Section 4: Offences within the Kingdom
Statutory text (Thai original)
ผู้ใดกระทำความผิดในราชอาณาจักร ต้องรับโทษตามกฎหมาย การกระทำความผิดในเรือไทยหรืออากาศยานไทย ไม่ว่าจะอยู่ ณ ที่ใด ให้ถือว่ากระทำความผิดในราชอาณาจักร
English translation
Whoever commits an offence within the Kingdom shall be punished according to law.
An offence committed on a Thai vessel or Thai aircraft, wherever it may be, shall be deemed to have been committed within the Kingdom.
This English translation is provided for reference only and has not yet been firm-verified. Always rely on the Thai original.
Firm annotation
Section 4 anchors the territoriality principle that opens the Code's rules on scope of application. Paragraph one establishes that Thai criminal law applies to offences committed within the Kingdom, regardless of the offender's nationality. Paragraph two adds the flag principle, extending the territorial reach to Thai-registered vessels and aircraft wherever they are. It works together with Section 5, which deems an offence committed within the Kingdom when even part of the act, or its intended or foreseeable result, occurs in the Kingdom, and with Sections 6 to 11, which govern participants abroad and true extraterritorial jurisdiction. Conduct that falls entirely outside these provisions is not punishable in Thailand unless a specific law extends liability.
Why this matters in practice
For most cases the key question is simply whether the offence happened in Thailand; if so, Thai law applies to Thais and foreigners alike. The practical friction arises with cross-border conduct: online fraud, cross-border scams, and transnational schemes often involve acts partly abroad. In those situations Section 4 must be read with Section 5, and if the conduct is genuinely wholly outside the Kingdom, prosecution in Thailand depends on whether an extraterritorial provision or a special statute applies. Foreigners should not assume that acting from abroad puts them beyond Thai jurisdiction where any part of the offence, or its result, touches Thailand.
Supreme Court decisions interpreting this section
-
Supreme Court Judgment No. 1172/2566 (2023)
Where part of the conduct making up an offence is carried out within the Kingdom, the offence is treated as committed within the Kingdom under Section 4 paragraph one and Section 5 paragraph one, and the offender is punishable here. Soliciting investment through a website whose address was in Thailand at the time is conduct within the Kingdom.
The first defendant solicited twenty-six investors through seminars and brochures in Japan and through the website managedsavings.com, whose address had moved from Singapore to Thailand by the time of the offence. The Supreme Court held that because the soliciting through that website was part of the offence and was done within the Kingdom, the offence was committed within the Kingdom under Section 4 paragraph one and Section 5 paragraph one. It reversed the Court of Appeal, which had held that the defendant could not be punished for the public-fraud borrowing and unlicensed finance-business offences, and convicted on both.
Curated decisions with case numbers verified against the Supreme Court database. English renderings are the firm's editorial translation for study.
Cited in 45 Supreme Court decisions (1962 to 2025)
Selected citing decisions
- Decision 514/2566 (2023)
- Decision 4371/2564 (2021)
- Decision 4683/2562 (2019)
- Decision 7499/2540 (1997)
- Decision 5091/2539 (1996)
- Decision 2461/2538 (1995)
- Decision 204/2538 (1995)
- Decision 62/2536 (1993)
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 91 33
- Section 78 24
- Section 83 18
- Section 90 10
- Section 29 10
- Section 32 9
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
Frequently asked questions
Does Thai criminal law apply to foreigners?
Yes. Under Section 4, anyone who commits an offence within the Kingdom is punishable under Thai law, regardless of nationality.
What about an offence committed on a Thai aircraft flying abroad?
Section 4 paragraph two deems an offence committed on a Thai vessel or Thai aircraft, wherever it is located, to have been committed within the Kingdom.
If part of an offence happens abroad, can Thailand still prosecute?
Often yes. Section 4 must be read with Section 5, which deems an offence committed within the Kingdom when even part of the act or its intended result occurs there.
Related guides on ThaiLawOnline
Cite this section
-
Plain citation
Penal Code, s. 4 (Thailand) -
Academic citation
Penal Code (Thailand), s. 4. ThaiLawOnline, https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-penal-code/section-4/ (accessed 17 August 2026). -
Thai citation
ป.อ. มาตรา 4 -
Permalink
https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-penal-code/section-4/ -
Embed on your site
<blockquote cite="https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-penal-code/section-4/"><p>Whoever commits an offence within the Kingdom shall be punished according to law. An offence committed on a Thai vessel or Thai aircraft, wherever it may be, shall be deemed to have been committed within the Kingdom.</p><footer>Penal Code, s. 4 (Thailand) — <a href="https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-penal-code/section-4/">ThaiLawOnline</a></footer></blockquote>
The Thai text is authoritative. The English is an unofficial translation by ThaiLawOnline, free to reuse with attribution.