Expert / Legal insights

Accreditation: Reproduced with permission from Law Business Research Ltd. This article was first published in Getting the Deal Through – Shipping 2014, (published in September, 2013; contributing editor: Kevin Cooper, Ince & Co LLP). For further information please visit www.GettingTheDealThrough.com.

Further to Vietnam’s commitments after being a full member of WTO in 2007, Vietnam has now considered ratifying some international conventions in relation to pollutions, labour and so on.

The number of maritime disputes has increased and local judges have obtained practical experience to deal with such cases. Some rules and regulations incorporated from international conventions, such as arrest of a ship under an in rem action in order to obtain a security, maritime liens and mortgages, dual registration under a bareboat charter party, salvage of a sunken ship or removal of a wreck have been recognised by some judges and we do hope that in future other standard rules will be widely recognised by all local courts.

New regulations on port state control have minimised the detention time during their investigations and streamlined cumbersome procedures where local port authorities may detain the ship in the Vietnamese water.

We do hope that all developments and current trends to incorporate the rules and regulations of international convention soon become valid and operative in practice; particularly that:

• the Maritime Labour Convention will soon become effective in the territory;

• all local courts will be aware of their authority to arrest a ship in order to support a claim in a foreign jurisdiction;

• detailed guidelines will be promulgated to constitute a limitation fund in order to protect ship’s interests;

• a joint database on ship registration and mortgages will be created; and

• a sufficient framework for the judicial sale of arrested vessels will be established

Contributor(s):

Vu Phuong Trang – Partner

Document(s):