In the course of its long history of many ups and downs, Cochin-China (Southern Vietnam) has seen different organizational forms of administration as well as legal regimes. Historical circumstances and rulers’ will in different historical periods have created the identity of politico-legal civilization of this region. This identity has led to various traditions in the conduct of the administration and people in politico-legal life

This writing analyzes the basic characteristics of the state administration in the history of southern Vietnam through various major periods from the beginning of the Christian era to before 1945, serving as historical references for the ongoing reform of organization and operation of the state apparatus in today’s Vietnam.

This article analyzes basic features of the structure of traditional villages in southern Vietnam in the periods of the Nguyen dynasty and French colonization. It also points out the influence of that structure on the state model in southern Vietnam in history and suggests a link relating to the influence of that structure on the organization and operation of the present-day state administration.

The Chut, a Viet-Muong language group, lives in Quang Binh and Ha Tinh central provinces and Dak Lak central highlands province with a population of over 6,000.

Setting great store by family and ancestry has long been a Vietnamese tradition. As a result, inheritance has been one of the fundamental institutions of such codes as the Hong Duc Code (the 15th century) and the Gia Long Code (the 19th century) during the feudal time, the Tonkin Civil Code (1931) and the Central Vietnam Civil Code (1936) during the French rule.

The 1986-1995 period constituted the initial stage of “doi moi” (renewal) in Vietnam and the transitional period in the history of development of Vietnam’s civil law.

The constitutional ideology in the early 20^th century was like a vital force having spread into the country. For the first time, the Vietnamese were able to approach new political matters such as constitution, democracy, equality, civil rights, which had never before existed in the feudal society and were completely opposite to the absolute monarchy.

During the 1945-1954 period, the judiciary bodies in Vietnam could not be set up adequately and perfected immediately, but only most important and urgent judiciary bodies, namely courts, were organized. Though still young, the judiciary bodies in this period contributed an important part to the success of the resistance war and the building of the people’s democratic republic in Vietnam.

In Vietnamese legislation during the French rule, the marital institutions were set in the Tonkin Civil Code promulgated in 1931 and the Central Vietnam Civil Code promulgated in 1936. By inheriting the Orient’s marriage and family traditions while more or less absorbing some elements of the West’s bourgeois legislation thereon, the then law-makers reconciled and combined the elements of customs and practices with the elements of modernity.

In “Hoang Viet Hinh Luat” (The Vietnamese Emperor’s Criminal Law), Vietnam’s noted criminal code during the French rule, the crimes of infringing upon other persons’ life were prescribed separately in a chapter, Chapter XXI, and categorized by the ancient law-makers into murder and beating other persons.