Research

for the Reassessment of the Contribution by the French Commissioners
in the Civil and Commercial Code, Book III

A. Heuristic Comparison: Draft~OldText~NewText

At the starting point, it could be helpful to compare the text of the Draft 1919, Book on Obligations, simply and directly to the text of the enactments; namely Book III of 1925 (“OldText”) and Book III of 1929 (“NewText”), in order to give a direction and orientation to a further research with authentic documents and evidences.

• from “Title I. Sale” to “Title XX. Insurance.” (PDF)
• Individual files:
  1. Title I. Sale. (PDF)
  2. Title II. Exchange. (PDF)
  3. Title III. Gift. (PDF)
  4. Title IV. Hire of Property. (PDF)
  5. Title V. Hire-Purchase. (PDF)
  6. Title VI. Hire of Service. (PDF)
  7. Title VII. Hire of Work. (PDF)
  8. Title VIII. Carriage. (PDF)
  9. Title IX. Loan. (PDF)
  10. Title X. Deposit. (PDF)
  11. Title XI. Suretyship. (PDF)
  12. Title XII. Mortgage. (PDF)
  13. Title XIII. Pledge. (PDF)
  14. Title XIV. Warehousing. (PDF)
  15. Title XV. Agency. (PDF)
  16. Title XVI. Brokerage. (PDF)
  17. Title XVII. Compromise. (PDF)
  18. Title XVIII. Gambling and Betting. (PDF)
  19. Title XIX. Current Account (PDF)
  20. Title XX. Insurance. (PDF)

«—— This work will be continued  ——»

B. Proof: Tracing the Alterations Process

B-I. Before Finalization of the “Draft April 1924”

In regard to the Thai translation of the Draft 1919, Book on Obligations, Division 7 “Specific Contracts”, we could identify the following documents in the TU Digital Archives:

• Division 7, Title 1 to 21;
  1. Vol.65 (Archive file name: “Roll 10-6”)
     • Period: 25 มิถุนายน 2462 ─ 3 พฤษภาคม 2463.
     • Preliminary part to Division 6 were translated by พระยามานวราชเสวี (ปลอด ณ สงขลา).
     • Division 7, Title 1 to 21, were translated by พระยาเทพวิถุรพหุลศรุตาบดี (บุญช่วย วณิกกุล).
  2. Vol.66 (Archive file name: “Roll 11-1”)
     • Period: 24 มิถุนายน 2463 ─ 24 เมษายน 2464.
     • Its contents are almost identical with Vol.65.
  3. Vol.72 (Archive file name: “Roll 11-7”)
     • Period: 20 สิงหาคม 2464 ─ 26 สิงหาคม 2465.
     • The first improvement of the initial Thai translation.
  4. Vol.73 (Archive file name: “Roll 11-8”)
     • Period: ตุลาคม 2465 [?]
     • The second improvement of the translation. In this version, the title of the specific part of the Book on Obligations was changed from “ภาค ๗ ปริเฉทะสัญญา” to “บรรพ ๓ ปริเฉทะสัญญา”.
  5. Vol.84 (Archive file name: “Roll 12-10”)
     • Period: สิงหาคม หรือ กันยายน 2466 [?]
     • Its contents are identical with Vol.73, and it has the date “ตุลคม 2465”. However, this date cannot be the date of its creation because its section numbers have been partially recounted from “มาตรา ๓๘๘ - ๕๔๖” to “มาตรา ๔๕๓ - ๖๑๑” due to the integration of “Book on Capacity of Persons” into Book I, which was firstly performed in Vol.76 (“Roll 12-2”). The section numbers of Book II were then recounted in Vol.77 (“Roll 12-3”) from “มาตรา ๔๐ - ๓๘๗” to “มาตรา ๑๐๖ – ๔๕๒”. For this reason, the recounting in Vol.84 must have been performed in กรกฎาคม 2466 at the earliest — after the creation of Vol.77 which was done after “12/7/23” (the date in Vol.76).
     • Moreover, the title of Book III was changed now from “บรรพ ๓ ปริเฉทะสัญญา” to “บรรพ ๓ เอกเทศสัญญา”. However, “Title” was still called “แพนก”.
  6. Vol.86 (Archive file name: “Roll 13-2”)
     • Period: Mar. 1924.
     • This is the last stage of simple translation of the Draft 1919, Division 7, Title 1 – 21 (บรรพ ๓, ลัหษณ ๑ – ๒๑). Its text follows mostly the Draft 1919, however, several sections have been already improved or deleted, new ones have been added or inserted. Moreover, the section numbers have been completely recounted (มาตรา ๔๕๓ – ๑๑๓๙). This was the last candidate of these parts for the final alterations by the Department of Legislative Redaction from May to Nov. 1924.
• Division 7, Title 22 and 23;
  1. “Law on Partnerships and Companies (7 Sep.1911)”, “Law on Associations (29 May 1914)”
  2. Vol.74 (Archive file name: “Roll 11-9”)
     • Period: 2 กันยายน 2465 — 18 ตุลาคม 2466.
     • This is the initial Thai translation (มาตรา ๑๑๒๙ ถึง ๑๒๖๔) of these parts of the Draft 1919 (Secs. 1129 – 1463).
  3. Vol.75 (Archive file name: “Roll 12-1”)
     • Period: 19 ตุลาคม 2466 — 30 พฤศจิกายน 2466.
     • The first improvement of the initial Thai translation.
  4. Vol.85 (Archive file name: “Roll 13-1”)
     • Period: Nov. 1923.
     • It is a succeeding version of Vol.75. Its contents mostly correspond to the Draft 1919, Secs. 1129 – 1464. However, its contents seem to be identical with Vol.75. Moreover, the recounting of section numbers was not done yet. Probably, this was the last Thai translation of these parts before the accomplishment of the "Draft April 1924" and it final alteration by the Department of Legislative Redaction from May to Nov. 1924.

B-II. Final Alterations to the “Draft April 1924”

The final alterations to the “Draft April 1924” for Book III were made in the period of May to Nov. 1924, and they have been recorded in Vol.89 (Archive file name: “Roll 13-5”) — for the details of this document, see Page "Microfilm" —.

These alterations were performed, for instance in the report “บันทึก ฉบับที่ ๗” (หน้า 89/28), in the following manners:

In the entry No.1 of the Report No.7 – 07(01) –, a new section “๕๓๑ ตรี” (“531 ter.” in หน้า 89/29) was additionally inserted, and in the alteration 07(02), Sec. 536 was improved (หน้า 89/29) while Secs. 537, 538 and 539 were deleted in the alteration 07(03). In the annex to the report, the new text of Secs. “531 ter.” and “536.” was described in the following manners:

Sec. 536. was further altered in the entry No.2 of the Report No. 8 as follows:

Apparently, the discussion about the alteration to the Draft was done with the English version. We would like to call it “Draft 1924”. Unfortunately, it cannot be identified in the “TU Digital Collections”. However, we could presume its contents from its Thai translation, which is included in Vol.86 (Archive file name: “Roll 13-2”) and Vol.85 (Archive file name: “Roll 13-1”). Therefore, มาตรา ๕๓๑, ๕๓๖, ๕๓๗, ๕๓๘ and ๕๓๙ mentioned above can be found in “Roll 13-2”.

B-III. Fixing and Recounting the Sections

1. Vol.87 (Archive file name: “Roll 13-3”)
   • Period: Nov. or Dec. 1924. [?]
   • The altered Secs. 903 – 1464 in Title 15 to 23 were listed again and recounted in handwriting. Secs. 453 – 902 in Title 1 to 14 were not included.
2. Vol.88 (Archive file name: “Roll 13-4”)
   • Period: Nov. or Dec. 1924. [?]
   • The whole finalized Secs. 453 – 1297 in Title 1 to 23 were typewritten with their recounted section numbers. Several sections have also experienced additional alterations (Secs. 463, 467, 471, 477, 481, 504, 563 etc.).

For instance, Secs. “531 ter.” and “536.” cited above were described in the following manners:

Vol.88 (“Roll 13-4”) was translated once again into Thai language. This is Vol.90 (“Roll 13-6”) or Vol.91 (“Roll 13-7”) and promulgated in January 1925.

B-IV. Overview of the Alteration Process

In such a way, we can exactly trace the alteration process of each section in Book III through the comparison between the sections in Draft 1919, the last candidates (“Draft 1924”) in Vol.86 (“Roll 13-2”) or Vol.85 (“Roll 13-1”), and the finalized test of the sections in Vol.89 (“Roll 13-4”) as follows:

• Tracing of the Alteration Process in Title 1 to 21 [PDF]

«—— This work will be continued  ——»

C. Visualization of the Alteration Process

Now, we can combine our "Heuristic Comparison" with the "Overview of the Alteration Process" into a single table, in order to make the close relations from Draft 1919 to Book III of 1925 intuitive. This table, therefore, have four columns; namely Draft 1919,  “Alterations” in Vol.89, “Finalized Text” in Vol.88, and Book III 1925 as follows:

• Visualization of the Alteration Process in one single file: Title 1 "Sale" – Title 21 "Bills" [PDF]
• Visualization of the Alteration Process in one single file: Title 22 "Partnerships and Companies",
  Title 23 "Associations" [PDF]

D. Reconstructed Draft April 1924

• Whole Text (Secs. 453 – 1179) [PDF]
• Text with Page Images from Vol.86
  • [PDF] Title I. Sale.
  • [PDF] Title II. Exchange & Title III. Gift.
  • [PDF] Title IV. Hire of Property & Title V. Hire-Purchase.
  • [PDF] Title VI. Hire of Services & Title VII. Hire of Work.
  • [PDF] Title VIII. Carriage.
  • [PDF] Title IX. Loan.
  • [PDF] Title X. Deposit.
  • [PDF] Title XI. Suretyship.
  • [PDF] Title XII. Mortgage.
  • [PDF] Title XIII. Pledge.
  • [PDF] Title XIV. Warehousing.
  • [PDF] Title XV. Agency.
  • [PDF] Title XVI. Brokerage., Title XVII. Compromise., Title XVIII. Gambling and Betting., & Title XIX. Current Account.
  • [PDF] Title XX. Insurance.
  • [PDF-1] [PDF-2] Title XXI. Bills.

«—— This work will be continued  ——»