1. The necessity of the topic
Regarding the jurisdiction of the hearing at first instance of criminal cases,
Provincial-level People’s Court adjudicates particularly serious criminal cases
with a penalty frame of more than 15 years imprisonment, life imprisonment, and
death penalty. Because the criminal penalty applies to defendants against criminal
cases at the provincial People’s Courts is severely, any error or “accident of
justice” is prohibited for the any agencies or persons conducting legal
proceedings. This is reason why the Provincial-level People’s Court must comply
with requirements of trial operation more stringent than the same applied to
District-level People’s Court in order to protect the defendant’s rights in the best
way and prevent unfairness or wrongness in the hearing at first instance of
criminal cases in Provincial-level People’s Court.
The Party and State adopted many policies and measures to improve the
quality of the trial of criminal cases in general, and the hearing at first instance of
criminal cases in Provincial-level People’s Court in particular. One of these was
to constantly improve the judicial capacity of judges, People’s jurors and
procurators, perfect the organization, operation, and promote the role of attorneys
and judicial assistance agencies.
The above efforts were recognized in Criminal Law 1999 (amended 2009),
Criminal Procedure law 2003, Constitution 2013, Law on Organization of People’s
Court 2014, Law on Organization of the People’s Procuracy 2014, Criminal Law
2015, Criminal Procedure Law 2015. The policies and measures of the Party and
the State had positive impacts on the quality of judicial agencies’ operations,
including the quality of the hearing at first instance of criminal cases in
Provincial-level People’s Court. The number of unjustified and unfair judgments
of the hearing at first instance of criminal cases at the Provincial-level People’s
Court violating procedures and the defendant’s rights was decreased
