カンボジア・アンコール時代の法廷と訴訟問題

Abstract

In order to clarify the legal system in Cambodia of the Angkor period I examined the personal makeup of courts as well as the process of lawsuits. Consequentially I translated two court sentences experimentally. The question of how the law as a social norm with authority functioned in the society of those days and how it supported a harmonious social life could be analysed especially well upon considering the historical material regarding the procedures of accusation, defense, judgement and decision. Thus I gave a picture of how the whole legal process worked through the confirmation of facts to final punishment. And from the text of the sentences it became clear that there was no formal difference between civil suits and criminal suits in Cambodian legal customs. As another important source of material I looked into stone inscriptions so far largely overlooked by scholars. Through a critical evaluation of the material I was able to clarify the frame of the judical system of those days and to examine a part of the Cambodian traditional legal system by the way of institutional study for the first time.