(Phnom Penh): Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet said that Cambodia has long had a legal system to govern and manage its socioeconomic affairs. Based on historical evidence and inscriptions, it is shown that Cambodia had such a system since the Funan era.
The premier spoke on Thursday (Jul. 10) at the official launch of the Strategic Framework of the Royal Government of Cambodia's Legal Reform Program, at the Peace Palace.
"Cambodia has had a legal system to govern and manage its socioeconomic affairs for a very long time. According to historical records and inscriptions, Cambodia had laws to lead and administer the country since the Funan era, continuing through to the era of modern legal development based on the French civil law model in the mid-19th century," Samdech Thipadei underscored.
Furthermore, the premier noted that in the past, Cambodia’s supreme law was known as the Preah Thomm Sastra or Code of Preah Thomm Sastra, which held supreme authority over all powers, including the authority of the king.
Samdech Thipadei continued that according to inscriptions from the Angkor era, Cambodian monarchs upheld the Preah Thomm Sastra as the highest law, strictly observing it as royal tradition by symbolically placing it above their own heads to protect the moral virtue of kingship, portraying themselves as “Dharmaraja” or righteous monarchs.
On the occasion, Prime Minister Hun Manet added that this tradition illustrated not only a political philosophy of national leadership but also a personal leadership doctrine grounded in the religious and spiritual beliefs of the Cambodian people. The King, seen as a moral exemplar, practiced the Ten Royal Virtues (Dasa Rajadhamma), offering great merit and ensuring peace, prosperity, happiness, and development for his subjects.
Samdech Thipadei Hun Manet further remarked that since the beginning of the modernisation of Cambodia’s legal system under the French model in 1884, Cambodian law has gradually transformed into a civil law system. This evolution culminated in the country's first French-style Constitution in 1947, marking a continued legal progression.
=FRESH NEWS
