Public safety and order-related offenses under ancient and modern laws in Vietnam
Vietnam’s law on public safety and order-related offenses have constantly evolved through different historical periods, from unclear and lax traditional customs and practices, kings’ decrees and orders and royal codes to strict and specific provisions in modern penal codes. Such crimes were also prescribed in various types of documents, including ancient feudal codes, village conventions, customs and contracts, and in political practices.
Village self-rule in feudal Vietnam
Studies reveal that unlike Chinese and Southeast Asian villages during feudal time, the Vietnamese villages and communes applied a stricter self-rule regime with a fairly large scope covering various aspects of the community life, such as production organization (primarily irrigation), relations between different social strata, security protection, management of public property, public land division, learning promotion, social relief, organization of cultural and spiritual activities, and the implementation of tax and conscription duties.
Tonkin Civil Code - A combination between Asian and European laws
In the early 20th century, after decades of ruling, the French colonialists planned a political reform of Indochina, including Vietnam. In the legal area, they directed the compilation of many new codes in replacement of old feudal laws of the Nguyen dynasty. During this period they promulgated a dozen of new codes, including “Bo Dan Luat Bac Ky” (the Tonkin Civil Code), which was compiled from 1917 and enacted in the name of the Hue royal court in 1931.
Land-related provisions in Le Dynasty’s “Quoc Trieu Hinh Luat”
Quoc Trieu Hinh Luat (The National Criminal Code) of the Le dynasty (1428-1527) was the culmination of legislative work in feudal Vietnam. With 722 articles arranged in 13 chapters, it dealt with almost all basic social relations then, from criminal, marriage-family, inheritance, contractual, procedural, and land to administrative issues.
The vulnerable’s rights protected by Vietnam’s feudal law
In Vietnam’s feudal regime, the vulnerable included women, the elderly, children, persons with disabilities, widows, widowers, the lonely, ethnic minorities, persons with nobody to rely on, prisoners and, in a broader sense, people in general as commoners in relation to the state. The feudal states paid attention to these disadvantaged groups and protected their legitimate rights and interests. The human rights then were understood in a narrow sense as legitimate needs and interests of people, which were recognized and protected to a certain extent by law.