Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Judgments in Asia - Country Report KINGDOM OF THAILAND

Unlike jurisdictions like Singapore or Australia, Thailand adopts a civil law legal system. This means that the main sources of law in Thailand are found in statutes while cases decided by the courts are only manifestations of how statutes are to be read and applied. Thailand has no specific statute addressing the recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments. This is so even though Thailand has a statute on private international law which dates back to 1938 (BE 2481), namely the Act on Conflict of Laws.

There is only a rather vague and unhelpful provision in the Act on Conflict of Laws which purports to bridge the gap when there is no specific provision of the Act on Conflict of Laws that addresses a specific private international law issue. This is provided for in section 3 of the Act on Conflict of Laws, which is in the following terms:

Wherever there is no provision in this Act or in any other laws of Thailand to govern a case of conflict of laws, the general principles of private international law shall apply.

Therefore, the first issue to be discussed in this report is the impact of section 3 on the recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments in Thailand. Thereafter, the overall attitude of the courts in Thailand towards the recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments will be addressed.