To recognize and enforce a foreign arbitral awards in Vietnam, your Company shall implement the procedures as follows:
Step 1: The petition for recognition and enforcement in Vietnam of foreign arbitral awards (“Petition”) and attached documents must be sent to the Vietnamese Ministry of Justice. Accordingly, Ministry of Justice shall consider the Petition, may ask for additional documents and require the your Company to pay the court fee.
Step 2: After considering the Petition, the Ministry of Justice shall transfer the Petition and attached documents to the competent courts.
Step 3:
Within two months as from the date of accepting petitions, the competent courts shall, on a case-by-case basis, issue one of the following decisions:
– To suspend the consideration of Petition in case of receiving written notices from the Ministry of Justice saying that the foreign competent agencies are reviewing foreign arbitral awards;
– To stop the consideration of Petition if your Company withdraw the Petitions or Vietnamese Company has voluntarily executed the judgments; Vietnamese Company have been dissolved or gone bankrupt and its rights and obligations have been handled according to the provisions of Vietnamese law;
– To stop the consideration of the Petition in case of receiving written notices from the Ministry of Justice saying that foreign competent agencies have cancelled the foreign arbitral awards or stopped the enforcement thereof;
– To stop the consideration of Petition and return the files to the Ministry of Justice in cases where such consideration does not fall within the courts’ jurisdiction;
– To open hearing sessions to consider Petitions.
Step 4: If the competent court decide to open hearing sessions to consider Petition, the consideration shall be conducted by a Trial Panel which is composed of three judges. In addition, it is necessary for the procurators of the procuracies of the same level to present in such hearing sessions. The Trial Panel shall not re-try the disputes which have already been dealt with by the foreign arbitrators but only check and compare the foreign arbitral awards and their accompanying papers or documents with the provisions of Vietnamese laws and relevant international treaties which Vietnam has signed or acceded to.
After considering the Petition and the attached documents and hearing the opinions of the summoned persons and of the procurators, the Trial Panel shall deliberate the cases and make decisions by majority.The Trial Panel may issue decisions to recognize and enforce the foreign arbitral awards or issue decisions not to recognize foreign arbitral awards
