Dilemma of National Court’s Interference in Arbitration with Illustration in the International Construction Sector: Solutions for Practitioners

Arbitration is known as a private dispute resolution procedure. Due to this private characteristic, sometimes, this procedure must have the support of the national court to take place as foreseen by the parties to the arbitration clause. Furthermore, arbitration is also a jurisdictional procedure in which an arbitral award can become final and binding upon parties to dispute, and thus, this procedure also needs to be supervised by a state authority to ensure justice is respected by the arbitral tribunal. As a result, the legislation of most countries in the world empowers the national court to supervise arbitral proceedings, especially by setting aside arbitral awards in case of infringement as to national law or parties’ agreement during arbitral proceedings. In Vietnam, this mechanism aside, the national courts have other responsibilities, such as reexamining the arbitral tribunal’s decisions on jurisdiction and holding arbitrators accountable for damages resulting from the enforcement of their provisional emergency orders. Therefore, the present paper will focus on the reality of the use of this national court’s powers which can led to the interruption of arbitral proceedings in Vietnam, and what will be solutions for practitioners to avoid such issues when engaging in the Vietnamese market.