Project News

The aim of project phase 3 is as follows: "to enable the Ministry of Justice (MOJ) to take necessary measures to implement the Civil Code (CC) and the Code of Civil Procedure (CCP) appropriately." In order to realize this, one of the Project Outputs stipulated that "the Ministry of Justice takes necessary measures for drafting and legislating laws related to the CC and the CCP." (Refer: Outline of the Project)

During the legislative process up to phase 2, the Japanese supporting group made the first drafts, then they held regular discussions on the drafts with the Cambodian Committee (the official name is "Committee in charge of the Civil Code and the Code of Civil Procedure" established by Prakas of MOJ) and finalized them with the support of JICA long-term experts.

Among the draft laws put together by the Japanese supporting groups until phase 2, the CCP and the Civil Fine Procedural Law were applied respectively in July 2007 and March 2008. The CC was promulgated in December 2007; however, its application date will be set by the Law on Application of the CC at a later date. The Law on Non-litigation Civil Procedures and the Law on the Procedures in Action relating to Personal Status were submitted to the Council of Ministers for deliberation. The Bailiff Law and the Law on Application of the CC are almost finished and as soon as the final drafts are complete, they will be submitted to the Council of Ministers. Prakas on Court Deposit Procedure is due to be issued by MOJ soon.

In phase 3, the Cambodian side drafts the remaining laws that are necessary to implement the CC and the CCP by themselves with the support of the Japanese supporting group and the long-term experts. It is our aim to further strengthen the MOJ's drafting capacity through this process. The MOJ established a Sub-ommittee (the official name is "Sub-committee in charge of the area of Civil Code and the Code of Civil Procedure" established by Prakas of the Ministry) following the limited involvement of the Committee members who are not only very busy with their primary work as judges etc. but also appointed as judges for the Khmer Rouge Tribunal (the official name is the Extraordinary Chamber in the Court of Cambodia; as referred to ECCC). The Sub-committee is composed of young MOJ officers such as directors and deputy directors from the Civil Affairs Bureau, Legal Education and Dissemination Bureau, Legislative Bureau, etc. However, it was very difficult for them to draft the necessary laws for implementation of the CC and the CCP since they did not participate in the drafting process. Consequently, in October 2008, the project members made an order of priority among the laws to be drafted and established a new drafting system by dividing drafting groups into relevant drafting groups which consist of both Committee and Sub-committee members. Weekly meetings are held by each group to draft the relevant laws and then they are submitted to the Committee for further discussion to be finalized. JICA experts will assist them by providing advice and comments on the drafts prepared by each drafting group in the regular meetings. Furthermore, they refer any questions that the Cambodian side raises to the Japanese supporting groups, if the necessity arises.

The drafting groups' activities are as follows.

The Group I is drafting the Law on Land Registration which is required by the CCP and the CC. Since this drafting task requires collaboration with the Ministry of Land Management, Urban Planning and Construction (MLMUPC), the Inter-ministerial Joint Working Group was established by joint Prakas between MOJ and MLMUPC. The joint working group holds regular meetings besides Group I regular meetings inside the MOJ. The members of the Inter-ministerial Joint Working Group participated in the training held in Japan in Feb 2009. In the discussion during the training, they reached an agreement that they would prepare an inter-ministerial Prakas first to deal with the urgent matters and afterwards they would organize them as a law. Group I began to prepare a draft of the land registration law which is required by the CCP and the draft is now under discussion in Group I's regular and Inter-ministerial Joint Working Group meetings. Currently they are preparing another draft of the inter-ministerial Prakas regarding land registration related to the CC.

Group II has drafted (1) Prakas on assigning extra judges to the provincial courts which have a shortage of judges (as well as instruction on travel expenses related to the Prakas), (2) Prakas on motions which require payment of filing fees and amounts thereof, amounts of fees for acts other than decisions, and standards for calculation of amounts of court costs other than filing fees and the cost related to the nature of the case. The Prakas on assigning extra judges was supposed to be applied, at first, only for the civil cases; it was later ordained to cover criminal cases. This work is recognized as an outcome (in PDM) of the project. Group II was disbanded and the members were relocated to the other drafting groups.

Group III is drafting the regulations which are necessary to implement the Bailiff Law. At present, they are discussing the draft of Prakas on bailiff selection, fees and expenses in the regular meetings. Afterwards they will draft a sub-decree on bailiffs' annual fees, which will be provided by the National Treasury.

Group IV is in charge of the Law on Deposit and started the substantial work in April 2009 after the vacant JICA expert's post was filled. At present, they are reviewing the first draft made by the Cambodian side. Determining the institution in charge of deposits and the scope of the draft law are the central issues. They will visit Japan to participate in a training session on drafting a deposit law this September. In addition, three officers are trying to draft the instruction required by the Prakas on Court Deposit Procedure, such as (1) opening current accounts for saving deposits, (2) the standard for appropriate degrees of security depending on the nature of the case and (3) ruling of cancellation or return of deposit.

After the above-mentioned laws are drafted, the Sub-committee members will move forward to draft Prakas on registration of juridical persons and on registration of matrimonial property contracts.

Picture Left: Meeting of Group I
Picture Right: Meeting of Inter-ministerial Joint Working Group

Picture Left：Meeting of Group IV
Picture Left: Committee Meeting