Venue For Recognition And Enforcement of Arbitral Awards Under Vietnamese Law: Commentaries and Proposals for Future Development

Since 1987, with Vietnam entering into the era of Doi Moi” reform, the drive towards economic modernization via the policy of attracting foreign investment has been pressing. Although Vietnam has promulgated an impressive body of laws and regulations concerning foreign trade and investment, their enforcement has been less than satisfactory. In view of the lack of competence of the local courts, Vietnam has sought to develop a competent system of commercial arbitration. Reform measures have been taken to ensure that the arbitration system is consistent with international standards in order to attract investment from foreign parties. It adopts the Law on Commercial Arbitration in 2010 with the aim to strengthen the arbitration system of Vietnam. However, Vietnam’s record with respect to the enforcement arbitral awards leaves much to be desired as there was reluctance by courts to recognize and enforce the arbitration awards. This paper will briefly overview the regulatory framework on recognition and enforcement of arbitral awards in Vietnam 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.