Abstract:
One of the reasons that renders arbitration so popular as an efficient alternative dispute resolution is that the arbitral award can be enforced almost around the globe. At present, the Arbitration Act B.E. 2530 is Thailand's law governing domestic arbitration proceedings conducted outside the court regime and the enforcement of foreign arbitral awards. The Act, however, has quite several drawbacks and inadequate aspects. Therefore, arbitration in Thailand, so far, has not been supported and promoted by the law as much as it should be. This dissertation is focused on the study of arbitration law, both present and past, and arbitration proceedings, both of domestic and international nature, in order to apprehend the concept and the law applicable to international commercial arbitration. Special emphasis is, however, given to some concepts and problems arising in the course of international commercial arbitration, especially those about the roles of the courts in arbitration proceedings, the power of arbitral tribunals to determine the scope of their own jurisdiction (competence de la competence) as well as the liability and immunity of arbitrators. This dissertation is also seeking for some plausible solutions to the aforesaid problems. In sum, the outcome of the study for this dissertation appears that some provisions in the law are still inadequate to address the said problems, because it lacks some clear-cut rules to solve the problem. One likely and plausible solution for the problems in general is therefore that the approaches taken by the UNCITRAL Model Law on International Commercial Arbitration should be adopted into Thai jurisprudence on arbitration, as well as some foreign law, in order to improve the Arbitration Act B.E. 2530 and other relevant law, and bring Thai arbitration law to meet international expectation