>>Martial institutions in French-rules Vietnam's legislation

>>French-ruled Vietnam's laws on crimes of infringing upon other people's property

Pham Diem

State and Law Research Institute

Vietnamese legislation during the French tenure protected and consolidated the traditions of the oriental families, heightened the patriarchal position of the husbands and the fathers, the family sustainability and harmony, the observance of the hierarchical order and the mutual responsibility of the family members.

I. The spousal relations

1. On the personal identification, both the Tonkin Civil Code and the Central Vietnam Civil Code stated that the husbands and wives have the same legal status as well as the following rights and obligations:

- Husbands and wives have to help each other, together make their families prosperous and care for the nurture and education of their children (Articles 91 and 92 of the Tonkin Civil Code and the Central Vietnam Civil Code).

- According to Article 92 of the Tonkin Civil Code and the Central Vietnam Civil Code as well, the husbands are the family masters and have to protect and care for their wives and children.

- The husbands have the right to decide on the professions and jobs of their wives (Articles 101 and 103 of the Tonkin Civil Code and Articles 99 and 100 of the Central Vietnam Civil Code). Article 101 of the Tonkin Civil Code stipulated if tacitly or openly consented by their husbands, the first wives or concubines may undertake any profession or job; if disapproved by the husbands, the wives may ask for the permission of the chief judge of the second-grade (provincial) court for undertaking that profession if they can prove that such profession bring benefits to their whole families.

- When married, the wives have to live with their husbands in the latter’s families; the first wives are entitled and compelled to live with their husbands while the husbands can permit or compel their concubines to stay separately (according to Article 94 of the Tonkin Civil Code and Article 93 of the Central Vietnam Civil Code).

- According to Article 93 of the Tonkin Civil Code, if husbands marry concubines, they must get the consents of their first wives; such consents must be declared to the local administration or tacitly recognized.

- Both the first wives and the concubines must be loyal to and obey their husbands while the concubines must respect and obey the first wives (Articles 92, 93 of the Tonkin Civil Code and the Central Vietnam Civil Code as well).

- Regarding the civil act capacity, Article 98 of the Tonkin Civil Code stipulated: The first wives or the concubines can initiate lawsuits only when so permitted by their husbands; if the first wives or the concubines establish any papers without the permission of their husbands, the husbands may ask for the local mandarins’ permission to destroy such papers. According to Article 97, the husbands shall represent their first wives and/or concubines in all affairs of the latter and may mandate their wives to settle them.

Under Article 99 of the same Code, when the first wives or concubines wish to sue their husbands, or the first wives wish to sue the concubines or the concubines sue the first wives or when the husbands are not qualified to represent their wives, such wives must ask for the permission of the chief judge of the second-grade (provincial) court to do so.

2. Regarding the aspect of property: Both the Tonkin Civil Code and the Central Vietnam Civil Code prescribed that the family property include the personal property of the husbands and/or wives before their marriage and the property obtained by the husbands and wives during their marriage, including moveables and immoveables. All these properties are considered the common properties in families.

According to Article 111 of the Tonkin Civil Code and Article 109 of the Central Vietnam Civil Code, such common family properties must shoulder the following debts, if any:

- The debts owed by the husbands or the wives before their marriage.

- The loans borrowed by the husbands during their married life.

- The loans borrowed by the wives in the capacity as representatives of the whole family or with the husbands’ consents.

- The debts to be paid for law offenses committed by the wives or the husbands.

3. Regarding the rights to manage and use the family properties, they were specified in various articles of the Tonkin Civil Code and the Central Vietnam Civil Code.

According to Article 108 of the Tonkin Civil Code, the husbands are entitled to manage the properties in the family while the wives can only manage the properties within the scopes they are entitled to represent their families. It was additionally prescribed in Article 109 of the same Code that husbands and wives must discuss together and reach agreement on the use of their family properties; that the husbands may use the common properties without their wives’ consents (except for the wives’ personal immoveables) if such use is beneficial to the families.

Article 96 of the Tonkin Civil Code and Article 95 of the Central Vietnam Civil Code specified: The husbands must use the family properties to cover the essential demands of their first wives and concubines, depending on the situation of their family properties.

Under Article 102 of the Tonkin Civil Code and Article 101 of the Central Vietnam Civil Code, all property-related civil transactions of the wives such as the sale, purchase, pledge, mortgage, donation, presentation, transfer,… of property must be made in documents signed also by their husbands or must be permitted in writing by their husbands. In cases where the husbands fail to provide financial support for their wives and children or disperse the family properties, the wives, as provided for in Article 110 of the Tonkin Civil Code and Article 108 of the Central Vietnam Civil Code, may ask the court to deprive the husbands of their rights to manage the family properties and such rights can be delegated to the wives.

II. The parents- children relations

Both the Tonkin Civil Code and the Central Vietnam Civil Code affirmed the patriarchal position of the grand parents and parents in their families.

According to Article 204 of the Tonkin Civil Code, the supreme power over all members of a family belongs to the family patriarchs. Under Article 205, the grand fathers and fathers shall use their advice to supervise the families of their grand children and children, who stay separately and are now masters of their own families. However, if children and grandchildren still live together with their parents and grandparents, they are placed under the supreme power of their parents and grandparents.

For children and grandchildren, Articles 206 and 207 of the Tonkin Civil Code and the Central Vietnam Civil Code provided that children and grandchildren must be dutiful and pious to their parents and grandparents, having the following obligations:

- To be dutiful all their lives towards the parents and grandparents, respect them and bring honors to them;

- To nurture their parents and grandparents when they get old and weak.

- Not to sue their parents and grandparents to courts.

- Not to leave home without permission;

- Not to have personal properties while still living together with their parents.

Those two Codes also prescribed the rights and obligations of parents towards their children, such as:

- The parents shall have to bring up and educate their minor children, and, depending on their economic capability and the children’s essential qualities, send them to schools (Article 218 of the Tonkin Civil Code and Article 214 of the Central Vietnam Civil Code).

- The parents are forbidden to mortgage or sell their children for debt repayment though they can hire out their mature children, who are still under their control, to labor for other people (Article 208 of the Tonkin Civil Code).

According to Articles 210 thru 217 of the Tonkin Civil Code and Articles 210 thru 213 of the Central Vietnam Civil Code, in cases where they are discontented with their children, the fathers may file their application to the chief judge of the second-grade courts for the detention of such children for not more than one month, if such children are not full 16 years of age, or for not more than 6 months if the children aged full 16; if such children are mature, they must be released immediately. The fathers must bear all costs of such detention.-