Legal system is most important to control agreement of people in another countries. There are different categories of law, each with it is own priorities, law is there to maintain status to protect property, conferred rights, and establish relationships. Law is the skeleton of society. If a crime is committed or public rights trespassed, people who does that will be punished by imprisonment or paying compensation. These laws build on morality. However, morality cannot reach a legal purpose with out law and law can only be compelled when it is supported by morality. In another countries there are different and similarity in law it is depend on administration system in this country. These essay will discuss history of law and the differences and similarities between the English legal system with the legal system in Thailand (civil law and common law).
First of all, in England Henry II institutionalised common law by creating a unified court system ‘common’ to the country through incorporating and elevating local custom to the national level, ending local control, eliminating arbitrary remedies, and reinstating a jury system of citizens sworn on oath to investigate criminal accusations and civil claims. Judges of the realm went on regular journeys throughout the country bringing the King's justice to every citizen. Their aim was that there should be a common system of law throughout the land, hence the laws became known as the common law. The travelling judges formed a nucleus of judges with national jurisdiction who had no local roots. They were thus much less susceptible to the corruption which had spoilt a similar attempt earlier in the twelfth century in which the royal judges had actually been based in the local communities. It was under Henry II that judges were for the first time sent on ‘circuits’, hearing pleas in the major places they visited and taking over the work of the local courts. In time the decisions of the judges were written down. As the decisions of these courts came to be recorded and published, so the practice developed where past decisions (precedents) would be cited in argument before the courts and would be regarded as being of persuasive authority.
Secondly, Thai legal system, as legal systems, cannot be properly understood without the background knowledge of its own history and thus a digression into its history is imperative. But as the present existing positive law is almost entirely Roman-based an d divorced from our own prior social evolution, the starting point to be fixed h ere, is at the time of the rein of King Rama V in the Rattanakosin period (durin g the turn of the 19th to 20th century). In the course of the given times, the p eriod of colonialism, the English and the French took over all the neighbouring countries, closing in on all sides. The current Thai law was looked upon as prim itive and a request for extra-territoriality was made. In fear of losing nationa l independence, Thailand succumbed to their request, a result of which partial j udicial cases in which the British subjects or the French subjects were parties.
Running counter to the allegation of having primitive law, King Rama V and his administration proceeded to resolve the state of affairs by introducing the elements of English common law and those of the Roman-based French law into the Thai system, in the hope that this would obliterate the need of the foreign courts intervention. Admittedly, it was also high time that a revamped or overhauled version of the Thai legal system be made. Foreign legal experts were invited and commissioned to compile the first four main codes: the Civil and Commercial Code, the Civil Procedure Code, the Criminal Procedure Code and the Constitution of the Court of Justice. Meanwhile, several Thai scholars were sent abroad for further education and came back in time to assist the compilation. The last code, the Criminal Code, which was the follow-up of the revamp only, came into force in 1957. By force of the historical account, as stated above, the main body of Thai law assumes the characteristics of the Roman-based codified system, coupled with the blend of the ingredients from English Common Law. It is said that the English Common Law has spread out across the world through the domination of the British Empire, while the Civil Law or the codified system has taken root in several unrelated countries because of its compatibility conceptional clarity and comprehensiveness. The ramifications of Civil Law was condensed into various codes and was readily transferable into many other systems.