Procurement Notices

UNDP Vietnam is seeking for 02 National Consultants to provide service for commentaries on court. 

1. Background

The Supreme People’s Court (SPC) is assigned “the task of providing guidance for consistent application of [the] law, developing judicial precedent and deciding cases under [the] cassation and reopening procedure” by Resolution No.49-NQ/TW dated 2 June 2005 of the Politburo on Judicial Reform Strategy.

Article 104 of the 2013 Constitution provides that the SPC is responsible to “collect adjudication experience in practice and ensure the uniformity of law application.” In 2014, the Law on the Organization of Courts recognized precedents as one of the methods that the SPC utilizes to guide lower courts to apply the law. Article 22.2 (c) of the Law stipulates that one of the duties of the Council of Justices of the SPC is “to select its cassation trial decisions and judgments and decisions of courts which have taken legal effect and are of standard nature, summarize and develop them into court precedents and publicize [the] precedents for courts to study and apply in trials”; Article 27.5 also stipulated that one of duties of the Chief Justice of SPC is “to direct […] [the] summarization, development and publicization of court precedents”.

Up to date, the Council of Justices of the SPC has selected 37 judgements to be adopted as precedents. Of the 37 judgements, there are 19 in the field of civil law. All the precedents are now available online.

Although making the precedents public an important step, it does not guarantee that the precedents are understood and applied correctly by judges. In addition, merely publishing the precedents is also not enough for the legal community to understand and appreciate the importance of the precedents. Hence, the needs to accompany with each of the precedents a commentary composed by legal experts in the field. The commentary will set out the necessity of the precedents, discuss the common understanding of the precedents as well as legal fact and reasoning among judges, legal inspectors, court clerks, prosecutors, lawyers and other legal professionals. They might help draw the public’s attention on some important legal matters and even provoke some constructive debates. Most importantly, the commentaries will provide some guidance on the similar situations/ circumstances/ facts in cases in which the precedents may be applicable.

Within the framework of activities for the year 2020 of the Project “Justice and Legal Empowerment Programme in Vietnam” funded by the European Union (EU JULE Programme), UNDP, in collaboration with SPC, commissions two national consultants to provide commentaries on six precedents in the field of civil law that were selected by the Justice Council of the Supreme People’s Court from 2016 - 2020. The commentaries will be published on the official website for precedents in Viet Nam, at www.anle.toaan.gov.vn

The list of the selected precedents is as follows:

• Precedent No: (1) 03/2016/AL (on the identification of parents giving the land use right to their children);
• (2) 07/2016/AL (on the recognition of real estate purchasing contracts established before July 1, 1991);
• (3) 16/2017/AL (on the recognition of a land use right assignment contract as inheritance assigned by one of the co-heirs);
• (4) 24/2018/AL (on inheritance becoming a legally owned and used property of an individual);
• (5) 31/2020/AL (on determining the right to rent or buy state-owned houses under Decree No. 61-CP of July 5, 1994 of the Government being the property rights);
• (6) 32/2020/AL (in case of land exploited by individuals who later took permanent residence abroad and other people have managed and used the land before 1975);

2. Objectives 

• To promote common understandings of the precedents as well as legal facts and reasoning among Judges, legal inspectors, court clerk, prosecutors, lawyers and other legal professionals.
• To provide some guidance on similar situations/ circumstances/ facts in cases in which the precedents may be applicable.