ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the current situation and perspective about capital punishment in Vietnam. It uses different sources to demonstrate that, in recent decades, following the international general trend, the Government of Vietnam has amended the Penal Code several times in order to reduce the number of capital crimes. Many forms of capital punishment enforcement were found to be cruel or vilely revengeful, such as chu di tam toc, slow slicing, mutilation, dismemberment, or quartering, applied in accordance with the principles of duc phat bat nhi bach or dung hinh ky vu vo hinh. Since Vietnam's criminal procedures basically follow the civil law tradition, the issue of mandatory capital punishment does not arise in the country. However, there are some factors constraining the abolition of capital punishment in Vietnam in the near future, one of which is that the crime situation, especially in terms of highly dangerous crimes such as murders and crimes relating to narcotics, which are increasing.
