Section 1566: Parental power after divorce
Statutory text (Thai original)
บุตรซึ่งยังไม่บรรลุนิติภาวะต้องอยู่ใต้อำนาจปกครองของบิดามารดา อำนาจปกครองอยู่กับบิดาหรือมารดาในกรณีดังต่อไปนี้ (๑) มารดาหรือบิดาตาย (๒) ไม่แน่นอนว่ามารดาหรือบิดามีชีวิตอยู่หรือตาย (๓) มารดาหรือบิดาถูกศาลสั่งให้เป็นคนไร้ความสามารถหรือเสมือนไร้ความสามารถ (๔) มารดาหรือบิดาต้องเข้ารักษาตัวในโรงพยาบาลเพราะจิตฟั่นเฟือน (๕) ศาลสั่งให้อำนาจปกครองอยู่กับบิดาหรือมารดา (๖) บิดาและมารดาตกลงกันตามที่มีกฎหมายบัญญัติไว้ให้ตกลงกันได้
Verbatim from the Royal Gazette / Office of the Council of State
English translation
A child is subject to parental power as long as he is not sui juris. The parental power is exercised by the father or the mother in any of the following cases; 1. the mother or the father is dead; 2. It is uncertain whether the mother or t he father is living or dead; 3. the mother or the father has been adjudged incompetent or quasi-incompetent; 4. the mother or the father is placed in a hospital by reason of mental infirmity; 5. the parental power has been granted to the mother or the father by an order of the court; 6. the mother or the father have come to such agreement as provided by the law that it can be made.
This English translation is provided for reference only and has not yet been firm-verified. Always rely on the Thai original.
Firm annotation
Section 1566 is what every contested-custody case in Thailand turns on. The court's overriding criterion is the child's welfare, financial means matter, but stability, emotional bond with each parent, and the child's own preference (especially after age 12) are weighed equally. The court can award sole custody to one parent (most common in high-conflict cases), joint legal custody with one parent having physical custody (increasingly common), or true shared physical custody (rare). Foreign parents face an uphill battle for primary custody if the child has lived primarily with the Thai parent, but joint legal custody (preserving visitation, schooling decisions, travel rights) is achievable.
Supreme Court decisions interpreting this section
- 3902/2568 (2025) ★ On the Father's Death, Parental Power Automatically Vests Solely in the Surviving Mother
- 2971/2544 (2001) Joint Parental Power Is Default After Divorce
Showing decisions in our database that cite this section. The list updates automatically when new decisions are added.
Cited in 40 Supreme Court decisions (1981 to 2025)
Selected citing decisions
- Decision 3902/2568 (2025) On the Father's Death, Parental Power Automatically Vests Solely in the Surviving Mother
- Decision 494/2565 (2022)
- Decision 3927/2562 (2019)
- Decision 4057/2561 (2018)
- Decision 2199/2561 (2018)
- Decision 8056/2559 (2016)
- Decision 9117/2557 (2014)
- Decision 2668/2556 (2013)
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
- Section 1520 10
- Section 1582 6
- Section 1585 4
- Thai Penal Code s. 91 3
- Thai Penal Code s. 277 3
- Thai Penal Code s. 90 3
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 83,652 Supreme Court decisions, 1921 to 2026. The count is complete; the stated year range trims rare outliers so it describes where the citations actually sit. These figures are computed by us and are not official court statistics. How we count these, and what we measured
Related guides on ThaiLawOnline
Cite this section
-
Plain citation
Civil and Commercial Code, s. 1566 (Thailand) -
Academic citation
Civil and Commercial Code (Thailand), s. 1566. ThaiLawOnline, https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-civil-code/section-1566/ (accessed 8 August 2026). -
Thai citation
ป.พ.พ. มาตรา 1566 -
Permalink
https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-civil-code/section-1566/ -
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<blockquote cite="https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-civil-code/section-1566/"><p>A child is subject to parental power as long as he is not sui juris. The parental power is exercised by the father or the mother in any of the following cases; 1. the mother or the father is dead; 2. It is uncertain whether…</p><footer>Civil and Commercial Code, s. 1566 (Thailand) — <a href="https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-civil-code/section-1566/">ThaiLawOnline</a></footer></blockquote>
The Thai text is authoritative. The English is an unofficial translation by ThaiLawOnline, free to reuse with attribution.