VIETNAM Law and Practice Contributed by: Stephen Le Hoang Chuong, Le & Tran
Below provincial and municipal levels are the district-level courts. These courts conduct first instance trials of cases. Each court above is also divided into specialised courts to address specific types of cases. For instance, economic courts deal with business disputes, while administrative courts handle matters related to decisions of the bureaucracy and government actions. Labour courts focus on labour disputes and employment-related cases, whereas family and juvenile courts deal with issues like divorce, child custody, and inher- itance. Along with the above courts, there are special- ised military courts to hear cases related to the military’s confidential information or damages to the military. 1.3 Court Filings and Proceedings Vietnam’s legal framework reflects a commit- ment to transparency within its judicial system, ensuring that civil proceedings are held pub- licly. While this fundamental principle mandates open court hearings, practical constraints may, at times, limit the accessibility of unrelated par- ties to these proceedings. Although prevailing laws and regulations do not specifically address this issue, these documents are typically only available to the parties directly involved in the legal matter. However, it is worth noting that the legal sys- tem also recognises the significance of preserv- ing sensitive information and individual rights. Therefore, in extraordinary cases involving the protection of state secrets, cultural traditions, minors, or the confidentiality of professional, business, personal, or family matters, the court exercises discretion to decide on the neces- sity of a private hearing or the non-disclosure
of certain documents based on the reasonable request of the litigants. Normally, the judgments and decisions not fall- ing within these exceptional categories are made publicly available on court websites or within the database of the Supreme Court. At the trial, the trial panel will ask the litigants for their consent to the publishing of such decisions/judgments of the court; however, the decision to disclose such decisions/judgments is ultimately decided by the authorities, not the litigants (with the exception of cases regarding sensitive personal or business secrets as detailed above). This balanced approach aims to maintain trans- parency while safeguarding the interests and pri- vacy of the parties when required by exceptional circumstances. 1.4 Legal Representation in Court Regarding regulations on legal representatives, Vietnamese law stipulates two cases of legal representation, namely the legal representation of individuals and the legal representation of legal entities. Legal representatives of individuals include: • parents for minor children; • guardians for wards or individuals with cogni- tive and behavioural difficulties, appointed by the court; • court-appointed representatives when par- ents or guardians cannot be identified; and • court-appointed representatives for individu- als with limited civil capacity to act. Legal representatives of legal entities include: • individuals appointed by the legal entity according to the charter;
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