Punishment principles of the Penal Code of the Le Dynasty (Quoc Trieu Hinh Luat)

Abstract

The "Quoc Trieu Hinh Luat" (hereafter called QTHL) or the Penal Code of the National Dynasty" is also called the Le trieu Hinh Luat" or the "Penal code of the Le dynasty" which ruled Vietnam from 1428 to 1789 A.D. This code is of primary importance for the study of the legal history of Vietnam and was first translated into French by R. Deloustal and published with notes in the BEFEO from 1908 to 1922. His work was reexamined extensively in later years by Vietnamese scholars at Harvard University when the English translation project for the QTHL was carried out, and the study results were published by Nguyen Ngoc Huy in the same BEFEO in 1980. Thus we now have been given reliable data for detailed studies. However, there are still some points to be added as to the nature of available texts of the QTHL. The French translation of Deloustal was based on a manuscript copy found by C. Maitre in the Royal Library in Hué, but Mr.Huy used a printed text which was once in the library of the Ecole Française d'Extreme Orient (A.1995) and which is regarded to have been published in the 28th year of Canh-hung (1767 A.D.). If we compare these two texts, the latter is better than the former for the most part, and consists of 722 stipulations, while the former is missing one article (no.219).