Chapter 80. Vietnam

80:1. Legislation

Under Vietnamese law, civil judgments issued by courts of certain foreign countries may be enforced in Vietnam. Before a judgment can be enforced, it must be recognized, and its enforcement in Vietnam must be permitted, by a decision of the competent People's Court.

The law governing the matter is the Civil Litigation Code of 25 November 2015 of the National Assembly, with effect from 1 July 2016. The Civil Litigation Code provides that only civil judgments of a foreign court can be enforced in Vietnam. The Civil Litigation Code indicates "foreign civil judgments" as "judgments and decisions on civil, marriage, family, business, commerce, and labor issues, decisions on property in a criminal sentence, and any other decisions of foreign courts which, according to Vietnamese laws, are civil judgments."1 Furthermore, decisions on personal identification, marriage and family issued by certain foreign state authorities may also be acceptable.2

80:2. Principles of recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments—Treaties

The recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments must meet various conditions as provided in the Civil Litigation Code. A Vietnamese court may consider enforcement of a foreign judgment in Vietnam if the judgment is from a country with which Vietnam has a bilateral treaty regarding enforcement of judgments or from a country which, together with Vietnam, is a signatory to an international treaty on the subject. Such treaties must provide that each party will recognize and enforce judgments of the other party.1

At the time of writing, Vietnam had signed judicial aid treaties on civil, family, and criminal law with several countries, including:

  1. Algeria;
  2. Belarus;
  3. Brunei;
  4. Bulgaria;
  5. Cambodia;
  6. China;
  7. Cuba;
  8. Czech Republic;
  9. France;
  10. Hungary;
  11. India;
  12. Indonesia;
  13. Kazakhstan;
  14. Korea;
  15. Laos;
  16. Malaysia;
  17. Mongolia;
  18. North Korea;
  19. The Philippines;
  20. Poland;
  21. Russia;
  22. Singapore;
  23. Slovakia;
  24. Spain;
  25. Taiwan;
  26. Ukraine; and
  27. United Kingdom.

Such treaties meet the above requirement.

80:3. Principles of recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments—Recognition by regulation

Civil judgments of courts of countries not covered in the list above can be recognized by Vietnamese courts if Vietnamese regulations so provide.1

Article 423 of the Civil Litigation Code stipulates that enforcement of foreign judgments from a country which has not signed a treaty on enforcement of judgments with Vietnam and foreign judgments from a country which has not signed to an international treaty with Vietnam may, nevertheless, still be possible.2

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1 Civil Litigation Code, article 423.1.

2 Civil Litigation Code, article 423.2.

1 Civil Litigation Code, article 423.1a.

1 Civil Litigation Code, article 423.1c.

2 Civil Litigation Code, article 423.1b.

1 Civil Litigation Code, article 432.1.

2 Civil Litigation Code, article 432.1.

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