>>Crimes prescribed in penal laws of French-ruled Vietnam
Pham Diem
State and Law Research Institute
During nearly a century of French domination, there existed simultaneously in Vietnam two administrative systems: The administrative system of the French rulers and the administrative system of the local feudalists who were but the French’s stooges. Consequently, this gave rise to the co-existence of two law systems: the law system of the French rulers and the law system of the Hue Royal Court (the Nguyen dynasty). At the same time, the French divided the country into three regions with different political and legal statuses: Nam Ky, called Cochinchina (or Southern Vietnam), was the colonial region directly ruled by the French, Trung Ky (Central Vietnam) was a protectorate, and Bac Ky, called Tonkin (or Northern Vietnam) was semi-protectorate and semi-colonial region, where the administrative system of the native feudalists only existed in Trung Ky and Bac Ky and the Vietnamese Royal Court’s laws were effective only in Trung Ky and Bac Ky and only applicable to the subjects of the Vietnamese emperor.
I. Penal laws and the concept of crimes
During the French rule, under the impact of Western laws, the Nguyen Royal Court made specific codes such as the civil code, the penal code, the civil and commercial procedures code, the criminal procedures code, etc.
Regarding penal laws, due to the different political and legal statuses of Trung Ky and Bac Ky (respectively being a protectorate and the semi-protectorate and semi-colonial land), the Nguyen House promulgated two different penal codes for these two regions:
- The Bac Ky penal code was promulgated in 1922, with 328 articles arranged in 30 chapters. It took legal effect only in Northern Vietnam.
- The Trung Ky penal code was promulgated in 1933 and took legal effect only in Central Vietnam.
Though different in form, these two separate codes were basically identical in their contents. Typical of these was the Trung Ky penal code.
The Trung Ky penal code was also known as “Hoang Viet hinh luat” (The penal law of the Vietnamese Emperor), which was amended in 1942. As far as its structure is concerned, Hoang Viet hinh luat was consisted of the Preamble and 29 chapters with a total of 424 articles. The Preamble and 10 first chapters prescribed general matters concerning crimes and penalties, including the definition of crimes, punitive forms and classification of crimes, recidivism, fellow-offenders, accomplices, the penal liability, the civil liability for compensation, etc. The remaining chapters provided for specific offense groups and specific offenses.
French-dominated Vietnam’s penal laws in general and Hoang Viet hinh luat in particular were made with the inheritance of the preceding feudal laws and the acquirement of the legislative achievements of Western countries, specifically France. Article 1 of Hoang Viet hinh luat stated: “The provisions in this law were all cited from Gia Long Code and provisions handed down in Vietnam were preserved, and little modifications were made as they depend on the evolution of the national customs and make the domestic laws suit the humanism, the core of the legislation of civilized nations nowadays”.
Regarding the effect of this code, Article 1 provided: “This code, after its promulgation, shall be enforced in Trung Ky region in order to adjudicate natives falling under the jurisdiction of the local feudal courts, in case of criminal offenses”.
Defining the crimes, Article 2 of the code said: “Acts against any provision of this code shall be considered criminal offenses.” So, with the acquirement of the legislative techniques of Western countries, a general definition of the crime was for the first time stated in the penal laws of Vietnam under the French tenure, which had never seen before in the feudal laws.
II. Classification of offenses
According to Hoang Viet luat hinh, offenses were classified into three principal types as follows:
1. Classifying offenses according to their seriousness and penalties:
Article 3 of the code divided crimes into three types with different definitions:
- Petty offenses are those which, as prescribed by law, must be brought to trial under the charge of petty offenses.
- Minor criminal offenses are those which, as prescribed by law, must be brought to trial under the charge of minor criminal offenses.
- Grave criminal offenses are those which, as prescribed by law, must be brought to trial under the charge of grave criminal offenses.
In its chapter II, the code specified grave criminal offenses which were subject to heaviest penalties such as death sentence, hard labor for life, hard labor for definite periods of time, distant exile.
Chapter III specified minor criminal offenses which were subject to lighter penalties such as imprisonment, fines.
Chapter IV provided for types of petty offenses which were subject to lightest penalties such as detention for nuisance, fines.
So, the above way of classifying offenses was based on the punitive forms.
2. Classifying recidivism and first-time offenses:
This way of classifying offenses was seen in Chapter VII - Recidivism.
Article 56 in this Chapter defined recidivism as follows: “Those who were already sentenced by local feudal courts or French courts for their grave criminal offenses, minor criminal offenses or petty offenses, then committed the same offenses are called recidivists”.
Meanwhile the rest of this Chapter spelt out in detail punitive forms for specific recidivism, generally according to the principle that “those who repeated their offenses shall be subject to penalties heavier than those imposed on persons who commit offenses for the first time”.
3. Classifying offenses according to their objects:
That was the way of classifying offenses according to the infringed objects, which include the following major groups of offense:
- Offenses against the emperor, royal family members as well as the rule of the State administration.
- Offenses of causing public disorder.
- Position-related offenses.
- Judiciary offenses.
- Economic offenses.
- Offenses of undermining fine customs, practices and traditions.
- Offenses of infringing upon the physical bodies of other persons.
- Offenses of fornication.
- Offenses of revilement.
- Offenses of mendacity.
- Offenses of infringing upon other persons’ property.-