Section 149 — Juristic act — definition
Statutory text (Thai original)
นิติกรรม หมายความว่า การใด ๆ อันทำลงโดยชอบด้วยกฎหมายและด้วยใจสมัคร มุ่งโดยตรงต่อการผูกนิติสัมพันธ์ขึ้นระหว่างบุคคล เพื่อจะก่อ เปลี่ยนแปลง โอน สงวน หรือ ระงับซึ่งสิทธิ
Verbatim from the Royal Gazette / Office of the Council of State
English translation
Juristic act are voluntary lawful acts, the immediate purpose of which is to establish between persons relations, to create, modify, transfer, preserve or extinguish rights.
This English translation is provided for reference only and has not yet been firm-verified. Always rely on the Thai original.
Firm annotation
Section 149 is part of Book 1 (General Principles) of the Thai Civil and Commercial Code. This entry is awaiting firm-authored commentary; the statutory text above is verbatim from the Office of the Council of State (OCS Krisdika) Thai source, with the English translation from the FAO/UN FAOLEX repository. Always rely on the Thai original for legal proceedings.
Why this matters in practice
For lawyers: establish that an act qualifies as a juristic act before applying rules on capacity, form, voidability, or prescription. Key elements are: (1) voluntary — not the result of duress or deception; (2) lawful — its object must not be illegal, impossible, or contrary to public order or good morals (see section 150); (3) directed immediately at creating a legal relationship. For laypeople: signing a contract, making a gift, accepting an inheritance, or cancelling an agreement are all juristic acts governed by this Part.
Legislative history
Part of the original Civil & Commercial Code codification; no major subsequent amendment. The definition follows the German BGB tradition of the Rechtsgeschäft carried over by the continental civil-law-trained drafters of the CCC.
Supreme Court decisions interpreting this section
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Supreme Court Judgment No. 6473/2551 (2008)
The exercise of a contractual rescission right is itself a juristic act whose validity is determined by sections 149, 150, and 168 on declarations of intention.
The defendant had failed to transfer ownership of a condominium unit by the contractually agreed date. The Court confirmed that the right to rescind the contract, once it arose, was exercised by one party communicating their intention to the other, and that the manner and timing of such a declaration must be governed by the rules on juristic acts and declarations of intention in sections 149, 150, and 168 CCC.
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Supreme Court Judgment No. 5633/2548 (2005)
A business rehabilitation plan is a juristic act; where the special statute is silent, general CCC provisions on juristic acts apply by analogy.
A rehabilitation plan for a debtor company was held to be a juristic act, being an agreement between the debtor and creditors about debt repayment and restructuring. Where the Business Rehabilitation Act made no specific provision, the general CCC provisions on juristic acts applied by analogy.
Curated decisions with case numbers verified against the Supreme Court database. English renderings are the firm's editorial translation for study.
Cited in 19 Supreme Court decisions (1958 to 2025)
Selected citing decisions
- Decision 6968/2559 (2016)
- Decision 15668/2558 (2015)
- Decision 13070/2558 (2015)
- Decision 13068/2558 (2015)
- Decision 6010/2557 (2014)
- Decision 8711/2554 (2011)
- Decision 589/2553 (2010)
- Decision 6473/2551 (2008)
This list is selected automatically, weighted towards judgments that turn on this section rather than ones that merely recite it when passing sentence. It has not yet been reviewed by the firm.
Most often cited alongside
Sections that appear in the same judgments as this one most often. The figure is the number of decisions.
Counted across the firm's corpus of 83,772 Supreme Court decisions, 1921 to 2026. These figures are computed by us and are not official court statistics.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between a juristic act and a contract in Thai law?
A juristic act under section 149 is the broader concept: it covers any voluntary lawful act aimed at creating a legal relationship, including contracts, gifts, wills, and acceptance of inheritance. A contract is a specific type of juristic act formed by mutual agreement between two or more parties.
Related guides on ThaiLawOnline
Cite this section
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Plain citation
Civil and Commercial Code, s. 149 (Thailand) -
Academic citation
Civil and Commercial Code (Thailand), s. 149. ThaiLawOnline, https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-civil-code/section-149/ (accessed 8 August 2026). -
Thai citation
ป.พ.พ. มาตรา 149 -
Permalink
https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-civil-code/section-149/ -
Embed on your site
<blockquote cite="https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-civil-code/section-149/"><p>Juristic act are voluntary lawful acts, the immediate purpose of which is to establish between persons relations, to create, modify, transfer, preserve or extinguish rights.</p><footer>Civil and Commercial Code, s. 149 (Thailand) — <a href="https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-civil-code/section-149/">ThaiLawOnline</a></footer></blockquote>
The Thai text is authoritative. The English is an unofficial translation by ThaiLawOnline, free to reuse with attribution.