Effective socialisation of judicial appraisal is needed
Currently, the system of judicial appraisal organisations is consolidated and developed on a large scale in many fields. The whole country has 139 public judicial appraisal organisations, 2 Judicial Appraisal Offices; 580 judicial appraisal organisations by case in the fields of: Finance, banking, construction, environmental resources, information and communication, culture... There are 7,136 judicial appraisers and 2,621 judicial appraisers by case.
However, in the face of increasingly high demands, judicial appraisal work has revealed a number of limitations and shortcomings; the law on judicial appraisal still has a number of provisions that are not suitable to emerging practices, causing difficulties and obstacles for this activity, including the lack of regulations on the responsibility of local prosecution agencies for judicial appraisal work; the policy of socialisation in the field of judicial appraisal has not really been effective...
In this revision, the draft law has many provisions promoting the socialisation of judicial appraisal activities to meet the requirements of investigation, prosecution, trial, and execution of judgments; creating a breakthrough legal basis and sustainable development for the organiation and activities of judicial appraisal. The draft has added provisions that Judicial Appraisal Offices are established in the fields of antiques, relics, copyright, DNA, documents, digital and electronic technology, fingerprints, and the fields of finance, banking, construction, and resources.
As for the fields of DNA, documents, digital and electronic techniques, and fingerprints, the Office of Forensic Expertise is not allowed to conduct forensic expertise in criminal proceedings, except in special cases requested by the person requesting the forensic expertise.
Major General Nguyen Tien Nam, Director of the Institute of Criminal Science under the Ministry of Public Security, suggested that the field of forensic expertise on DNA, digital and electronic documents, fingerprints, and irises should be assigned to the criminal technical department of the police agency to organise and implement, because these are all important data related to human rights, and need to be handled with caution.
Considering carefully the right to exemption from legal liability
Regarding the proposal to provide for exemption from legal liability for forensic experts in the process of performing forensic activities, in a recent discussion session at the National Assembly, delegate Hoang Quoc Khanh (Lai Chau delegation) said that this is a new content that needs to be carefully considered to both protect the forensic experts and ensure the rights and principles of objectivity, honesty and professional responsibility in forensic expertise.
According to delegate Khanh, forensic expertise is a specific and complicated field that directly affects the results of resolving criminal, civil and administrative cases. However, many forensic experts are afraid to participate in forensic expertise due to fear of being sued, criminally prosecuted, or disciplined when the forensic conclusions are not accepted by the parties, even though they have followed the correct procedures and expertise.
This will be difficult for appraisal activities, especially in specialised fields such as finance and banking, information technology, environment... Therefore, it is necessary to establish a reasonable protection mechanism for judicial appraisers, to encourage them to feel secure in their dedication and to perform their functions properly.
However, there is another reality that in recent times, some medical examination agencies (forensic psychiatry) have committed acts of giving, brokering and receiving bribes, taking advantage of the policy of exemption and reduction of criminal liability for people with mental illness to make forensic examination conclusions of “limited mental illness or loss of cognitive and behavioural control” for many subjects, helping them avoid criminal prosecution and not have to serve their sentences. It is worth mentioning that this has become a system with the goal of profiteering.
Recently, the Ha Noi People’s Court brought a group of defendants to trial for accepting bribes, allowing people who were subject to “compulsory medical treatment” measures at the Compulsory Treatment Department, Central Psychiatric Hospital 1 to go out against regulations.
Notably, some subjects continued to commit crimes. According to Khanh, it is necessary to have clearer and stricter regulations to avoid abuse of exemptions. If not clearly designed, the exemption from liability will seriously affect the legitimate rights and interests of organisations and citizens. It is necessary to define a clearer boundary between legal exemptions and professional responsibilities and professional ethics.
The draft needs to stipulate more clearly the mechanism for connecting and sharing this data because the forensic database is a national asset that must be managed in a unified manner, but there needs to be a connection between the Ministry of Justice, the focal agency, relevant specialised ministries and the prosecution agency to ensure that the data is updated regularly, utilise effectively and promptly serves the prosecution activities.
