ABSTRACT
Vietnam first established an Economic Court in 1994 as part of its transition to a socialist-oriented market economy. Since its introduction, there has been substantial reform of the court system generally and Economic Court-related reform initiatives more particularly. Nearly 15 years on it is time to ask whether the Economic Court has emerged as an ‘effective’ forum for the resolution of economic disputes. Noting that the very notion of ‘effective’ is problematic, we argue that the best way to explore this issue is to ask what legitimacy the Court has to resolve economic disputes at the beginning of the twenty-first century. Legitimacy will be considered from the multiple perspectives of its users (lawyers and enterprises), its employees and the party-state it serves.
