The National Assembly (NA) Justice Committee and the majority of its members participating the NA Standing Committee’s meeting yesterday, May 10, agreed it was necessary to extend the area of jurisdiction to make the law more powerful.

Under the draft bill, which will be submitted to the NA at the seventh meeting session on May 20, the courts would be authorised to rule on administrative limitations in all fields except defence, security, government-regulated diplomacy and domestic affairs in State-run organisations.

In the appraisal report, all members of the NA Justice Committee agreed with the draft’s basic regulations and said it was ready for its first submission.

The foundation of the draft bill is the Ordinance on Judging Administrative Cases, which has been applied for 13 years. The Ordinance, which was introduced in 1996 and was amended in 1998 and 2006, has created a good framework for solving administrative litigations and proceedings and has helped strengthen the socialist legal system. However, it has met with difficulties, such as regulations that are contradictory to those in other relevant normative acts, such as the laws on citizen suits and land.

"The draft bill has been well prepared with thorough studies and reviews of its reality through administrative cases that have already been solved and the introduction of in-force normative acts in relevant fields," head of the NA Justice Committee Le Thi Thu Ba, said in her appraisal of the draft bill.

"The draft bill’s regulations do not authorise the People’s courts to judge administrative cases in some specific areas because they are already included in the Law on Citizen Suits," Ba said in agreement with the draft. "That would go in line with the Project on Administrative Jurisdiction that has been approved by the Prime Minister and the focus on specific areas would give the courts more power in their judgement."

Other members of the NA Justice Committee also supported the draft regulations as they would give organisations and individuals more rights to launch legal proceedings and more choices in the procedures they could use to settle lawsuits.

Vice chairman of the National Assembly Nguyen Duc Kien also voiced his support of the draft law’s regulations on giving the courts authorisation to rule in certain administrative areas.

"This is appropriate because it would help limit the work courts need to do which would allow them to concentrate on the areas they were authorised to consider and improve quality," said Kien, adding that it would go in line with the demands stemming from the process of administrative renovation and international economic integration.

Some members of the NA Justice Committee asked the drafting committee to clarify the administrative acts of State-run organisations that would not fall under the rule of the courts, saying the clarification would help avoid disagreements and confusion in enforcing the bill.

VietNamNet/Viet Nam News