NATIONAL FOUNDING GENERAL NGUYEN VAN THANH
The first law writer of the Vietnamese national name
In 1810, he was recalled to the capital to receive the Trung Quan seal, then assigned the position of General, in charge of drafting the Hoang Viet Luat Le (also known as Gia Long law, the original copy of which is currently on display here). The time to draft the law was from February 1811 to August 1812, completed, including 398 articles engraved and printed and published from 1812 to 1815.
A notable feature in terms of humanity compared to the laws of previous dynasties is the complete removal of criminal laws such as Tru di tam toc (pursuing and killing all three families of the criminal including the father’s family, mother’s family, and wife’s family), Lang Tri (killing the criminal by cutting off the legs, cutting off the arms, cutting off each piece of flesh on the body until he dies slowly) and a number of other barbaric forms of execution. According to modern historians, the Gia Long Code is the most important legal document, the first code of the Vietnamese national name, and moreover, this code is the first legal heritage of Vietnam in the early 19th century.
