“Legal Personality” and the Governance of Religion under the Republic of Vietnam (1955-1975): A Legal-Historical Analysis

Abstract

This article examines the recognition of “legal personality” for religious organizations in South Vietnam under the Republic of Vietnam (RVN), 1955-1975, treating this status as a key indicator of state-religion relations within a secular legal order. Using a legal-historical approach, it combines doctrinal analysis of normative legal texts with contextual interpretation to reconstruct procedures of recognition and assess their implications for religious organizations’ legal capacity, property rights, organizational autonomy, and participation in the public sphere. The article argues that during 1955-1963, Ordinance No. 10 functioned as the principal legal framework for associations while excluding Catholicism and Protestantism from its scope, thereby producing an exceptional regime. After 1963, the RVN expanded recognition to several major religions through special legislative instruments, although this expansion remained uneven. This pattern of recognition, conceptualized as “selective legalization,” simultaneously broadened the legal space for religious activity and served as a technique of state governance in the religious sphere.

Received: 27^th January, 2026; Revised: 25^th March, 2025; Accepted: 25^th April, 2026