Conflict between parties can occur for any number of reasons. When adding differing cultural backgrounds, uncertain legal frameworks or simple language barriers to the equation, a harmonious business environment can be challenging to achieve.
Over the past decade, Vietnam has made great progress towards building an internationally recognized dispute resolution platform. However, challenges remain that will influence the approach a company takes to resolving a dispute.
In the Vietnam context, conciliation, mediation, arbitration and litigation are all available for parties to resolve or prosecute a dispute, however, commercial realities and a practical approach must always be top of mind when choosing a course of action.
The Vietnamese legal system, via the Civil Procedures Code, encourages parties to resolve a dispute by conciliation. Whilst a positive first step the practicalities of achieving a binding resolution by conciliation are often limited.
If conciliation or mediation fail to resolve a dispute, the parties can select various other fora, such as commercial arbitration – both domestic and international, or the Vietnamese or international courts, to settle the matter.
However, when developing an appropriate strategy to resolve a dispute consideration must be given to the practicalities of prosecuting a claim through the domestic courts, the enforceability of a foreign arbitral award or foreign judgment, the technical complexity of the issue, the lack of binding case law and the complicated nature of the enforcement process.
Whilst we have legal counsel with extensive Vietnam experience on our team, we will typically work with a client’s local and/or international counsel to formulate an appropriate dispute resolution strategy based on the commercial realities of the matter. We are adept at navigating the complex paths encountered during the resolution process and overcoming hurdles that can be placed in the path of achieving a successful result.