Besides statutory law, case law is also one of the important sources of law used to effectively resolve civil disputes in Vietnam today. Until September 2024, the Supreme People’s Court has published 72 case laws in various fields such as civil, marriage and family, commercial, labour, etc contributing to the resolution of many legal issues and ensuring consistency in the adjudication of the courts. So, under what circumstances can case law be applied? In this article, TNTP will provide knowledge about “Applying Case Law in Resolving Civil Dispute”.
1. What is Case Law?
Case law consists of the arguments and assessments recorded in judgments and decisions that have legal effect from the Court regarding a specific case selected by the Council of Judges of the Supreme People’s Court, which is then published by the Chief Justice of the Supreme People’s Court as case law for courts to study and apply in their adjudication. These arguments and assessments must be normative, clarifying legal provisions and indicating principles, ways of handling, and legal norms applicable in a specific case to ensure consistent legal application in adjudication.
Civil disputes arise when disagreements, conflicts, or contradictions between parties regarding rights and interests in civil relations (including personal relations and property relations). The application of case law in resolving civil disputes involves the court using published case law to resolve civil cases with similar legal issues. Applying case law to resolve disputes leads to reasonable solutions, ensuring fairness in the rights and interests of the parties involved in litigation, and enhancing the quality of dispute resolution in court.
2. Applying Case Law in Resolving Civil Disputes
The application of case law must adhere to the following principles and conditions:
2.1. Principles of Applying Case Law
– Reasonable ground: The selected case law must have valid grounds, with facts and content similar to the case the judge is resolving.
– Ensuring Fairness for Each Specific Case: Judges must apply case law accurately and fairly, ensuring that all cases with similar facts and details are treated consistently according to the case law.
– Compliance with similar cases: When resolving a case, judges must ensure that similar cases with identical legal issues are resolved in the same manner, clearly recording the reasoning in the judgment. If a case has similar legal issues but the court does not apply case law, the reasons must be clearly stated in the court’s judgment or decision.
Thus, judges need to adhere to the principles of applying case law when resolving civil disputes so that similar cases with similar legal issues are resolved uniformly, ensuring fairness for the parties in dispute in court.
2.2. Conditions for Applying Case Law
According to Clause 3, Article 45 of the Civil Procedure Code 2015, the application of case law to resolve civil disputes must meet the following conditions:
– First, there is no applicable legal provision for resolving the dispute, or the content of the legal provision is insufficient to be applied in practice, or the provision has multiple interpretations.
– Second, customary practices, analogy of law, or basic principles of civil law cannot be applied to resolve the arising civil dispute.
– Third, the case law must have legal effect to be applied to resolve the dispute. According to Clause 1, Article 8 of Resolution No. 04/2019/NQ-HĐTP, case law can be studied and applied in adjudication 30 days after its publication. Thus, if case law is published or recorded in a decision less than 30 days prior, judges cannot choose to apply that case law to resolve the dispute.
– Fourth, the applicable case law must still be valid. If changes in legislation occur after the publication of case law, making the case law no longer suitable for application, it will be annulled and lose its effectiveness as a supplementary legal source.
– Fifth, case law may only be applied to resolve similar civil cases to ensure that cases with identical legal issues are resolved in the same way.
The above is TNTP’s article on the topic of “Applying Case Law in Resolving Civil Dispute” We hope this article provides benefits to readers.
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