1. Characteristics of disputes over land use rights

The term “land use rights dispute” (LURD) has been mentioned in the Land Law over many periods, but to date, legal science has not yet had a specific concept of “land use rights dispute”; legal documents on land often use two terms: “disputes related to land” and “land disputes”.

In the 2013 Land Law, “LURD” is replaced by the concept of “land dispute” and “dispute over property attached to land”. According to clause 24 of Article 3 of the 2013 Land Law, “land dispute is a dispute over the rights and obligations of land users between two or more parties in the land relationship”. This provision has led to many different understandings of the subject, object, and purpose of resolving land disputes. Whether a land dispute is a dispute over LURD or includes both disputes over LURD and disputes over property attached to land, administrative boundary disputes, etc., there is still no document explaining or guiding this.

Land is a type of property with great value, which is why land relations become even more sensitive in legal life. So how are land disputes resolved?

In practice, disputes over LURD are very common and diverse in both form and content of the dispute. These disputes are closely related to many types of legal relationships such as inheritance, divorce, division of common property of spouses, contractual relationships, etc., so they are very complicated, and in many cases, disputes are intense and fierce. Disputes over LURD typically occur in the following basic forms:

• Disputes over who has the LURD (disputes between parties over the right to manage, the right to use a certain area of land or a part thereof). When resolving this dispute, the court must determine who is the subject with the LURD. This type of dispute arises during the land use process unrelated to land transactions and inheritance disputes over LURD. This type of dispute is often manifested in forms such as: Disputes over reclaiming LURD due to encroachment, due to others using it, or disputes over boundaries of adjacent land, access ways, state agencies issuing Certificates of Land Use Rights but with overlapping areas, land users being issued certificates of land use rights but the former owner claims the land back or the former owner is issued a certificate of land use rights while the land user believes that the issuance of the certificate is incorrect, etc.
• Disputes related to transactions over LURD (conversion, transfer, lease, sublease, donation of LURD, mortgage, guarantee, capital contribution with LURD). In this type of dispute, one party is a person legally using the land without dispute, but when carrying out civil transactions related to their rights and obligations to use the land, disputes arise. The disputes in this form may be requests to perform obligations under the contract, recognize the effectiveness of the contract, declare civil transactions invalid, etc. The nature of the disputes in these cases is disputes over civil contracts. The statute of limitations for initiating lawsuits for these disputes is applied as for the statute of limitations for disputes over civil contracts in general.
• Disputes over inheritance of LURD, disputes over division of common property of spouses as LURD, disputes over property attached to LURD.

2. Legal regulations on resolving land disputes

2.1. Jurisdiction to resolve land disputes

Land disputes can be resolved in two ways: (i) Filing a lawsuit at the competent court; (ii) Complaining to the competent state agency. Whether through litigation at the court or administrative resolution procedures at the state administrative agency, the conciliation procedure at the People’s Committee of the commune where the disputed land is located is a mandatory procedure and condition.

Land disputes that have been resolved at the People’s Committee of the commune without success shall be resolved as follows:

• Land disputes where the parties have a Certificate or one of the documents specified in Article 100 of the 2013 Land Law and disputes over property attached to land shall be resolved by the People’s Court;
• Land disputes where the parties do not have a Certificate or one of the documents specified in Article 100 of the 2013 Land Law, the parties can only choose one of the two following forms of land dispute resolution:
• Submit a request for dispute resolution at the competent People’s Committee as prescribed in clause 3 of Article 203 of the 2013 Land Law
• File a lawsuit at the competent People’s Court as prescribed by civil procedure law.
• Regulations on initiating lawsuits, accepting cases, and notifying case acceptance.

Regarding the conditions for initiating lawsuits and the right to initiate lawsuits:

For disputes specifically determining land use rights, the court will only accept the case if reconciliation at the grassroots level where the disputed land is located has been conducted. If the case has not gone through the reconciliation procedure at the grassroots level, it does not meet the conditions for acceptance. For disputes related to land use rights such as: disputes over transactions related to land use rights, inheritance disputes over land use rights, division of marital property involving land use rights, etc., it is not necessary to conduct reconciliation at the People’s Committee of the commune where the disputed land is located.

Concerning the jurisdiction to resolve disputes:

Based on the provisions of Articles 35, 36, 37, 38, 39 of the Civil Procedure Code, Article 203 of the Land Law of 2013, and Decree No. 43/2014/ND-CP dated May 15, 2014, guiding the implementation of the Land Law to determine the court’s jurisdiction to resolve land use rights disputes. If the subject of the dispute is land use rights, the provisions at point c, paragraph 1 of Article 39 of the Civil Procedure Code are used to determine the jurisdiction (only the court where the disputed land is located has jurisdiction to resolve the dispute). For disputes related to land use rights such as: disputes over transactions related to land use rights, inheritance disputes over land use rights, division of marital property involving land use rights, the provisions at point a, paragraph 1 of Article 39 of the Civil Procedure Code are applied to determine the court with jurisdiction to resolve the case.

Regarding the statute of limitations for initiating lawsuits:

Based on the provisions of Article 184 of the Civil Procedure Code, paragraph 2 of Article 149 of the Civil Code, the court will only apply the statute of limitations when there is a request from one or more parties involved, and this request must be made before the court of first instance issues a judgment, decision to suspend, or temporarily suspend the case.

According to the provisions of paragraph 3 of Article 155 of the Civil Code, the statute of limitations for initiating lawsuits does not apply to land use rights disputes. However, for disputes over contracts with land use rights as the subject matter, the statute of limitations is three years from the date the person entitled to request becomes aware or should have been aware of the infringement of their legitimate rights and interests (Article 429 of the Civil Code). For inheritance disputes over land use rights, the statute of limitations for initiating lawsuits is 30 years from the time of opening the inheritance (Article 623 of the Civil Code).

Filing a lawsuit:

The plaintiff in a land use rights dispute must file a lawsuit petition. The form and content of the petition must comply with the provisions of Article 189 of the Civil Procedure Code. The plaintiff submits the lawsuit petition along with the documents and evidence they currently have to the competent court by direct submission at the court; sending it to the court via postal service; or submitting it online in electronic form through the court’s electronic portal (if available).

Procedures for receiving and processing the lawsuit petition:

After receiving the lawsuit petition and accompanying documents and evidence, within three working days from the date of receipt, the Chief Justice of the Court assigns a Judge to examine the petition. Within five working days from the date of assignment, the Judge must examine the petition and make one of the following decisions:

• Request amendment or supplementation of the petition;
• Transfer the petition to the competent court and notify the plaintiff if the case falls under the jurisdiction of another court;
• Return the petition to the plaintiff in cases where the plaintiff does not have the right to initiate a lawsuit, or the case does not fall under the court’s jurisdiction. If there is a complaint from the plaintiff or a recommendation from the Procuracy regarding the return of the petition, the court must hold a meeting to consider the complaint or recommendation. The meeting to consider and resolve the complaint or recommendation must include the participation of representatives from the Procuracy at the same level and the complaining party.
• Proceed with the acceptance of the case according to the regular procedure or the summary procedure if the case meets the conditions to be resolved under the summary procedure as provided for in paragraph 1 of Article 317 of the Civil Procedure Code;

Acceptance of the case:

After receiving the lawsuit petition and accompanying documents and evidence, if the Judge deems that the case falls under the court’s jurisdiction, they must immediately notify the plaintiff to come to the court to carry out the procedure for depositing the advance court fee in cases where they are required to do so. The Judge accepts the case when the plaintiff submits to the court the receipt for the advance court fee payment. If the plaintiff is exempt from or not required to deposit the advance court fee, the Judge must accept the case upon receiving the lawsuit petition and accompanying documents and evidence.

Notification of case acceptance:

Within three working days from the date of case acceptance, the court must notify the parties involved and the People’s Procuracy at the same level in writing that the court has accepted the case. The notification of case acceptance must comply with the provisions of paragraphs 2 and 3 of Article 196 of the Civil Procedure Code.

Within 15 days from the date of receiving the notification of case acceptance, the defendant and other parties with related rights and obligations must submit to the court their written opinions regarding the plaintiff’s claims and accompanying documents and evidence, counterclaims, or independent claims (if any).