III. Reconstruction of the Draft April 1924

A. Results

a. Whole Text (Secs. 453 – 1179)

[PDF] Lastly updated on 2025-03-08

• Draft April 1924 reconstructed from Vols. 86, 87, 88, and 89

• It contains 727 Sections from the Titles I. "Sale" to XXI. "Bills".

• The latest update fixes only simple typing errors and small mistakes in the text formatting, does not contain any essential changes.

b. Text with Page Images from Vol.86

• Lastly updated on 2025-03-08

• Individual Titles combined with Page Images (Titles I. – XXI.)

• This is the comparison between the reconstructed English texts and the page images of their Thai translation from the archive Vol. 86. It should contribute to the check of correctness of the reconstruction.

• The new arrangement of presentation of the comparison clearly distinguishes two phases of the drafting process of the Book III of January 1925; namely the first phase of the alteration between the Draft of 1919 and the Draft of April 1924 on the one side, and the second phase between the Draft April 1924 and the final version of December 1924 on the other side as follows:

1. The first Version shows the alterations to Secs. 388 – 1128 of the Draft 1919.
2. The second Version shows the finished texts of Secs. 453 – 1179 of the Draft April 1924.
3. The third Version shows the alterations to the Draft April 1924 and the final texts of Secs. 543 – 1011.

c. Working Materials

[PDF] [Annotated] Latly updated on 2025-02-25

• Tracing the Alterations to the Draft of April 1924 for Book III (Titles I. – XXI.)

• Tables of the alteration process according to the "Reports"by กรมร่างกฎหมาย

[PDF] Lastly updated on 2025-03-08

• Visualization of the Alteration Process (Titles I. – XXI.)

• Tables of comparison between the Div. VII of the Draft 1919, the records of alterations, the final Draft of December 1924, and Book III of 1925.

[PDF] Lastly updated on 2024-06-17

• Visualization of the Alteration Process (Titles XXII. – XXIII.)

• Title 22 "Partnerships and Companies" and Title 23 "Associations" were not included in the Draft April 1924. The sections of the Draft 1919 were directly revised and introduced into the Draft December 1924. The alterations were quite limited, more than 80% of the sections of the Draft 1919 survived the revision without any substantial changes.

B. Historical Background

a. Decision for Review of the Draft for Book III.

When the first version of the Civil and Commercial Code, Book I and II, was promulgated on 11th November 1923, the contents of Book III ("Book on Obligations", Division VII) had been already translated into Thai language. However, inferring from various circumstances, it is quite reasonable to assume that the Commission of Codification began to consider a complehensive review of the Draft for Book III, "Specific Contracts", shortly before the promulgation of the Book I and II.

Presumably, the Commission started to compile a new draft soon after the promulgation of these Codes and finished it in March 1924.

b. Archives of Preperation Period

The documents stemming from this period could be identified in the following Archives, including the documents about the "Recounting" issue:

1. 1. "CODIFICATION DES LOIS SIAMOISES: NOTES ET CORRESPONDENCE, VOL. IX" (Vol.10)
   2. "DRAFT CODE ON OBLIGATIONS, XI" (Roll 07-4 Vol.40)
   3. "DRAFT CODE ON OBLIGATIONS, XII" (Roll 07-5 Vol.41)
   4. "DRAFT CODE ON OBLIGATIONS, XIII" (Roll 07-6 Vol.42)
   5. "DRAFT CODE ON OBLIGATIONS, XIV" (Roll 08-1 Vol.43)
   6. "คำแปลประมวลกฎหมายแพ่งและพาณิชย์ ตุลาคม 2465" (Roll 12-10 Vol.84)
      ∗ The handwritten recounting 453 – 611 was done as early as july 1923.
   7. "คำแปลประมวลกฎหมายแพ่งและพาณิชย์ พฤศจิกายน 2466" (Roll 13-1 Vol.85)
      ∗ The section numbers of 1129 – 1464 were not recounted yet.

On 10th March 1924, Mr. Guyon wrote in his letter to the Minister of Justice, เจ้าพระยาอัยราชามหายุติธรรมธร, as follows:

Your Excellency,

I beg to forward copies of a number of Notes concerning Book III of the Civil and Commercial Code (Specific - Contracts) which have been delivered by the Department of Legislative Drafting to the Revising Committee, in the course of the three last months, namely:

a draft re "Hire - Purchase",

a draft re "Insurance" this title having been redrafted upon request of the Revising Committee,

a draft re "Bills of Exchange" this matter having been re-arranged upon request of the Revising Committee.

I am your most faithful servant.

∗ Archives Roll 08-1 Vol.43/233.

Accordingly, a new Title V "Hire-Purchase" was introduced, and the Titles XX "Insurance" and XXI "Bills" were fundamentally reworked.

c. Publication of the Draft April 1924

In the introductory "NOTE" to the Archive "DRAFT CODE ON OBLIGATIONS, XV A", Mr. Guyon (probably) wrote as follows:

From March to December 1924, and especially after the issue of the printed Draft April 1924, a final revision of the same has been undertaken by the Department of Legislative Drafting, in permanent connection with the High Revising Committee. […]

∗ Roll 08-4-section-01 Vol.46/1.

d. Where is the original text of the Draft April 1924?

In this way, the final Draft for Book III was accomplished in April 1924. However, the original text of this "printed Draft April 1924" in English is missing in the "Archives of the History of Thai Codification". Only its Thai translation of Secs. 453 – 1179 could be identified in the following Archive:

• • "คำแปลร่างประมวลกฎหมายแพ่งและพาณิชย์ บรรพ 3 มีนาคม 2466" (Roll 13-2 Vol.86)
    ∗ The date of "มีนาคม 2466" means "March 1924".

This document carry *a lot of handwritten remarks and notes on it. These remarks and notes exactly correspond to the final alterations to the Draft during May – Nobemver 1924, which are reported in the Archive (Roll 13-5 Vol.89). From these circumstances, we might say that the Archive (Vol.86) was the initial Thai translation of the "Draft April 1924", which is the only source that allows us to know of the particular contents of the Draft.

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