Vietnam Bar Association Officially Petition to Amend Circular 28

On August 7th, 2014 the Chairman of the Vietnam Bar Association has signed the petition submitting to the Minister of the Vietnam Ministry of Public Security, to officially request for consideration annulling or amending the scope of the Article 38 of the Circular No. 28/2014 (“Circular 28”).

Pursuant to the Vietnam Bar Association, the Article 38 of Circular 28 has various terms expanding the scope of rights and obligations of the investigators in comparison to the Criminal Procedures Code, Ordinance on organization of criminal investigations, Law on Lawyers and other relevant legal documents. This has led to the risk of subjective interpreting and implementing by the investigators, directly affecting the legal status, rights and obligations of the lawyers in Vietnam.  Further, Article 38 of Circular 28 displays the unfairness in the legal proceeding relationship between the investigators and the lawyers in Vietnam. If the lawyers in Vietnam are found violating a specific obligation or profession’s operation detailed in the Article 58 of the Criminal Procedures Code, Article 6 of the Circular No.110/2013, the investigators could only report to the Head of the Investigating Agency, whom shall issue the decision to revoke the Power of the Attorney or propose other types of sanctions provided by laws. At the same time, the lawyers in Vietnam also have the rights to detect, report and request sanctioning toward investigators who hinder the right of the Vietnam criminal or penal lawyers and violate the tasks, jurisdictions specified by law.  In accordance with the Article 3 and 10 of the Vietnam Criminal Procedures Code, all the legal criminal proceedings of the authorities, procedure-conducting agencies and procedure participants must be conducted in compliance with the terms and regulation of this Code. But the Article 38 of Circular 28 permits the investigators to “record the sound and video or conduct other measures to gather documents, evidences proofing for the obstructing, hindering acts for the investigating agencies” which are not considered appropriate.

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