Guarantee is one of the first security interests to emerge, even before it was codified in statutes in Vietnam. In judicial history, the Hong Duc Code of the Le Dynasty (1428-1789) is regarded as a legal masterpiece, which continues to influence the Vietnamese people.

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.

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.

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.

Gia Long Code, compiled by the Northern Citadel Governor Nguyen Van Thanh and promulgated by King Gia Long in 1815 - 13 years after the founding of the Nguyen Dynasty, was the official code of Vietnam in the early Nguyen Dynasty and continued to be applied in the Central Vietnam during the French colonial period.

In feudal Vietnam from the 15th to 19th centuries, mandarins were recruited mainly through “nhiem tu”; “khoa cu”; and “tien cu” or “bao cu”. During the Ly and Tran dynasties (1009-1400), nhiem tu was the major method of recruitment, by which various positions in the central and local administrations were assigned to royal family members. This method continued to be used in subsequent periods although it was no longer the major one.

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 procedural law and regulations in Vietnam during the 15th and 19 centuries were prescribed fairly comprehensively and specifically in “Quoc Trieu Hinh Luat” (the National Criminal Code) of the late Le dynasty and “Hoang Viet Luat Le” (the Royal Laws and Regulations of Vietnam) under the Nguyen dynasty. They were also codified into “Quoc Trieu Kham Tung Dieu Le” (the National Procedural Regulations of Royal Dynasties), which was really a distinctive legal phenomenon of the Vietnamese feudal laws.

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.

During the feudal time, Vietnamese family relationships were governed by not only Confucian principles but also fundamental morals, which established a code of conduct among family members and affirmed the rules for family ties. Children were expected to show their filial piety towards parents and grandparents while brothers and sisters to show self-denial and altruism to one another. The harmonious combination of the fundamental morals and Confucian principles among family members has formed the traditional family culture of Vietnamese people. Vietnamese feudal laws institutionalized the traditional morality with specific duties for family members and measures against violations. The values and limitations of Vietnamese feudal laws in this regard have been inherited and abolished in the spirit of ensuring equality, freedom and human rights for women, the elderly and children - the disadvantaged members in families and society.