Sentences of the Thai Criminal and Civil Procedure Codes

Abstract

This article aims to study sentences in the Thai criminal and civil procedure codes adopting the concept of sentence classification based on structure and intent. The research data were collected from Thai criminal procedure code and Thai civil procedure code which were compiled by the Office of the Council of State (latest amendment B.E. 2564). In this study, all the 323 sections of Thai criminal procedure code and 468 sections of Thai civil procedure code were analyzed, bringing to a total of 791 sections of the codes of law.

The results indicate that the sentences in both procedure codes can be classified into 2 types: general construction and special construction. The former comprises simple sentences, sentences containing independent clause, and sentences containing dependent clause. The latter includes imperative sentences, passive voice, topical structures, correlative sentences, and nominalized constructions. It is therefore likely that these sentence types contribute to the text coherence, hence the reader’s better comprehension of the legal codes.