In October 2022, the Supreme Court issued Precedent 55/2022 which recognises the validity of an unnotarised contract for transfer of land use right on the basis that two thirds of the contract have been performed and accordingly the contract becomes valid in accordance with Article 129 of the Civil Code 2015. The background of the case is as follows:

· In 2009, the parties signed a contract for transfer of land use right over a piece of land which would be allocated by the Government to the seller in accordance with a land compensation scheme. The contract was not notarised.

· In 2016, the Seller received the land use right certificate for the transferred land. The Buyer also paid around 90% of the sale price. The Buyer also leased the land to a third party.

· However, the Seller later on refused to register the transfer with the authority and claimed that the transfer contract was invalid since it has not been notarised.

In the Precedent 55/2022, the Supreme Court accepts the judgement of the lower court which recognises the validity of the transfer contract on the ground that the parties have performed two-thirds of the contract. Under Article 129.2 of the Civil Code 2015, where the civil transaction established in writing is in breach of compulsory provisions on notarization or certification, and one or more parties have performed at least two-thirds of the obligations in the transaction, the court will, at the request of one or more parties, recognize the validity of such transaction.

Vietnamese law is not clear that a non-contractual claim (i.e., a claim which is not based on a breach of contract) could be settled by commercial arbitration. However, Vietnamese courts seem to take the view that non-contractual claims cannot be settled by commercial arbitrations. The answer to this issue is also important to the enforcement and recognition of a foreign arbitral award which deals with non-contractual claims. This is because Vietnamese courts can refuse to recognise a foreign arbitral award if the dispute cannot be settled by arbitration under Vietnamese law.