Section 221: Out-of-court arbitration referral

Supreme Court decisions interpreting this section

1. Supreme Court Judgment No. 2546/2547 (2004)

   Section 221 sends out-of-court arbitration to the law on arbitration, so where a special law applies the Code's arbitration provisions to a committee decision, the court reviews and may refuse to enforce that decision under the Arbitration Act if the award is not lawful.

   In a land rent dispute, Section 58 of the Agricultural Land Rent Act applied the Code's rules for enforcing arbitration awards to the provincial land rent committee's decision. The court read this together with Section 221, which points to the Arbitration Act B.E. 2530 then in force, whose Section 24 lets the court refuse to enforce an award it finds unlawful.

2. Supreme Court Judgment No. 4148/2541 (1998)

   Where a committee decision is treated as an arbitration award through Section 221 and the Arbitration Act, the court will render judgment enforcing it if the award is not shown to be unlawful or the product of improper conduct or method.

   The land rent committee had set the buy-back price of leased farmland, and this was treated as a binding arbitration award under Section 58 of the Agricultural Land Rent Act read with Section 221 of the Code and Section 24 of the Arbitration Act B.E. 2530. Because the award was not shown to be unlawful, the court enforced it, and the tenant kept the right to buy the land back at the committee's price.

3. Supreme Court Judgment No. 8294/2540 (1997)

   Once a committee decision treated as an arbitration award has become final, the only issue for the court under Sections 221, 222 and 218 paragraph two is whether the award is contrary to law; if it is not, the court may render judgment enforcing it at once.

   A local land rent committee ordered the defendant to sell disputed land, and the defendant did not appeal, so the decision became final. The court held that under Sections 221, 222 and 218 paragraph two the only remaining question was whether the committee award was contrary to law, and if not it could enter judgment on it without re-examining the facts.

Curated decisions with case numbers verified against the Supreme Court database. English renderings are the firm's editorial translation for study.