In order to guarantee the king’s unified power, Vietnamese feudal regimes created and operated consistently a state power-overseeing mechanism with two systems: intra-state and extra-state. This writing only dwells on the system overseeing the operation of the state management apparatus from inside.

Le Thanh Tong ascended the throne in 1460 when he was 18 years old and died when he was 56. He was considered the most talented ruler in feudal Vietnam as assessed by “Dai Viet Su Ky toan thu” (the Complete Book of the Historical Record of Great Viet): “The King founded a strong state, expanded the territory and brought prosperity to the nation; he was truly a talented, heroic ruler who could be compared to Yu Ti of the Han dynasty and Taizong of the Tang dynasty.”

In the historical process, the successive Vietnamese feudal states achieved steps of development in the way of organizing administrative divisions in the country to meet the requirements of social life and national defense. This writing dwells on the formation of administrative divisions in Vietnam from the Dinh dynasty onward and some lessons for the building of a law-ruled state at present.

Recently, the number of Vietnam’s reservations to treaties has risen together with the number of treaties to which Vietnam has acceded. This reality requires Vietnam’s legal system in general and law on treaties in particular be completed in the direction of protecting to the utmost Vietnam’s interests without violating the concluded treaties.

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.