3. FROM ENGLISH, THROUGH FRENCH, TO GERMAN LAW
In Thailand, English common law was first received during the reign of King Rama V. English legal principles were taught in the Law School of the Ministry of Justice which was established by Prince Rabi, known as the Father of Thai Law.
They were also employed by the Thai court in adjudicating disputes when considered necessary and suitable. In practice, the reception of English law was piecemeal, on a case-by-case basis. The cases where the Thai court could employ English legal principles were those where traditional Thai law was never found, or was obsolete and unsuitable in the circumstances. Traditional Thai law as described in the Code of the Three Great Seals and others still formed the main source of the Thai legal system.After about half a century of such reception of English law, at the end of the reign of King Rama V, an important change occurred in the development of Thai law. The Thai government decided to create a complete code by appointing a Legislative Council in 1897 to draft the Criminal Code, and another in 1909 to draft the Civil and Commercial Code. The completed Civil and Commercial Code, Part I and Part II, which was drafted by French legal advisors, was promulgated in 1923. The decision to draft it, and its promulgation, represented a most important change in the development of the Thai legal system, for it meant altering the model of reception from English common law, which had been chosen half a century earlier, to Continental French law, which is strikingly different in juristic methods and thinking. In fact, it was promulgated to test the reaction of the legal profession itself. Eventually the Code was repealed two years after its promulgation, to be replaced by a new one.
The new Civil and Commercial Code, Book I and Book II, was drafted on the lines of the Japanese Civil Code, which was modelled after the German Civil Code. Here was another important moment of change, for the model of the new Code was altered from French to German, which differed from each other in several important points, although they belonged to the same Civil Law System.12 Its promulgation in 1925 was at the beginning of the reign of King Rama VII. The Civil and Commercial Code, Book III and Book IV, was promulgated in 1928 and 1930 respectively. The Civil and Commercial Code, Book V and Book VI, was promulgated in 1934 in the reign of King Rama VIII. The Code, completed under the reign of three successive Kings, was a great edifice of codification, and still valid today.13