Hundreds of law bookcases in communes are... 'forgotten'?

The bookshelf is empty of readers.

In the corner of the one-stop shop of Yen Son commune (Do Luong) there is a wooden cabinet with glass windows, inside are neatly arranged books on the subject of law.

The staff of the Yen Son commune one-stop shop said that it was the commune’s legal bookcase. The books were added every year, but “no one came to read or borrow the books, even the officials and employees of the commune People’s Committee.”

The law bookcase located at the One-Stop Transaction Center of Yen Son Commune People's Committee (Do Luong) is mainly used to store documents, books and newspapers. Photo: Hoai Thu

When asked about this fact by a civil servant of the Justice Department of Yen Son commune, Mr. Bui Huu Thang said that this fact has been happening for several years now and this is a problem that has not been resolved.

Mr. Thang added that nowadays, almost all citizens, officials and civil servants have smartphones, and when they go to work, they have computers connected to the internet, so when they need to find information or look up legal content, they use the internet to update. No one looks for books to read, learn about laws, codes and legal regulations through the bookshelf anymore.

Not only in Yen Son commune, according to Mr. Nguyen Xuan Mai - Head of the Justice Department of Do Luong District People's Committee, the fact that the law bookcase model has not been effective for a long time is a reality in most communes and towns in the area.

Also affirming the same reality, Mr. Vy Hoang Ha - Head of the Justice Department of Quy Hop District People's Committee said that communes still add books to the legal bookcase every year, but the situation of "the bookcase being forgotten", no one coming to borrow or read books is a real reality, even in remote communes, remote areas, and areas with special difficulties, people coming to learn about legal regulations at the bookcase is almost non-existent.

According to regulations, at the commune level, the legal bookcase is one of the mandatory criteria for assessing and scoring communes that meet legal access standards. In Decision No. 619/QD-TTg dated May 8, 2017 of the Prime Minister on building communes with legal access standards, the assessment of communes meeting legal access standards is linked to the work of building new rural areas, becoming one of 19 criteria (criterion 18.5) in the set of criteria for assessing communes meeting new rural standards. To be recognized as a commune meeting legal access standards, it is necessary to complete 5 criteria corresponding to 25 specific indicators, assessed by a scale for each criterion with a total of 100 points. One of the mandatory criteria is building a legal bookcase.

Discussing this issue, Mr. Phan Van Truong - Head of the Justice Department of Hung Nguyen district also admitted that the fact that the legal bookcase is being "ignored" is real. Even the legal bookcase of the district Justice Department is in a similar situation.

According to Mr. Truong's explanation, because currently all information that needs to be researched and updated has been done via the internet, it is both fast and accurate. "Many new legal books have just been purchased but not long after that the law has been amended, supplemented, or replaced, so the books cannot be updated in time with reality" - Mr. Phan Xuan Truong added.

What is the solution?

Nowadays, instead of sitting and flipping through pages of a law book, with a smartphone connected to the internet, anyone can look up the necessary information online.

Taking advantage of this, the Justice Department of Quy Hop district has fully exploited network connection to serve the work of propaganda, dissemination and legal education in the commune.

Officials of the Justice Department of Hung Nguyen District People's Committee discuss professional matters. Photo: Hoai Thu

Mr. Vy Hoang Ha - Head of the Justice Department of Quy Hop district said that the department has set up groups connecting judicial officers of communes and towns in the district via Facebook and Zalo to exchange work content and update new legal documents.

In addition, to ensure that the source of legal documents is guaranteed, the Quy Hop Justice Department has advised the District People's Committee to balance expenditures to purchase access to the Law Library application each year at about 10 million VND.

Accordingly, communes and towns are given passwords to log in to the Law Library to look up information. Documents instructing and implementing work content are transferred to the I-office system of the Provincial People's Committee for implementation.

Or at the People's Committee of Hung Nguyen district, the district Justice Department has proactively exploited legal documents, updated legal documents from sources on the internet such as before 2018, it was taken from the "National Database" source, currently it is taken from the Government Gazette source. And documents and directives are sent to communes and towns through the document transfer software system.

The Justice Department of the People's Committee of Quy Hop district uses the social network Facebook to propagate, disseminate and educate the law. Photo: HT

However, according to Mr. Phan Quang Hien - a specialist of the Department of Justice of Hung Nguyen district, through practical professional work, it has been shown that "the source of information about legal documents on the internet is not always guaranteed, so if the user is not careful, they will fall into the situation of citing the wrong law, lacking content, and not being able to update the latest documents. Therefore, building a unified database, providing sources of documents and documents related to the legal field is extremely necessary.

Agreeing with this view, Mr. Le Ba Thieu - Head of the Department of Dissemination and Legal Education, Department of Justice said that among the indicators on legal access, the indicator on building, managing and using legal bookcases is an important indicator, contributing to disseminating legal knowledge to all people, especially officials and people in remote areas, extremely difficult areas, and ethnic minority areas that do not have many conditions to access information on the internet. According to current regulations, each year, localities and units must allocate a budget of 2 million VND/commune to supplement books for legal bookcases.

However, in recent years, according to local feedback, the form of building a legal bookcase has not been effective. Therefore, the Department of Justice has surveyed and received feedback from the grassroots to propose to the Ministry of Justice and relevant departments and agencies to propose amendments, even abolishment of the legal bookcase and replace it with a more effective form.

That is to build a national electronic legal bookcase as stated in Decision No. 619/QD-TTg dated May 8, 2017 of the Prime Minister on building a commune with legal access standards. "We are looking forward to the completion of this database, replacing the current ineffective printed bookcase form" - Mr. Le Ba Thieu said.

In Decision No. 14/2019/QD-TTg of the Prime Minister dated March 13, 2019 on the construction, management and exploitation of law bookcases, it is stated:

a. Organize a review, evaluate the effectiveness, determine the need to exploit and use the Commune-level Law Bookcases and the Law Bookcases in agencies and units under the management scope and complete before December 31, 2019 to consider and decide on the handling direction according to the provisions at Point b, Point c and Point d of this Clause.

b) If continuing to maintain the Law Bookcase at the commune level and the Law Bookcase at agencies and units, direct, guide and arrange State budget funds for the operation of the Law Bookcase until the end of 2020. From 2021, implement socialization of management and exploitation of the Law Bookcase in the direction of community self-management.

c) If the commune-level Law Bookcase is not maintained, direct and guide the merger of the Law Bookcase into the book and legal document section of the Library or the existing Post Office - Culture point, Community Learning Center until the end of 2020. The merger of the Law Bookcase must be completed before December 31, 2020;

d) If the agency or unit does not continue to maintain the Law Bookcase, direct the organization to preserve and manage existing legal books and documents in accordance with the conditions of the agency or unit according to regulations on public asset management and complete before December 31, 2020; direct the selection of appropriate and valuable books and documents to digitize and update on the component data of the National Electronic Law Bookcase within the scope of management authority.