Common Civil Transactions and Inheritance Relations

then the tenant must compensate double the amount of land, if there is no document, the full amount must be paid." (Article 356) [64, p.133] or "Selling someone else's land... from 10 acres or more, the offender will be punished with a crime, the purchase price will be paid to the buyer and an additional purchase price must be paid to the land owner and the buyer..." [64, p.142] or "If the parents are still alive, but the land is sold illegally, the son will be punished with 60 strokes, demoted to twenty- four... the full amount must be paid to the buyer, the land will be returned to the parents... The person who knows about the matter and buys it will lose the purchase price" (Article 356) [64, p.13 ... buys it knowingly will lose the purchase price" (Article 356) [64, p.133] or "If the parents are still alive, but the land is sold illegally, the son will be punished with 60 strokes, demoted to twenty-four... the full amount must be paid to the buyer, the land will be returned to the parents...

378) [64, p.140]. These regulations show that the Le dynasty legislators paid attention to the voluntary and honest nature of buying, selling, and leasing property. Through this, the state will strictly handle cases of intentional consumption of fraudulent goods, dishonesty, or forced buying and selling that affect the legitimate rights and interests of other subjects. Accompanying the act of colluding in the consumption of fraudulent goods are criminal, administrative, and civil measures, in which civil measures are especially emphasized to be strict enough to punish the offender and deter others from committing crimes: (coercion will result in deportation and forced return, planting land but claiming it is yours will result in double compensation; knowing it is fraudulent but still buying will result in loss of purchase money). These are progressive civil sanctions that have the effect of preventing fraud in civil transactions that affect the legitimate rights and interests of other subjects. This forces parties participating in civil relations to seek benefits for themselves to comply with the law, otherwise they will lose their rights and suffer further damage.

In the Civil Code, there is no explanation for the invalidity of a sale transaction, but based on specific legal regulations, it can be seen that civil transactions are invalid in cases of violating the principle of voluntariness and honesty in contract conclusion (Article 355) cited above, "The land that has been pledged has not been redeemed to the owner, but has been sold outright to another person" (Article 383) [64, p.142]; the capacity of the subject to sign the contract "Daughters and orphans who sell themselves without a guarantor" (Article 313) [64, p.121].

Setting out principles in civil transactions and simultaneously applying accompanying sanctions, forcing the parties not to continue performing the contract and paying fines, is essentially a measure to deal with invalid contracts due to violations of legal prohibitions. This measure ensures that civil relations take place transparently, honestly, and mutually beneficially, and that society is stable.

- Regarding the inheritance system: This is an important system in the family law, one of the bases for determining the ownership of the property of individuals who leave inheritance, especially real estate. Land and gardens are the most valuable assets in a country where agriculture is the basic foundation for production activities to feed the entire society, so the importance of land inheritance rights is an affirmation of the importance of land. Inheritance is also the basis for affirming the property ownership of the inheritor. Heirs are determined according to blood and marriage relationships: parents - children; grandparents - grandchildren; husband - wife, but blood relations are the most important factor.

The progressive value in the inheritance system is clearly demonstrated when the legislator mentions the issue of inheritance by will and inheritance by law:

- Opening inheritance by will: QTHL recommends to all subjects: "Parents must prepare for old age and make a will in advance" (Article 390) [64, p.145] to decide on their inheritance. Accordingly, the owner's wishes regarding the inheritance will have absolute significance and will be applied to the division of the inheritance to the heirs. When making this recommendation, the Le Dynasty also stipulated that the will must comply with the prescribed form, in which many different hypothetical situations are set forth for literate and illiterate people. If the will-maker is illiterate, he must ask the village chief to write and witness to confirm his will regarding the inheritance expressed in the will. If this procedure is violated, the will is not legally valid. On the contrary, if the will-maker is literate and makes his own will

then that will has legal value and is recognized by law: "Those who make a will or deed without having the village chief write it for them and witness it, shall be punished with 80 strokes of the cane , and a fine depending on the severity of the case. That will or deed is invalid. If you know how to read and write it yourself, that is fine." (Article 366) [64, p.135]. In reality, there were not many literate people in feudal society because in the early Le Dynasty, our country still applied the Chinese hieroglyphic writing system, which was very complicated and difficult to learn, so the dissemination of writing was also very difficult, so the majority of people were illiterate. The regulation that illiterate people who wanted to leave a will had to have the village chief write it and confirm the content was necessary, ensuring that the will was not forged because there was a representative of the state who stood up to certify that the disposition of the property owner was real. If this regulation is violated, it is easy for unnecessary disputes to occur between heirs, affecting social order and security and national customs. If this phenomenon occurs, depending on the severity of the case, those who leave a will will be subject to strict criminal and administrative sanctions, including 80 strokes of the cane and a fine. This regulation, on the one hand, promotes the role of the state in maintaining civil relations, while at the same time requiring other subjects to always have a clear and precise awareness of their responsibilities in deciding on the inheritance, avoiding disputes for the heirs. The responsibility of an illiterate testator is to rely on the state to verify his or her will regarding the inheritance, and not to arbitrarily ask other literate people to write a will because this can easily lead to forged wills or many different wills written by many people, causing difficulties for the heirs or the state in the process of determining inheritance rights according to the will. If this situation occurs, disputes over property ownership among co-heirs (brothers, children, etc.) will cause discord and reduce the relationship.

feelings in the family, so this regulation is also to ensure a healthy civil environment and make customs more and more gentle. This regulation has been inherited in the 2005 Civil Code in Clause 4, Article 650 on Written Wills, which states "Notarized written wills" and the condition for a legal will is that the form of will does not violate the provisions of the law (Article 652); As for literate people, the law allows them to write their own wills to leave their wishes about their property to anyone. Literate people in feudal times rarely forged the handwriting of the testator, and it could be determined because with the hieroglyphic writing system, the writer's handwriting easily showed its own characteristics, so the regulation recognizing that literate people can write their own wills with legal value is also a factor showing the logic in the argument of the Le dynasty legislator in recognizing the will of the property owner when deciding on his own property. This regulation has also been inherited in current civil law in Clause 1, Article 650 on Written Wills , which stipulates "A written will without witnesses" and Article 655 stipulates that " The testator must write and sign the will himself."

In addition to the written form of will, the Civil Code also stipulates the form of oral will: "If there is an order from the parents and a will, it must be followed correctly, otherwise it will lose its share" (Article 388) [64, p.144]. The "order" of the parents is the form of oral will in contemporary law that the co-heirs (children) must comply with. If anyone (the children) violates the order left by the parents, they will be considered unfilial and will lose their inheritance. This form of oral will has been inherited by the 2005 Civil Code in Clause 1, Article 651 on Oral will with the content "In case a person's life is threatened by death due to illness or other causes that make it impossible to make a written will, it can be

"oral will." This provision only applies to some special situations that the property owner encounters (dying) or other cases that have not been clearly identified. In fact, current civil life shows that the form of written will is not popular with the people. The vast majority of people when they get old, if they wish to divide their property to their children and grandchildren, often use the measure of publicly announcing their intention to their relatives and loved ones and often refuse to make a written will, especially a certified or notarized will (often occurring in rural areas). Therefore, the provision of the 2005 Civil Code on oral wills is only implemented in cases where the property owner is threatened by illness or other causes and is close to death and within 10 days, the recipients of the oral will must go to the competent authority to convert it into a written document, which does not meet the wishes of the vast majority of people, especially the rural population - where civil relations are mainly regulated by Long-standing traditional customs. In terms of psychology, an oral will about property is the property owner's affirmation of his ownership rights, and at the same time expresses his personal views on the distribution of property after death. In this case, the person who made the oral will still feels comfortable and lives happily with his children and grandchildren. In terms of customs, an oral will expresses the view on the order of seniority in the family, where the rights of grandparents and parents to property are synonymous with the right to manage the family, so children and grandchildren must strictly follow all the wills of their superiors. The family is the smallest cell of society, the place to nurture and form the personality of the individual and also the place to most sustainably preserve the living customs of the community, so the widespread use of oral forms in community civil relations is also a measure to preserve traditional customs and, importantly, it is suitable for the lifestyle and thinking of people in the small-scale agricultural system.

agricultural. From a legal perspective, an oral will is an unstable form, making it difficult to determine the testator's intentions if there is a dispute. In this regard, the written form is superior to the oral form. However, due to the influence of psychological factors and customs, in reality, the oral will is still accepted and frequently used by many segments of the population, especially people in rural areas. Therefore, while the market economy institution has not yet developed stably, continuing to use forms suitable for the agricultural economy is necessary to ensure the compatibility between the superstructure and the infrastructure.

A notable point in the regulation of inheritance law relations of the QTHL is the application of civil sanctions to punish acts of violating transparency and honesty in inheritance for the purpose of making illegal profits, affecting the legitimate rights of other heirs as well as causing instability to family order in feudal society. Sanctions such as demotion and deprivation of inheritance rights both demonstrate the severity to deter fraudulent acts and at the same time demonstrate the civil nature of property relations and reduce the harshness of feudal criminal law: "...fighting over land and houses must be dethroned . If there is a will but still trying to fight over it, it will be similarly dethroned and one must also lose one's share..." (Article 354) [64, p.132]. This provision shows that the will of the person leaving the will is guaranteed by law to be implemented in practice. In particular, if a dispute over the inheritance of real estate occurs between heirs, the party at fault (unreasonable) will be dismissed and if it is found that there is a will in the dispute, the unreasonable party will also be subject to the additional sanction of losing the portion that they should have received. This regulation ensures that wrongful disputes between co-heirs are minimized, increasing family solidarity and humane behavior between people. People who intend to dispute property contrary to their parents' will need to consider the pros and cons to make the most correct decision, so as not to violate the law while still ensuring

rights. With this sanction, the legislator has achieved the set goal of stabilizing feudal family order, maintaining social security and order, consolidating national traditions and customs, and preventing harmful behaviors to society from within the family. This provision has not been studied, accepted, or applied to current civil life by contemporary legislators.

- Opening inheritance according to the law: Not only regulating inheritance according to wills, the legislators of the early Le dynasty also proposed solutions to effectively prevent disputes over inheritance in cases where the deceased did not make a will or did not have time to make a will or may have a will but it is illegal because it violates the conditions in Article 366. In this case, the QTHL allows the heirs to agree to divide the inheritance of their parents but it must not be contrary to the law, specifically, 1/20 of the total inheritance must be set aside as the incense offering to worship the person leaving the inheritance. According to the law, the eldest son is the one who inherits the ancestral land: "If both parents die, have land, and have not had time to leave a will, and the brothers and sisters divide it among themselves, then one-twentieth of the land will be taken as the incense offering, and given to the eldest son to keep, and the rest will be divided among themselves." (Article 388) [64, p.144]. If the eldest son is disabled or has squandered the family property and cannot worship his parents, the law allows the choice of a second son (Articles 389, 392). In the inheritance of ancestral land, the law gives priority to the inheritance rights of the children of the first wife, the eldest branch (Article 389) and to men (Articles 392, 393, 396, 398). However, if “The person who keeps the ancestral land has an eldest son, he will use the eldest son, if he does not have an eldest son, he will use the eldest daughter, and the ancestral land will be given one-twentieth part” (Article 391) [64, 145].

The meticulousness in the legislation on inheritance by law shows the special concern of the legislators of the early Le dynasty in finding solutions to regulate family relationships with the desire to maintain the smallest cell of society in a healthy state to help society develop stably. Through that,