Abstract
This article investigates the process of making and applying law in Ayutthaya Siam through a close reading of one text from the Three Seals Code, the Law on Husband and Wife. Rather than a piece of legislation from a certain date, this law is an archive of judgements and decrees accumulated over a long period. The constituent clauses do not lay down rules but give examples of disputes and advice on solving them. The courts’ main role was to foster conciliation. The law seems to have been applied mainly to commoners. Many clauses have unusual features—editorial, graphic portrayal, poetic phrasing, word-play, homily—which suggest they had public use beyond a courtroom. The conclusion offers a speculative history of this law in the Ayutthaya era.
Highlights
In the Ayutthaya era, how was law made and applied? That is a simple question, but difficult to answer
We offer a speculative history of the Law on Husband and Wife in the Ayutthaya era
The laws in the Three Seals Code are often treated as similar to modern legislation— meaning sets of rules brought into force at a certain time in an act or code
Summary
The laws in the Three Seals Code are often treated as similar to modern legislation— meaning sets of rules brought into force at a certain time in an act or code This impression arises because of the form of these laws, because they have been adopted into legal history as the precursors to a civil law system, and because scholars have attempted to make them easier to understand today. Academic studies have tended to adjust the original to make it easier for a modern reader to understand In his classic review of the Three Seals Code,[7] Yoneo Ishii presented the contents of the Law on Husband and Wife in a logical sequence: the conditions surrounding marriage; the status of husband and wife in marriage; adultery; divorce; matrimonial property; and inheritance. The clauses come in several different formats, which may reflect evolution over time
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