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Can English Language Contracts Be Used in Thailand?
Transcript of the above video:
As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing English language contracts. For those who are unaware, many folks who are native English speakers here in Thailand who do business here, often do business either utilizing an all English language contract in some cases or you will see contracts that are often written in both languages, Thai and English, usually interlineated. When we draft a lot of our contracts here in the office oftentimes we interlineate between Thai and English script.
The question posed in this video basically came to me from a recent viewer who sent us an email. I am going to quote directly: "Long time viewer of your YouTube channel. Could you do a video about the viability of English language contracts in Thai Courts? Are they enforceable? Are they any less sturdy than contracts written in Thai?” A couple of things, I am not a Thai Attorney, so I want to be clear about that. I am not rendering an opinion or wanting to hold myself out as a Thai Attorney. I am an American Attorney of Thai nationality and I am the Managing Director of the firm here. We do deal with a lot of contract matters. Also many of the Thai attorneys here in the office deal with litigation in the Thai Courts involving contracts. Long story short, and something to always remember in Thailand, the controlling language in the Court System here is going to be Thai. So, no matter what the document is written in, understand, if it is written in English it is going to be filtered back into Thai. It is one of the reasons we kind of prefer to do what I call interlineated contracts where you have got Thai and English both present within the four corners of the agreement. That way, again it requires a little bit more care and diligence when you are drafting it because it has got to be done correctly in both languages, but in my opinion it is generally better so that all sides understand what they are dealing with. As far as sort of the sturdiness of an English language contract, yes the Thai Courts will enforce a contract by and large in a general sense, they will enforce a contract even if it is written in a foreign language but again ultimately it is going to come back to being written in Thai insofar as it is going to be translated back so the Court can understand. The Courts here render their decisions in Thai.
I often find this funny; there seems to be in my opinion an unreasonable assumption that like the Thai Courts should somehow start dealing with English. Why? It is not the language in Thailand. I mean the language in Thailand is Thai. Now as far as viability, yes it is possible to draft an agreement in English and it can ultimately be enforced in Thailand but it is going to be enforced in Thai and that has a lot of ramifications. There are all kinds of interpretational and drafting issues that can come up when you are dealing with Thai especially where it is coming out of the English language that can cause you some problems.
So long story short, while it may be possible, it is probably a good idea to contact a legal professional, gain some insight and guidance into this and where possible, it is probably not a bad idea to draft agreements, again circumstances are going to dictate here so talk to your specific lawyer, your specific Legal professional, but probably not a bad idea for native English language speakers to have their agreements drafted in both Thai and English.