In August 1945, a great revolution broke out in Vietnam, smashing the French colonialists’ 80-year rule, overthrowing the thousands-year old feudal regime, regaining the power for the people and setting up a state of new type, the state of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam.

History shows that during his 38 year-tenure, Le Thanh Tong tirelessly followed his deep aspiration for a centralized bureaucratic absolute monarchy that guarantees the power and interests of the feudal class represented by the Le dynasty. Immediately after ascending the throne, Le Thanh Tong sped up the introduction of Confucianism into the country on which he developed his conception of ruling the country.

Lang (village) is a Viet ethnic group’s word referring to a traditional unit of settlement of Viet peasants in rural areas, with its own territory, infrastructure facilities, organizational structure, customs and practices, psychology, perceptions, characters and even dialect or accent which are relatively stable over the course of history.

King Le Thanh Tong left glorious imprints on the Vietnamese history. After 38 years on the throne, from 1460 to 1497, he bequeathed great treasures in all political, economic, social, legal, military and diplomatic aspects. They include two valuable lessons for the ongoing anti-corruption work in Vietnam, that is, “building a clean administration” and “fighting corruption by law”.

Only once the people really regard democracy promotion as their own cause and interest can the process of democracy enforcement make steady progress.

Quoc Trieu Kham Tung Dieu Le, promulgated by King Le Hien Tong in 1777, is an original legislative achievement of the late Le dynasty. Its originality, as assessed by researchers, consists in its appearance as a separate procedural code in the then circumstances of Dai Viet (Great Vietnam) and the feudal Orient. The Code’s uniqueness also lies in its judicial ideology, including judicial integrity - a category which should have been guaranteed only in a law-ruled system.

In the course of its long history of many ups and downs, Cochin-China (Southern Vietnam) has seen different organizational forms of administration as well as legal regimes. Historical circumstances and rulers’ will in different historical periods have created the identity of politico-legal civilization of this region. This identity has led to various traditions in the conduct of the administration and people in politico-legal life

This writing analyzes the basic characteristics of the state administration in the history of southern Vietnam through various major periods from the beginning of the Christian era to before 1945, serving as historical references for the ongoing reform of organization and operation of the state apparatus in today’s Vietnam.

This article analyzes basic features of the structure of traditional villages in southern Vietnam in the periods of the Nguyen dynasty and French colonization. It also points out the influence of that structure on the state model in southern Vietnam in history and suggests a link relating to the influence of that structure on the organization and operation of the present-day state administration.

Throughout 70 years of its history, the National Assembly has passed five constitutions, each of which has marked the road of building and growth of the Vietnamese revolutionary state, institutionalizing the line of the Communist Party of Vietnam in each period of national development, serving as the foundation for completing the legal system and building a law-ruled socialist state of Vietnam of the people, by the people and for the people.