Confucian Constitutionalism in Imperial Vietnam

National Taiwan University Law Review, Vol. 8 (2) (2013)

63 Pages Posted: 7 Apr 2014

See all articles by Son Ngoc Bui

Son Ngoc Bui

University of Oxford - Faculty of Law

Date Written: April 6, 2014

Abstract

The phantasm of “Oriental despotism” dominating our conventional views of East Asian imperial government has been recently challenged by the scholarship of “Confucian constitutionalism.” To contribute to our full discovery of the manifestations of Confucian constitutionalism in diverse Confucian areas, this paper considers the case of imperial Vietnam with a focus on the early Nguyễn dynasty. The investigation reveals numerous constitutional norms as the embodiment of the Confucian li used to restrain the royal authority, namely the models of ancient kings, the political norms in the Confucian classics, the ancestral precedents, and the institutions of the precedent dynasties. In addition, the paper discovers structuralized forums enabling the scholar-officials to use the norms to limit the royal power, including the royal examination system, the deliberative institutions, the educative institution, the remonstrative institution, and the historical institution. In practical dimension, the paper demonstrates the limitations of these norms and institutions in controlling the ruler due to the lack of necessary institutional independence. At the same time, it also suggests that the relative effectiveness of these norms and institutions could be achieved thanks to the power of tradition. The study finally points out several implications. First, the availability of the constitutional norms and institutions in the tradition is the cultural foundation for the promotion of modern constitutionalism in the present-day Vietnam. Second, the factual material concerning the Vietnamese experiences can hopefully be used for further study of the practice of Confucian constitutionalism in East Asia and further revision of the “Oriental despotism” - based understanding of imperial polity in the region. Third, the findings may also be useful for a more general reflection on pre-modern constitutionalism.

Keywords: Confucianism, Constitutionalism, Confucian Constitutionalism, Nguyen Dynasty, Vietnam

Suggested Citation

Bui, Son Ngoc, Confucian Constitutionalism in Imperial Vietnam (April 6, 2014). National Taiwan University Law Review, Vol. 8 (2) (2013), Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2420927

Son Ngoc Bui (Contact Author)

University of Oxford - Faculty of Law ( email )

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