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ดุลพาห

9. Possibility of discretional dismissal or forum non conveniens
94

(1) The current state of Thai law

Thai statutes and case law are silent on the issue of the court’s discretionary

power to decline jurisdiction. It has been generally understood that Thai courts are
unlikely to dismiss an action on account of forum non conveniens doctrine .
95

(2) International comparison

Forum non conveniens doctrine is generally recognized in common law

countries such as the United States and the United Kingdom. However, this doctrine
is often seen as foreign to a civil law system. The Brussels I (recast) precludes the

court of a member state from declining jurisdiction by the principle of forum non
conveniens. The Court of Justice of the European Union ruled in Owusu v. Jackson

that no exception on the basis of the forum non conveniens doctrine was provided in
the Brussels Convention, and that the principle of legal certainty would not be fully

guaranteed if the court having jurisdiction under the Convention was allowed to
apply this doctrine . To achieve a high degree of legal certainty and predictability,
96
the Brussels regime provides a clear and precise set of rules on international
jurisdiction, which give almost no discretion to the courts of a member state.

Although Japan is a civil law country, Article 3-9 of the JCCP permits the
Japanese courts to discretionarily decline international jurisdiction when there are

94. Forum non conveniens doctrine refers to the principle, seen in most common law systems, that a court
may decline its jurisdiction if the local forum is inappropriate or it is more appropriate for a foreign
court to hear the dispute due to proximity and convenience of the trial, or one of the parties has already
brought the same or closely related action in another country. Zheng Sophia Tang, “Declining Jurisdiction
in Chinese Courts by Forum Non Conveniens,” Hong Kong Law Journal 45, no. 1 (2015): 351.
95. Tosaporn Leepuengtham, “Cross-border Enforcement of IP Rights in Thailand,” in Research Handbook
on Cross-border Enforcement of Intellectual Property, edited by Paul Torremans, 99. Cheltenham:
Edward Elgar Publishing, 2014.
96. Case C-128/02 Owusu v Jackson [2005] ECR, I-1383, para. 41.

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