COURT SYSTEM AND DETERMINATION OF THE COMPETENCE CONFLICTS AMONG COURTS

Abstract

Court System and Determination of the Competence Conflicts among Courts

All of books of civil procedure law and constitution of the courts law didn’t explain a systematic approach to the court system and the determination of the competence conflicts among courts. This article is a researching into that with problems of competence conflicts among courts. The result of the research found: a history of the court system and resolving methods of the competence conflicts problems was divided in 4 eras.

1. Before the administrative reform by King Rama V.: The court system was a multi-courts system and it had the resolving of the competence conflicts from a decision by the department of the plaint-receiving as the same purpose of a tribunal of the competence conflicts (Le Tribunal des conflits).

2. After the administrative reform by King Rama V.: The court system was 2- courts system with one Supreme Court and it had the resolving of the competence conflicts by the determination of the competence conflicts from a decision by the plaintreceiving court.

3. After the Coup d’état in B.E. 2494: The court system was a dual court system with two Supreme Courts and it was still having the resolving of the competence conflicts by the determination of the competence conflicts from a decision by the plaintreceiving court.

4. After the politic reform in B.E. 2540: The court system is a multi-courts system and it had the resolving of the competence conflicts by the tribunal of the competence conflicts to determination of the competence conflicts after the opinions between the plaint-receiving court and the opinion-delivering court.

The research, then another in the history of the court system, found an explanation of the court system is still dividing in two groups: the civilian court – the constitutional court, the court of justice and the administrative court – and the military court, from an old concept before the politic reform in B.E. 2540. That old concept of the court system isn’t suitable for the modern court system in the present, because the constitution law divided the court system to a multi-courts system by separation the normal courts to the court of justice, the administrative court and the military court, and has got the constitutional court on top of the normal courts for the propose of the constitution protection.

The determination of the competence conflicts among courts was divided in 2 situations: competence conflicts among normal courts and conflict of jurisdictions within the same court organization. A resolution of the competence conflicts among normal courts leads to the committee of on the Determination of the Competence Conflicts among Courts according to the Act on the Determination of the Competence Conflicts among Courts B.E. 2542. However, the resolution of the conflict of jurisdictions within the same court organization lets each court organization judges his jurisdictions itself.

Finally, the research found problems of the resolving of the competence conflicts by the determination of the competence conflicts according to the Act on the Determination of the Competence Conflicts among Courts B.E. 2542 that the competence conflict has got only between the court of justice and the administrative court. The suggestion of this research is reforming the determination of the competence conflicts system by separated the military court out of the tribunal of the competence conflicts and using the resolving of the competence conflicts by the determination of the competence conflicts only from a decision by the plaint-receiving court.