VIETNAM Law and Practice Contributed by: Vinh Luu, Phong Tran, The Nghiem and Thu Nguyen, Asia Legal
12.2 Enforcement Procedure Vietnamese law draws a sharp distinction, one inter - national counsel should keep firmly in mind, between domestic and foreign awards. A domestic award is directly enforceable through Vietnam’s civil judgment enforcement agencies once rendered, without any separate court recognition step, because it already carries binding, enforceable status under the LCA in its own right. A foreign award, by contrast, requires a formal application for recognition and enforcement before the competent court under the Civil Procedure Code 2015, which applies refusal grounds closely mir - roring those in Article V of the New York Convention, again without any review of the underlying merits. Consistent with the Convention’s own framework, an award that has been properly proven to have been set aside by the courts of the seat will generally not be enforced in Vietnam. Where set aside proceedings remain pending at the seat, Vietnamese courts have discretion, rather than an obligation, to adjourn or suspend the enforcement proceedings pending that outcome and in practice tend to favour suspension out of comity, although this can add considerably to an already lengthy overall timeline. On sovereign immunity, Vietnamese practice gener - ally follows a restrictive theory broadly consistent with modern international practice, distinguishing a state entity’s sovereign acts from its purely commercial acts, so that enforcement against a state entity engaged in commercial activity is generally available. Immunity from execution against assets specifically dedicated to public or sovereign functions remains more protec - tive in practice and the distinction is applied case by case rather than through any bright line statutory rule. 12.3 Approach of the Courts Vietnamese courts generally adopt a pro-enforce - ment approach to the recognition and enforcement of arbitral awards, particularly following the issuance of Resolution No 01/2014/NQ-HĐTP, which provides guidance on the implementation of the LCA. As a con - tracting state to the 1958 New York Convention, Viet - nam recognises and enforces foreign arbitral awards, subject to the limited grounds for refusal set out in the Convention and the Civil Procedure Code 2015.
4.5 Decree No 328/2025/ND-CP permits parties who submit to that Center’s jurisdiction to agree in writing to waive their right to apply to set the resulting award aside, a mechanism with no equivalent anywhere else under Vietnamese law and one that international counsel structuring IFC related disputes should note carefully. 11.3 Standard of Judicial Review Vietnamese courts do not conduct a de novo review of the merits of an arbitral award. Under Resolution No 01/2014/NQ-HDTP, when considering an application to set aside an arbitral award, the court is confined to the statutory grounds set out in Article 68 of the LCA and may not re-examine the substantive findings of fact or law made by the arbitral tribunal. In principle, judicial review is therefore limited and deferential to the tribunal’s determination of the mer - its. However, one of the statutory grounds for setting aside an award is that it is contrary to the “fundamen - tal principles of Vietnamese law”. As this concept is not exhaustively defined, Vietnamese courts have, in some cases, undertaken a more substantive review when assessing whether this ground is engaged. The scope of this ground continues to evolve through judicial practice and proposals to amend the LCA would clarify and narrow the grounds for setting aside arbitral awards in order to promote greater consist - ency and alignment with international arbitration standards.
12. Enforcement of an Award 12.1 New York Convention
Vietnam has been a party to the 1958 New York Con - vention on the Recognition and Enforcement of For - eign Arbitral Awards since 1995. Vietnam made the two reservations most commonly seen among con - tracting states: a reciprocity reservation, applying the Convention only to awards made in the territory of another contracting state and a commercial reserva - tion, applying the Convention only to disputes consid - ered commercial under Vietnamese law.
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