Question 93: Is the litigant entitled to submit evidence as documents in ethnic minority languages or foreign languages?

According to the regulations of the Civil Proceedings Law, the spouses have the right to submit evidence and documents in ethnic minority languages ​​or foreign languages ​​to the Court, even if the language to be used in civil proceedings remains Vietnamese[3]. Therefore, the spouses who submit documents and evidence drafted in ethnic minority languages ​​or foreign languages and want these documents to be considered by the Court, must have an attached Vietnamese translation which are notarised or lawfully certified[4]. The spouses may request the judicial offices of the district level People’s Committees, the notary departments or notary offices to carry out this task. Please note that if the spouses have the documents translated by a company that provides translation services, or a person translate by themselves, although this translation is stamped by the translation service company, signed or committed as being corrected by the translator, it will not be considered as notarised or lawful translation. The notarisation or certification of translation could only be conducted at State authorities or authorities empowered by the State.

If the spouses submit documents in an ethnic minority language or in a foreign language without translating them into Vietnamese or the translated versions were unlawfully notarised or certified, the Court will not recognise this as evidence[6]. Therefore, this issue should be taken into account in the civil proceedings if the cases involve ethnic minority or documents in a foreign language.


[3] Article 20 of Civil Proceedings Code 2015.

[4] Article 96.3 of the Civil Proceedings Code 2015.

[6] Article 3.3 of the Resolution 04/2012/NQ-HDTP.

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