Le Code Annamite

Taipei: Ch'eng Wen Publishing, 1967. Etudes sur la Droite Annamite et Chinois. An exhaustive scholarly study of the traditional legal / penal code of Vietnam, as it existed in the French colonial era. At the time, the country was subdivided into the administrative regions of Annam, Tonkin and Cochinchina, nominally ruled by the Vietnamese puppet emperor, Gia Long. The author, a colonial administrator, diplomat and scholar, served in French Indochina for 16 years in the second half of the 19th century. While derived from the penal code of dynastic China, the author notes that the Annamite Code was administered absolutely as it was written and, unlike the situation in China itself, no further commentary, discussion or legislative modification was ever permitted. The work consists of a complete translation of the Code, covering all aspects of personal, civil, economic and state-related crime and punishment, with the author's notes on the origins of each statute and comparison with any Chinese counterpart. A monumental piece of scholarship and important historical reference. Reprint of Paris 1909 edition, itself a revision of the 1876 original. Vol. I: 791 pp.; Vol. II: 787 pp. Text in French. Blind stamp on title and last page, 2 ink stamps on copyright page of each volume. Otherwise, an excellent set, clean and crisp inside and out. Both volumes bound in dark green cloth. . Reprint. Hard bound. Very Good+/n/a. 24 x 17 cm..