On the morning of April 9, the National Assembly held a group discussion on 4 draft laws including: Law on Civil Status (amended), Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on Notarization, Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on Legal Aid and Law on Access to Information (amended).
Regarding the draft Law on Civil Status (amended), Chairman of the National Assembly's Law and Justice Committee Phan Chi Hieu agreed with the policy of promoting decentralization and delegation of power, bringing civil status tasks to the commune level to better serve the people. This is the right step, in line with the Party's orientation. However, he expressed concern about the implementation capacity at the grassroots level.
According to him, currently, the team of judicial and civil status officials at the commune level is very thin, in many places there is only one official, even some communes do not have full-time officials. The workload is large, and they are often assigned other tasks, causing overload to occur widely.
Therefore, he suggested that if the National Assembly approves this policy, the Government needs to have solutions to strengthen human resources for the commune level, ensuring quick and convenient civil status procedures for people.
He also emphasized the requirement to invest in information technology infrastructure. In the context of civil status procedures being carried out online, without administrative boundaries, if the technical system does not meet the requirements, it will cause congestion, directly affecting people, especially in remote and isolated areas.
Narrowing the scope of compulsory notarization transactions
Regarding the draft Notarization Law, Mr. Phan Chi Hieu said that the orientation of this amendment is to narrow down transactions and contracts that must be notarized, and strongly shift to a voluntary mechanism.
According to international experience, only certain types of transactions - mainly related to real estate - are required for notarization to limit disputes. The remaining transactions are chosen by the people themselves.
Notably, the draft law stipulates that only transactions identified in the law are required for notarization, not allowing regulations in decrees and circulars to avoid abuse. Through review, many types of transactions currently being "pushed" to the level of mandatory notarization in sub-law documents will be abolished.
At the same time, the draft also clearly stipulates the specific groups of transactions that must be notarized, such as land use right transfer, some cases of wills... to ensure transparency and legal safety for the market.
In practice, he said that in places where there are no notary practice organizations, people can still carry out notarization at the commune-level People's Committee. In the coming time, the Ministry of Justice will develop a notary network, gradually transferring notarization authority to this area in the direction of socialization, reducing the burden on grassroots authorities.
Regarding the Law on Legal Aid, Mr. Phan Chi Hieu expressed his support for expanding the beneficiaries, considering this a policy that shows the superiority of the State.
He said that in many countries, 100% of criminal cases have lawyers participating; if the defendant is unable to pay, the State will appoint a lawyer and pay the costs. Vietnam needs to gradually move towards this goal, in accordance with socio-economic conditions.
However, expansion needs to be linked to actual capacity, avoiding resource overload. At the same time, he proposed promoting socialization, mobilizing a team of lawyers to participate in legal aid, instead of just relying on the budget.
In particular, in the process of amending the Law on Lawyers, it is necessary to more clearly stipulate the social responsibilities of lawyers, such as the obligation to participate in some cases of free legal aid or perform public service hours annually.
