Vien …in Conference ―Judicial reform Strategy for the People‘s Court towards 2030‖ organized by the Supreme People‘s Court in 20 June 2019, Hanoi; or in the publications

transparency and openness in trial and judicial power exercised by court has also been considered as important and indispensable parts of the State management process, of the social monitoring for court‘s trial, court‘s exercising of judicial power They are, at the same time, regarded as the criteria for assessment of the court‘s productivity

Nevertheless, the issues that attract most attention and controversially trigger various different opinions and approached are the methods, mechanism and models for judicial transparency and openness in trial and exercising court‘s judicial power

The concept of applying the productivity measurement of private sector into institutions of the public sector with a view to assessing their productivity and effectiveness has recently been widely recognized by the circle of scholars as well as policy-makers The

outstanding publications related to this is the research book ―Productivity measurement and

effectiveness assessment of State‘s administrative management- International achievements and potential application in Viet Nam‖ 499

This is the first thematic study of Viet Nam that systematically specified the measurement and assessment of the productivity of State‘s administrative management In this document, the author focuses on clarification of definition, classifying productivity and effectiveness, theory of productivity assessment of State‘s administrative management; especially mentioning the approach to assess State‘s administrative management effectiveness in the perpective of economics, politics, administration and culture

At the same time, the author make comparison among the international models and methods for productivity assessment of public management as well as indicates the indicators for productivity measurement and assessment relating to public institutions

The RIA method (impact assessment) is also mentioned in this study So far, there is nevertheless no thematic study on productivity measurement, judicial transparency and opennes in court‘s trial and exercising court‘s judicial power in Viet Nam

2 Prospect and challenges for study on current judicial transparency and openness in Viet Nam

The above-mentioned studies on judicial transparency in Viet Nam are just the first step, which still not entirely meets the requirements of science guidance towards the development, enacting and enforcement of laws on judicial transparency, openness in court‘s trial and exercising court‘s judicial power, as well as the development of guaranteed conditions, assessment instrument, measurement of judicial transparency, openness in court‘s trial and exercising court‘s judicial power in Viet Nam

The aforementioned limitation of studies has also been indicated in the Central Resolution no 08 – NQ/TƯ: ―Judicial thematic studies and practice assessment has not been paid due attention‖ Base on this comment, this Resolution guides: ―Attaching great written by Prof Dr Đao Tri Uc, Prof Dr Nguyen Ngoc Chi, Prof Dr Vu Cong Giao …in the publication: ―Judicial reform for the judicial integrity‖ of The Institute for Public Policy and Law (IPL), Pub The National University of Viet Nam, Ha Noi, 2014

499 Nguyen Đang Thanh (Ed.), Productivity measurement and effectiveness assessment of State‘s administrative management-

International achievements and potential application in Viet Nam‖, Pb Lao Dong, 2012

importance to judicial thematic studies with a view to addressing urgent judicial matters and existing problems so as to making contribution to effective judicial reform.‖

In light of this, further studies on the judicial transparency, openness in court‘s trial and exercising court‘s judicial power in the time to come should be conducted as the follows:

2.1 Defining theory framework of judicial transparency, openness in court’s trial and exercising court’s judicial power in Viet Nam in the fast-changing age

This research direction is to unlock the ignorance of philosophy of the judicial transparency and openness in court‘s trial, facilitating the implementation of judicial power as the inherent attribute of court in a law-based state and the methodology to develop a philosophy framework of assessment mechanisms relating to judicial transparency, openness in court‘s trial and exercising court‘s judicial power On the basis of analysing relevant international studies and experience, this kind of research will draw relevant lessons learnt for Viet Nam

There is a variety of international studies on judicial transparency openness in court‘s trial and exercising court‘s judicial power, which contribute to develop different doctrines that have certain impacts on judcial literature of many countries in the world

However, in Viet Nam, the studies on this issue, as above-mentioned, is just the initial step The exploration of this issue is just limited to the basic awareness of what is transparency and openness of the court‘s trial and of exercising judicial power In addition, these studies also mentioned the history, justification and requirement of these issues as well

as the meaning and impacts of them on the protection of human rights in the national and international judiciary

In light of this, it is necessary to further study this issue, especially in context of the fast changing world with a view to clarifying the nature, logic of development and the display aspects of transparency and openness in the court‘s trial and exercising judicial power in legislation and law enforcement

On the other hand, studies on this issue should aim at clarifying the characteristic of judicial transparency, openness in trial and exercising court‘s judicial power in line with the Consitution hierachy of Viet Nam, taking into account the interplay with the centralized power in designing court system and its independence within the implementation of state power in Viet Nam

In order to address the above-mentioned objectives of this research direction, we need

to deal with the folloing matters: The philisophies and doctrines of judicial transparency, openness and exercising court‘s judicial power; The tendency of development of judicial transparency, openness and exercising court‘s judicial power in the context of the fast changing age; the display and factors affecting the judicial transparency, openness and exercising court‘s judicial power; the judicial transparency, openness and exercising court‘s judicial power in Viet Nam in the context of the fast changing age

Hence, further studies on this issue in the time to come need to address the following aspects:

(i) Defining the philosophy of the judicial transparency, openness in trial and exercising court‘s judicial power, including: international doctrines about the judicial transparency, openness

in trial and exercising court‘s judicial power; assessment and forecast about the international development tendency of this issue in the context of the fast changing world;

Definition, nature, feature of the judicial transparency, openness in trial and exercising court‘s judicial power; justification for policy-making process relating to judicial transparency, openness in trial and exercising court‘s judicial power; the extent, content and display format of the judicial transparency, openness in trial and exercising court‘s judicial power; the guarantee factors for realizing judicial transparency, openness in trial and exercising court‘s judicial power in the proceeding procedures of the case; the impacts of this issue on the access to justice and the promotion and protection of human rights

(ii) Studies on the feature of the judiciary of Viet Nam towards the implentation or research direction relating to this issue, including: definition, characteristics and the role of Vietnamese Judiciary; assessment of the impacts of global change factors on the judicial transparency, openness in trial and exercising court‘s judicial power;

The requirement, procedures for implementing the judicial transparency, openness in trial and exercising court‘s judicial power in Viet Nam…

(iii) Studies on international experience and cooperation in policy-making, legislation making and law enforcement relating to judicial transparency, openness in trial and exercising court‘s judicial power through: indentifying and assessing the international development tendency of judicial transparency, openness in trial and exercising court‘s judicial power; international experience of countries around the world in law making and enforcement relating to judicial transparency, openness in trial and exercising court‘s judicial power, which could be learnt by Viet Nam, taking into account the international standards of human rights; studies on the necessity of international cooperation and format, models for international cooperation in assuring the judicial transparency, openness in trial and exercising court‘s judicial power…

(iv) Studies on the guaranteed conditions for judicial transparency, openness in trial and exercising court‘s judicial power

Such as: institution, legislation, enforcing mechanism and organization, human resource, finance and logistics…

The aforementioned studies will make contribution to clarify and define the philosophy, theory, justification and practice for the law making process, enacting and enforcement of policies, laws relating to judicial transparency, openness in trial and exercising court‘s judicial power in Viet Nam; at the same time they will contribute to the legal science in general and judicial science in particular with a view to meeting the requirements of judicial transparency, openness in trial and exercising court‘s judicial power in the cause of consolidating a Socialist law-based State and judicial reform in Viet Nam at current stage

2.2 Studies on the indicators for measuring the judicial transparency, openness in trial and exercising court’s judicial power in Viet Nam in the fast changing age

These studies should mention the necessity and urgent need to assess the judicial transparency, openness in trial and exercising court‘s judicial power, which have been widely recognized by many scholars and underlined in their recent publications500

In addition, the criteria for assessing the judicial transparency, openness in trial and exercising court‘s judicial power is also considered as an indispensable tool in the process of state management, social monitoring for court‘s trial and exercising court‘s judicial power This is also regarded as a criteria for assessing the productivity of court However, the issues that attract most attention and trigger various different opinions and approaches are the methods, format and models for assement of judicial transparency and openness in trial and exercising court‘s judicial power

The concept of applying the productivity measurement of private sector into institutions of the public sector with a view to assessing their productivity and effectiveness has recently been widely recognized by many scholars as well as policy-makers The outstanding

publications related to this is the research book ―Productivity measurement and effectiveness

assessment of State‘s administrative management- International achievements and potential application in Viet Nam‖ 501

This is the first thematic study of Viet Nam that systematically specified the measurement and assessment of the productivity of State‘s administrative management In this document, the author focuses on clarification of definition, classifying productivity and effectiveness, theory of productivity assessment of State‘s administrative management; especially mentioning the approach to assess State‘s administrative management effectiveness in the perpective of economics, politics, administration and culture

At the same time, the author make comparison among the international models and methods for productivity assessment of public management as well as indicates the indicators for productivity measurement and assessment relating to public institutions

The RIA method (impact assessment) is also mentioned in this study So far, there is nevertheless no thematic study on productivity measurement, judicial transparency and opennes in court‘s trial and exercising court‘s judicial power in Viet Nam

In light of this, further studies on the indicators for measurement of judicial transparency and openness in court‘s trial and exercising court‘s judicial power in Viet Nam against the global change factors is considered as one of the most important research directions and to be implemented on the following basis:

500 Articles written by Prof Dr.Vo Khanh Vinh, Prof Dr Nguyen Tat Vien …in Conference ―Judicial reform Strategy for the People‘s Court towards 2030‖ organized by the Supreme People‘s Court in 20 June 2019, Hanoi; or in the publications written by Prof Dr Đao Tri Uc, Prof Dr Nguyen Ngoc Chi, Prof Dr Vu Cong Giao …in the publication: ―Judicial reform for the judicial integrity‖ of The Institute for Public Policy and Law (IPL), Pub The National University of Viet Nam, Ha Noi, 2014

501 Nguyen Đang Thanh (Ed.), Productivity measurement and effectiveness assessment of State‘s administrative management-

International achievements and potential application in Viet Nam‖, Pb Lao Dong, 2012

(i) Doctrines and approaches on assessment of judicial transparency and openness in court‘s trial and exercising court‘s judicial power in Viet Nam;

(ii) Nature and feature of assessment mechanism for the judicial transparency and openness in court‘s trial and exercising court‘s judicial power in Viet Nam;

(iii) Assessment instrument of the judicial transparency and openness in court‘s trial and exercising court‘s judicial power

(iv) International assessment mechanisms of judicial transparency and openness in court‘s trial and exercising court‘s judicial power and lesson learnt for Viet Nam;

(v) Development of indicators for measurement of the judicial transparency and opennes in court‘s trial and exercising court‘s judicial power through a criteria system;

(vi) Identifying legislation, guidance on the judicial transparency and openness in court‘s trial and exercising court‘s judicial power in Viet Nam; the current status of assessment mechanism and practice of assessment of judicial transparency and openness in court‘s trial and exercising court‘s judicial power in Viet Nam and

This research direction aims at clarifying the real situation, practice and the status of assessment mechanism of judicial transparency and openness in court‘s trial and exercising court‘s judicial power in the past few years (since the Resolution No 49 about the judicial reform strategy in 2005 till now); On that basis, this research direction will identify the cause and effect of success and limitation in the assessment and pave the way for development of assessment mechanism, criteria for judicial transparency and openness in court‘s trial and exercising court‘s judicial power, taking into account the development level and conditions of Viet Nam against the global change of our age

2.3 Studies on mechanism of evaluating and monitoring the realization of judicial transparency and opennes in court’s trial and exercising court’s judicial power in Viet Nam

in the fast-changing age

Monitoring and evaluating the judicial activities in general and the judicial transparency and opennes in court‘s trial and exercising court‘s judicial power in particular are a component of the enactment process of the judicial power The United Nations‘ document indicates that ―The rules of judicial transparency are assisted by the real interest which is expected as a result of enhancing the transparency Specifically speaking, the more transparent the court is, the more easily people can monitor court‘s activities The conception

of judicial monitoring and court‘s accountability to explain must base on the fact that laws and court‘s decisions are always available for reference by judges, court‘s staffs, legislation makers, public servants, lawyes and ordinary people‖ 502

This research direction needs to indentify the mechanism for mornitoring and evaluating the judicial transparency and openness in court‘s trial and exercising court‘s judicial power in Viet Nam It‘s also necessary to identify the actors who implement the

502

The United Nations, Resource Guide on strengthening judicial integrity and capacity (in Vietnamese), New York, 2011, p 85

monitoring and evaluating, the operation procedures as well as the format of evaluating and monitoring the judicial transparency and openness in court‘s trial and exercising court‘s judicial power

On the other hand, it also worths studying the interplay between the activities of monitoring, evaluation and the judicial transparency and openness in court‘s trial and exercising court‘s judicial power in conjunction with the monitoring and evaluation in other judicial areas./

List of References

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