Recognition and Enforcement of Arbitral Awards Relating to International Commercial Disputes in Vietnam

Abstract

In the past three decades, the world has witnessed the fast economic growth of Vietnam, which has become one of the most attractive destinations for foreign direct investment in the region. Vietnam has also actively participated in the world trading system since its successful accession to the WTO. With increasing cross-border transactions between Vietnam and the rest of the world, so too has the need for resolution of business disputes. Of the various ways to settle disputes in Vietnam between Vietnamese business entities and foreign parties, arbitration is the most popular. This is so in part because Vietnam has promoted arbitration as the preferred method for dealing with international commercial disputes. A legal framework on commercial arbitration compatible with internationally recognized principles and norms of arbitration has also been developed in Vietnam since 2003. The country has also joined the New York Convention 1958 on recognition and enforcement of foreign arbitral awards (“New York Convention”). However, to date Vietnam’s record with respect to the enforcement arbitral awards leaves much to be desired as there are still some doctrinal obstacles to enforcement of arbitral awards and procedural issues in regard to the matters.This paper will briefly overview the regulatory framework on recognition and enforcement of arbitral awards in Vietnam, particularly the foreign arbitral awards and analyse the shortcomings in its application to propose some solutions for regulatory and doctrinal reforms. The author main argument is that development of liberal arbitration environment is critical to Vietnam’s trade and investment interests.