VIETNAM Law and Practice Contributed by: Tung Ngo, Linh D. Nguyen and Minh Doan, VILAF
11. Review of an Award 11.1 Grounds for Appeal
10.2 Types of Remedies Vietnamese law generally does not impose strict limits on the types of remedies that an arbitral tribunal may award. Although Article 292 of the Commercial Law No 36/2005/QH11 passed by the National Assembly on 14 June 2005 (the “2005 Commercial Law”) sets out several specific types of remedies, it also permits the parties to agree on other remedies – provided they are not contrary to the fundamental principles of Viet - namese law, international treaties to which Vietnam is a party, or international commercial practices. 10.3 Recovering Interest and Legal Costs Interest may be awarded if the contract includes a provision specifying interest. In the absence of such an agreement, interest may be claimed in accordance with the 2015 Civil Code, the 2005 Commercial Law, or other relevant legal provisions, depending on the nature of the dispute and the applicable substantive law. Legal costs may be reimbursed as follows. • Arbitration fees ‒ pursuant to Article 34.3 of the LCA, the losing party is responsible for paying the arbitration fees, unless otherwise agreed by the parties, stipulated in the institutional rules, or determined by the arbitral tribunal. Arbitration fees may include: (a) remuneration for arbitrators; (b) travel expenses; (c) fees for expert consultation and other support services requested by the tribunal; (d) administrative fees; (e) fees for the appointment of arbitrators by the arbitration centre; and (f) fees for the use of other utility services provided by the arbitration centre. • Legal fees ‒ in practice, parties may agree that the losing party will bear all legal fees and costs arising from the dispute. Based on such an agreement or a party’s request, the arbitral tribunal may award reimbursement of legal fees and other related expenses. In the absence of any such agreement, the allocation of legal fees lies entirely within the discretion of the arbitral tribunal, and there is no overarching principle governing the apportionment of such fees.
Pursuant to Article 4.5 of the LCA, arbitral awards are final and binding. Therefore, parties are not entitled to appeal an arbitral award. However, parties may seek to set aside an arbitral award by submitting a request to the competent court on specific grounds provided in Article 68 of the LCA, including that: • there was no arbitration agreement or the arbitra - tion agreement is void; • the constitution of the arbitral tribunal or the arbi - tral proceedings were inconsistent with the parties’ agreement or contrary to the provisions of LCA; • the dispute was not within the jurisdiction of the arbitral tribunal – where an award contains a part that falls outside the jurisdiction of the arbitral tribunal, only such part shall be set aside; • the evidence provided by the parties, on which the arbitral tribunal relied on to issue the award, is forged; • the arbitrator(s) received money, assets or some other material benefits from one of the parties in dispute, thereby affecting the objectivity and impartiality of the arbitral award; or • the arbitral award is contrary to the fundamental principles of Vietnamese law. 11.2 Excluding/Expanding the Scope of Appeal Under Vietnamese law, there is no provision allowing the parties to exclude or expand the scope of annul - ment or setting aside of an arbitral award beyond what is prescribed in the LCA. Therefore, Article 68 of the LCA can be considered as an exhaustive list of grounds for setting aside an arbitral award, which
cannot be altered by parties’ agreement. 11.3 Standard of Judicial Review
Under Article 71.4 of the LCA, courts are not permitted to review the merits of a case that has been resolved through arbitration. Judicial review is limited to certain procedural and jurisdictional grounds for setting aside arbitral awards as set out in Article 68.2 of the LCA.
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