The Asia-Pacific Arbitration Review 2017

Dispute Resolution / Legal insights | January 01, 2017 | By DZUNGSRT & ASSOCIATES

Vietnam

Accreditation: An extract from The Asia-Pacific Arbitration Review 2017 http://globalarbitrationreview.com/reviews/81/asia-pacific-arbitration-review-2017/

The year 2015 witnessed numerous developments in trade relations between Vietnam and foreign partners. In particular, after a decade of preparation, Vietnam has finally become the 84th member state of the Convention on Contract for International Sale of Goods (CISG) which would bring sale contracts between Vietnamese and foreign parties closer to the international standards. Furthermore, on 4 February 2016, Vietnam, along with other 11 member countries, has signed the TransPacific Partnership (TPP), a high-standard free trade agreement which covers approximately 30 per cent of the global GDP. Besides, on 2 December 2015, Vietnam and the EU finally declared the completion of negotiation of the EU-Vietnam
Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA). This treaty marks an important achievement of the 25-year bilateral ties between Vietnam and the EU and is regarded as the beginning of a strategic partnership with unlimited potential between the two partners. By joining these two remarkable treaties, Vietnam has actually adopted the two contentious models of Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) (ie, the traditional investment arbitration promoted by the United States in the TPP and a brand new system of investment court initiated by the European Commission in the EVFTA).

Apart from the accession to these international treaties, new national legislation has been promulgated in 2015 which is believed to create significant changes to the substantive as well as procedural legal matters in Vietnam. Such legislation, both international and domestic, will definitely bring interesting changes to the arbitration practices in Vietnam. This article aims at introducing an overview on the changes in the legal framework as a result of the promulgation of new legislation in Vietnam and their potential impacts regarding arbitration and ADR.