Dispute on the Contract of Transferring Land-Use Rights: An Analysis of the Vietnamese Precedent No. 04/2016/AL

Abstract

Among many precedents involving the land issue, the precedent No. 04/2016/AL regulates the dispute on the contract for transferring land-use rights. Passed by The Council of Judges of The Supreme People's Court on April 6, 2016, house ownership and land-use rights are marital properties, but only the husband or the wife signs the contract on selling the house and transferring the land-use rights to another, and the transferor received the full payment from the transferee as agreed. The husband or the wife did not sign the contract. If there is sufficient evidence supporting that: (i) this person knows the transfer and jointly uses the money paid from transferring the landuse rights; and (ii) this person knows that the transferee received, managed and used this house and land publicly without having any objections. In this case, it is necessary to determine that person agreed upon with the transfer of land-use rights. Despite its significance and role in the dynamics of the Vietnamese law, little research has been conducted into the extent to which the precedent has a considerable impact on the application of local courts. Furthermore, the understanding and analysis of precedents have not been fully explored. The article aims to analyze the controversial points that focus on an unwritten consent in the aforementioned transaction. This paper examines the legal and practical values of precedent – as a guideline – in three striking aspects: (i) applying precedent to settle cases containing similar issues; (ii) filling a gap in a transaction with the third party of the marital property but only the spouse signed the contract; and (iii) extending the scope of the jointly marital ownership to include the range of common property of households' members. The exploration of this precedent, thus, contributes to the understanding of the contemporary socialist law and the comprehensively legal framework for the precedent system in Vietnam.