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of southern Vietnam through various major periods from the beginning of the Christian era to before 1945, serving as historical references for the ongoing reform of organization and operation of the state apparatus in today’s Vietnam.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

Under its reign, the Nguyen dynasty expanded its territory southward, managed the country in every village, developed a legal system, typically the Gia Long Code, and created some worldwide-recognized heritages such as Hue Imperial City, Hue Royal Court Music, and carved wood blocks. Particularly, it carried on the state management, protection and exercise of the national sovereignty over Hoang Sa and Truong Sa archipelagoes.

Under Vietnam’s Ly dynasty, the relations between Dai Viet (now Vietnam) and feudal China under the Song dynasty witnessed many ups and downs with good neighborly ties through high-level state visits and Vietnamese feudalists’ submission and payment of tributes to Chinese emperors and numerous land conflicts.