Recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments in Vietnam

Yes. Article 432 of the 2015 Code of Civil Procedure (“CPC”) provides for the recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments in Vietnam as below:

Within 03 years from the day on which the civil judgment/decision of a foreign Court takes legal effect, the judgment/decision creditors, persons with relevant legitimate rights and interests or their lawful representatives may submit their application to Vietnam’s Ministry of Justice according to provisions of International treaty to which the Socialist Republic of Vietnam and home country of such foreign Court are co-signatories or to a competent Vietnam’s Court specified in this Code to request recognition and enforcement in Vietnam of such civil judgment/decision. 1 The competent courts are the Provincial People’s Courts where: (a) the individual debtor resides or works; or (b) the institutional debtor’s headquarter is located; or (c) the property relating to the enforcement exists.

A foreign judgment regarding civil, marriage, family, trade, business, and labour related matters may be recognised and enforced in Vietnam if the foreign country where the judgment was made and Vietnam are members of a multinational or bilateral treaty (on judicial assistance) under which the recognition and enforcement of judgments by the court of each member state are stipulated.

In the absence of such a treaty, recognition and enforcement will be taken on case-by-case basis and on the reciprocity principle (i.e., a court in Vietnam will check whether or not a court in the foreign country of such judgment had recognised a judgment of Vietnamese court) (Article 423 of CPC)

The applicable statutes are:

1. Chapters 35 and 36 of the CPC which provide the procedures for recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments; and
2. The 2008 Law on Enforcement of Civil Judgment (“LECJ”) which deals with the enforcement of the foreign judgments.

Further, to date, Vietnam has bilateral agreements on judicial assistance with seventeen (17) countries, namely Algeria, Belarus, China, Cuba, France, Hungary, Kazakhstan, North Korea, Laos, Mongolia, Poland, Russia, Ukraine, Taiwan, Cambodia, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia (Czech Republic and Slovakia).  

Vietnamese law is based on a civil (written) law system. However, Vietnam has recently started using case precedents for the purpose of having a consistent application of law and court decisions. A person may recommend that a court judgment with identical facts be used as a precedent in a matter. The recommendation will be made to the Supreme Court for consultation via a website. A committee set up by the Supreme Court will then examine and select such judgment for submission to the Chief Justice. If accepted, the judgment will be announced as a judicial precedent for that particular case. It is noted that judicial precedent in Vietnam is not the judge-made-law but rather a “sample” judgment for all cases with identical facts. 

With respect to the recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments, there has been no such judicial precedents.

No. In principle, the courts do not re-examine the merits of foreign judgments. Instead, the courts will review the evidence provided by the judgment debtors and identify whether or not there are any grounds to refuse the recognition and enforcement of the foreign judgment based on the exhaustive list set out in Article 439 of CPC as reproduced below:

• The foreign judgment does not satisfy conditions for recognition and enforcement in Vietnam set out in Question 1 above;
• The foreign judgment has not taken legal effect in accordance with the law of the country of the court which issued it;
• The debtor or his/her legal representative was absent at the hearing session of the foreign court because he/she was not duly summoned, or process of the foreign court was not served on him/her within a reasonable period in accordance with the law of the country of such foreign court for him/her to exercise the right to defence;
• The court issuing the judgment or decision does not have the jurisdiction over the case;
• There has been a civil judgment by a Vietnamese court on the case which has taken legal effect; or before jurisdiction was accepted by the foreign judicial body, a Vietnamese court had already accepted jurisdiction over the case and was resolving it; or a civil judgment of a court of a third country had already been recognised and enforced by a Vietnamese court;
• The limitation period for the enforcement of the judgment has expired under the law of that foreign country or the law on civil judgment enforcement of Vietnam;
• The enforcement of the judgment has been rescinded or suspended in that foreign country; and
• The recognition and enforcement of the foreign judgment in Vietnam is contrary to the basic principles of the law of Vietnam.

The total time limit for the procedure of recognition and enforcement of a foreign judgment is around 8 months for the first instance stage and 5 months for the appeal stage.

However, as a matter of practical fact, the timeframe for procedure of recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments depends on the complexity of the case and may take more than the stated 8 or 5 month period. 

Yes. The judgment debtor is given the opportunity to request the Vietnamese court not to recognise and enforce the foreign judgment in Vietnam (Article 425(2) of CPC), and to actively oppose such recognition under Article 444(1) of CPC as set out below:

Within 03 years from the day on which the civil judgment/decision of a foreign Court takes legal effect, the judgment debtors or their lawful representatives may request Vietnam’s Court to not recognize such civil judgment/decision.

Articles 425 (3) and 447 of CPC provides the judgment debtor and related parties with the right to block the recognition of the foreign judgments but not for the enforcement in Vietnam as set out below:

Within 06 months from the day on which the civil judgment/decision of a foreign Court takes legal effect but there is no request for enforcement of such Judgment/decision in Vietnam, then involved parties and persons with relevant legitimate rights and interests or their lawful representatives may submit their application to Vietnam’s Ministry of Justice according to provisions of International treaty to which the Socialist Republic of Vietnam and home country of such foreign Court are co-signatories or to a competent Vietnam’s Court specified in this Code, in case the International treaty to which the Socialist Republic of Vietnam is a signatory does not provide for or there is no relevant International treaty provisions, to request the Court to not recognize such civil judgment/decision (Article 447 of CPC).

In addition, the judgment debtor may challenge the exequatur by: (i) raising an objection to a petition for recognition and enforcement of a foreign judgment at a hearing of considering a request for exequatur in the proceedings of the first instance (Article 438 of CPC); or (ii) filing a challenge the court's decision of the first instance accepting the recognition of the foreign judgment by an appeal procedure (Article 426 of CPC).

The grounds for the judgment debtor to oppose or challenge the exequatur will be based on the grounds provided in Article 439 of CPC as listed in Question 4 above.

Yes. Both domestic and foreign arbitral awards may be enforced according to procedures for enforcement of a domestic civil judgment following LECJ.

Vietnam is a state member of 1958 New York Convention on recognition and enforcement of foreign arbitral awards (“New York Convention”). Therefore, arbitral awards made by a member state of the Convention will be recognised and enforced in Vietnam. 

The Decision No. 453/QD-CTN of the President of Vietnam dated 28 July 1995 on the Accession of Vietnam to the New York Convention stated that: (i) the Convention applies only to disputes arising from commercial legal relations; and (ii) any interpretation of the Convention before the court or other competent authorities of Vietnam must comply with the provisions of the Constitution and laws of Vietnam. 

This Decision also provided that arbitral awards by non-member states may be recognised in Vietnam based on the reciprocity principle. 

This is stated in Article 424 of the CPC which provides that the recognition and enforcement of foreign arbitral awards shall be considered if: (i) the award is from a country which has signed or acceded to a relevant international convention with Vietnam (e.g., New York Convention); or (ii) on the basis of reciprocity principle in the absence of such international commitments.

Article 451 of the CPC provides as follows:

Within 03 years from the day on which the foreign arbitrator’s award takes legal effect, the judgment creditors and persons with relevant legitimate rights and interests or their lawful representatives may submit their application to Vietnam's Ministry of Justice according to provisions of International treaty to which the Socialist Republic of Vietnam is a signatory or to a competent Vietnam’s Court specified in this Code, in case the International treaty to which the Socialist Republic of Vietnam is a signatory does not provide for or there is no relevant International treaty provisions, to request the Court to not recognize and enforce such award.

The petition is submitted to the court as described in Question 1 above. The petition in a foreign language must be accompanied by a Vietnamese translation, which is lawfully notarized or certified (Article 452(2) CPC). The original or certified true copy of both the foreign arbitral award and the arbitration agreement must be attached to the petition (Article 453(1) CPC).

Further, the foreign arbitral award to be recognised and enforced must be a final award addressing the dispute in its entirety.

As mentioned in Question 3 above, Vietnamese law is based on a civil (written) law system. 

In any event, there has been no judicial precedent on this matter. 

The total time limit for the procedure of recognition and enforcement of a foreign arbitral award is about 6 months during the first instance stage and 4.5 months during the appeal stage. 

However, as a matter of practical fact, the timeframe for procedures of recognition and enforcement of a foreign arbitral award depends on the specific circumstances and may take more than the stated  6 or 4.5 month period.

Yes. In the same manner as a foreign judgment is challenged as set out in Question 6 above, an award debtor and related parties are also given the opportunity to: (i) raise an objection to petition for recognition and enforcement of a foreign arbitral award at hearing of considering petition in the proceedings of the first instance (Article 458 CPC); or to (ii) file an appeal against the Vietnamese court's decision to recognise and enforce or to not recognise a foreign arbitral award (Article 426 CPC).

Article 459 of the CPC provides an exhaustive list of the grounds on which a Vietnamese competent court may refuse to recognize and enforce a foreign award in terms which mirror Article V of the New York Convention. These are also the grounds that an award debtor may rely on the request for the refusal of recognition and enforcement of a foreign arbitral award. Such grounds exhaustively include:

• The parties of the arbitration agreement do not have capacity to enter into such agreement according to law applicable to each party;
• The arbitration agreement is not legally effective according to the applicable law or according to the law of where the award was made in case the parties cannot did not choose a governing law of such agreement;
• The award debtor was not notified in a timely and proper manner of the appointment of arbitrators, of the procedures for resolution of the dispute by foreign arbitration, or cannot exercise its litigation rights due to another legitimate reason;
• The foreign arbitral award was issued on a dispute for which resolution was not requested by the parties, or which exceeds the request of the parties who signed the arbitration agreement;
• The members of foreign arbitral tribunal or the procedures for dispute resolution of foreign arbitrations did not conform with the arbitration agreement or with the law of the country where the award was made, if the arbitration agreement is silent on such issues;
• The foreign arbitral award is not yet binding on the parties;
• The foreign arbitral award has been set aside or suspended from enforcement by a competent agency of the country where the award was made, or of the country of the applicable law;
• According to Vietnamese law, the dispute is not one that could be settled by way of arbitration;
• The recognition and enforcement of the foreign arbitral award in Vietnam is contrary to the basic principles of the law of Vietnam.