>>French-ruled Vietnam's law on crimes against human life
>>Revilement and slander prescribed in criminal laws of French-ruled Vietnam
Pham Diem
State and Law Research Institute
In the criminal laws of French-ruled Vietnam, the crimes of infringing upon other people’s property were prescribed largely in Chapter XXII of the “Hoang Viet Hinh Luat” (Vietnamese Emperor’s Penal Code), which were divided by the then feudal law-makers into four groups: the crimes of stealing and plundering property; the crimes of extortion of property; the crimes of appropriating property through swindling or abusing trust in order to appropriate property, and the crimes of destroying property.
1. Stealing and plundering property
This sort of crimes was defined by law-makers in Article 344 of the code as follows: Those who seize things not of their own are considered having committed the crime of stealing or plundering.
According to Article 345, those who commit one of the following crimes shall be sentenced to hard labor for life:
- Stealing gems, silk and/or other things as State offerings, or assets in the State treasure;
- Breaking into other people’s houses at night in groups of two or more armed persons to plunder property and assault the victims. Carrying weapons or shaming to be mandarins by many persons in order to loot or plunder people in broad daylight or at night.
- Plundering and assaulting other people on the fields, roads, rivers, sea by two or more armed persons.
- Stealing objects in the graves of other people.
Under Article 346, those who commit one of the following crimes shall be sentenced to hard labor for between 10 and 20 years:
- Stealing seals of courts or public offices.
- Assaulting other people to injury in order to plunder their property.
- Carrying weapons and burgling worshipping places at night.
- Robbing the State’s money.
According to Article 348, those who commit one of the following acts shall be sentenced to hard labor for between 5 and 8 years:
- Carrying weapons in groups of two or more people for night robberies.
- Threatening or assaulting other people to plunder their property, but causing no injury.
- Stealing property of their masters by servants.
According to Article 349, those who commit one of the following crimes shall be imprisoned for between 1 and 5 years:
- Stealing or attempting to steal worshipping objects in churches, temples, pagodas.
- Stealing or attempting to steal horses, cattle and/or farm tools on the field.
Meanwhile Article 350 provided that those who commit stealing and robbery other than those prescribed above shall be jailed for between one month and five years. This penalty was also applied to sinners who commit one of the acts prescribed in Article 351 of “Hoang Viet hinh luat” as follows:
- Taking clothes and money from dead bodies.
- Picking up money, things dropped on roads or fields by other persons or finding through digging gold, silver and/or objects, but failing to submit them to the local mandarins within five days.
It can be realized through articles on stealing and plundering that the feudal law-makers distinguished with full consciousness between stealing and plundering (with weapons, intimidation or assault), between stealing and robbing the State’s property and stealing and robbing citizens’ property, the time of committing the crimes (in the daylight or at night), between places of committing the crimes (in houses, on roads, on fields, in public offices, worshipping places…), which all would serve as bases for meting out penalties.
Besides, Hoang Viet hinh luat also prescribed a particular type of crime, namely stealing among relatives. According to Article 354, in cases where children steal the property of their parents, wives and/or concubines steal the property of their husbands, grandchildren steal the property of their grandparents, younger brothers and/or sisters steal the property of their elder brothers and/or sisters, and are denounced by the victims, the sinners shall be jailed for between one month and two years. On contrary, in families if the superiors steal properties of their subordinates, the sinners would enjoy lighter penalties. Article 355 provided that if parents steal property of their children, husbands steal property of their wives, grandparents steal property of their grandchildren, elder brothers and/or sisters steal property of their younger brothers and/or sisters, they shall have to pay the material compensations only.
2. Crimes of extortion of property
According to Article 357, those creditors who seize debtors’ property without court decisions and are denounced by the latter shall be jailed for between three months and two years or fined with between 30 and 240 dong. If creditors send their men to the debtors’ houses, destroying the latter’s property in order to claim their loans, the creditors and such men shall all be sentenced to prison for between one month and two years or to a fine of between 10 and 240 dong.
Article 361 generally prescribed the crimes of extortion of property, under which a prison term of between one and five years shall be imposed on persons who use force, papers or threatening words to appropriate property and/or money of other people.
3. The crimes of appropriating property through swindling or abuse of trust
Article 362 provided that those who use fake names, sham positions, tricks or lies, thus making other people to surrender their property and/or money, would be jailed for between two months and five years.
This was additionally prescribed in Article 363 that those who use black magic, thus making other people to believe that they have miracles in order to extort the latter’s property and/or money shall be jailed for between one and five years.
In addition, Article 365 also provided that those who have already sold or pledged their moveables and/or immoveables, thus no longer having the ownership right thereto, but again sold or pledged such property to other persons shall be sentenced to prison for between two months and two years.
Regarding acts of abusing trust to appropriate other people’s property, Article 366 stated that those who are assigned by others to take care of the latter’s money, property, cattle,… but fail to return such things to their legitimate owners as scheduled would be jailed for between two months and two years. This type of crime was additionally prescribed in Article 367 that those who have undertaken to do certain jobs for others and already received the remuneration therefor, but fail to perform such jobs and refuse to return the remuneration would be subject to the same penalty as in Article 366.
4. Crimes of destroying other people’s property
According to Article 368, those who deliberately set on fire pagodas, temples, churches or other worshipping places, dwelling houses or vessels and cause injury or death to other people shall be sentenced to death and their accomplices to life servitude. If no human injuries or deaths are caused, the penalties would be reduced to life servitude for the principals and hard labor for 6 to 20 years for the accomplices.
In cases where they set on fire dwelling houses and vessels without people therein, forests or crops not yet harvested, the offenders, according to Article 369, would be sentenced to hard labor for between 10 and 20 years while their accomplices to hard labor for between 5 and 10 years.
Under Article 370, those who deliberately burn things of their own or of other people and let the fire spread to other objects of people would be penalized like persons who set on fire such objects.
According to Article 372, those who deliberately set on fire other people’s cattle farms or stables shall be jailed for between two and five years, if causing death to animals, or between six months and two years if no animals die.
Article 373 provided that those who deliberately burn other people’s belongings and clothing shall be jailed for between four months and five years.
In cases where fires are caused due to one’s carelessness, thus causing material losses to other people, the offenders shall be jailed for between two months and two years or fined with between 20 and 240 dong, as stipulated in Article 374.
While, according to Article 375, those who use explosives to destroy buildings, bridges, sluices, roads,… shall be sentenced to hard labor for life.
If destroying other people’s property by means other than burning, the offenders, according to Article 383, shall be jailed for between three and six months if the property is valued at over 20 dong or jailed for between one and three months or fined with between 10 and 30 dong if the destroyed property is valued at 20 dong or less.
Panoramically, in prescribing the crimes of destroying other people’s property, the feudal law-makers clearly distinguished intentional offenses from unintentional ones, distinguished means of destruction (burning, explosive and other means), distinguished types of destroyed property (worshipping places, dwelling houses, fields and gardens, cattle farms and stables, vessels, roads, personal utensils,…) and distinguished the extents of human and material losses.-