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>>Feudal state apparatus structures in Vietnam
By Pham Diem
State and Law Research Institute
In monarchical states, the kings fully grasped the State power; hence the feudal State apparatus was not divided into the legislative, executive and judiciary bodies; and the judiciary organization was characterized by the following:
- The judiciary power was not separated from the executive power; hence, there existed no separate judiciary bodies, or in other words, no courts. Empowered by the kings, chief mandarins of various agencies in the royal court as well as rulers in localities took charge of both the administrative and judiciary matters. The king was the "supreme judge" in the country, having full power to try and hand down final verdict on any cases he deemed so necessary. Only the king could grant the amnesty, special reprieve or general amnesty to offenders.
- The feudal judiciary system saw no distinction between penal and civil trials as well between penal and civil procedures. In the entire legal proceedings, all work such as litigation, investigation, trial, judgement execution often fell under the jurisdiction of the chief mandarin of the yamen or local rulers. Or in other words, there existed in the feudal judiciary system no separate procuracy, investigation agencies, trial or judgement enforcement bodies.
The organization of the feudal court system in Vietnam can be phased into two periods: The pre-Le dynasty period from the 10th to the early 15th century) and the Le - Nguyen period (from the late 15th to 19th century). In this writing we would like to analyze the feudal court system in the first period, which were under six different dynasties: Ngo (939-967), Dinh (968-980), pre-Le (980-1010), Ly (1010-1225), Tran (1225-1400) and Ho (1400-1407).
I. The law court system under the Ngo, Dinh and pre-Le dynasties:
Though little mentioned of in historical books, the law court system during this period could be found here and there in two historical books of Vietnam: "Dai Viet Su Ky Toan Thu" and "Lich Trieu Hien Chuong Loai Chi".
According to "Dai Viet Su Ky Toan Thu", various kings of the Dinh and pre-Le dynasties often themselves conducted trials or watched mandarins conducting trials. Such Kings as Dinh Tien Hoang, Le Dai Hanh... applied harsh and even cruel measures to suppress hostile forces which still existed after the country had gained independence from thousands year-old domination by Chinese feudalists and to punish the adversaries, not the people.
According to "Lich Trieu Hien Chuong Loai Chi", from the Dinh dynasty, there existed in the central royal court a mandarin titled "Do ho phu si" who assisted the king in supervising and managing the trial throughout the country. Meanwhile, in localities, the trials were undertaken by local rulers.
Generally, as the country just freed itself from foreign domination and gained independence, various feudal dynasties had, during this period, to focus on the consolidation of newly gained independence, the suppression of local separatists, consequently being unable to well organize the court system, which in fact remained primitive and spontaneous.
II. The organization of law court system under Ly, Tran and Ho dynasties
Vietnam's feudal State during this period had been strengthened, being able to build the State apparatus in general and the court system in particular.
First, various kingdoms stepped up the legislative work with the promulgation of different laws and legal documents such as the decree of 1028 prohibiting soldiers to loot people and beheading violators; ordinance promulgated in 1042 to authorize the crown prince to settle people's complaints, the ordinance of 1042 on bail, applicable to offenders of 70 years old or over and of 15 or under, sick persons, members of the royal family, who could be bailed out, except for serious offenders; the decree of 1051 prescribing procedures for people's petitions to kings, etc.
In fact, kings of the Ly and Tran dynasties such as Ly Thai To, Ly Thanh Tong, Tran Anh Tong also conducted trials themselves. Historical books recorded that the first king of the Ly dynasty, Ly Thai To, after being crowned, encouraged people to lodge their complaints to the king.
Besides conducting trials by themselves, kings also assigned such task to some agencies in the royal court, which assisted the kings in supervising the contingent of mandarins throughout the country and conducted the trial of serious cases with offenders being mandarins.
In localities, the chief mandarins undertook the trial, as clearly stated in a decree issued by king Ly Anh Tong in 1145 that those who refer their land disputes to members of the royal court for settlement before reporting such to their local chiefs would be punished.
Regarding the legal proceedings, a number of progressive principles were applied during the Ly-Tran period:
1. The principle of non-retrial. In order to maintain the stability in the judicial activities, cases already brought to trial with verdicts should not be petitioned for retrials. This was clearly manifest in King Ly Anh Tong's decree promulgated in 1128 stating that cases brought to trial during previous kings' tenures should not be furthered discussed and retried; or a decree in 1147 stipulating that those who complained wrongly and in contravention of laws would be punished with 60 cane-beatings.
2. The principle of statute of limitation on litigation. Under this principle, people were not allowed to exercise their right to litigation at any time, which might cause disorder and prolong disputes. Consequently, law-makers during the Ly and Tran dynasties stipulated the timelimits for litigation. For instance, a decree in 1142 prescribed that a land dispute could be litigated within 10 years. Or anyone who left his/her filed unused, which was later cultivated by others, could initiated a lawsuit within one year to claim back his/her land; past such statute of limitation, no litigation was allowed.
3. The principle of jurisdiction. In principle, the king fully held the judicial power. Yet, he himself only tried some particularly serious cases or cases which proved unsatisfactory even after they had been brought to trial at various instances. Besides, kings authorized various State bodies and mandarins in the royal court and local rulers to undertake the trial.
The law court structure during the Ho dynasty was basically modelled after that of the Ly-Tran period, because it existed for a short period of time while having to concentrate effort on organizing the resistance war against the Ming invaders of feudal China.-