Hanoi-Vietnam: Is the commitment legally valid?

Commitment is a civil transaction

Commitments are often made in certain civil transactions. Article 121 of the Civil Code 2005 stipulates that a civil transaction is a contract or unilateral legal act that gives rise to, changes or terminates civil rights and/or obligations. Thus, a commitment can be regarded as a unilateral legal act, the commitment content expresses the self-binding intention of the committing party to the stipulated terms. In some cases where the person with the right requests the committing party to perform one or more civil obligations, the committing party must compensate if the commitment is not fulfilled or violated, causing damage to the requester.

Example: When signing an employment contract in which A is the employee and B is the employer. B sends A for training abroad and requires A to sign a commitment with the content: “Must work for the employer for at least 5 years after completing the training program; if violated, must fully compensate for all costs including travel, living, and training expenses”.

In daily life, we may encounter several instances where there is a requirement to write or sign a commitment such as: Agreements for lending money; Production and business establishments signing commitments to ensure environmental hygiene and fire prevention; Schools requiring students to sign commitments not to violate traffic safety rules, etc.

Is the commitment legally valid?

The Civil Code 2005 provides for the validity of civil transactions, similarly, a commitment is valid if it satisfies the following three conditions:

- The persons participating in the transaction have the civil act capacity;

- The purpose and contents of the transaction do not violate prohibitory provisions of law and are not contrary to social ethics;

- The persons participating in the civil transaction act completely voluntarily;

Thus, a commitment has legal validity only if it meets the above 3 conditions, and if it does not meet any of the specified conditions, that commitment will be invalid.

An invalid commitment in particular and invalid civil transactions in general shall not give rise to, change or terminate any civil rights and obligations of the parties from the time of establishment thereof. Civil Code clearly stipulates that when a civil transaction is invalid, the parties shall be restored to the original status and shall return to each other what they have received; if the return cannot be made in kind, it shall be made in money, except for cases where the transacted property, gained yields and/or profits are confiscated under the provisions of law. The party at fault, which caused damage, must compensate therefore.

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