THAILAND: Amended TAI Rules

On 19 September 2023, the Thai Arbitration Institute, Office of the Judiciary (“TAI”) published the fifth amendment to its Arbitration Rules in the Royal Gazette (the “Fifth Amendment”). The Fifth Amendment came into effect on 1 September 2023 and, unless otherwise agreed by the parties, is applicable to any arbitration proceedings commenced under the TAI Arbitration Rules on or after 1 September 2023.

Language of Arbitration
Under Art. 10, In circumstances where the arbitration agreement does not specify the language of arbitration to be Thai or English, or where the statement of claim is not made in Thai or English, the claimant is required to provide a Thai translation when submitting the statement of claim to the TAI.
The new provision provides welcome clarity that arbitration proceedings under TAI Rules can now also be conducted in languages other than Thai or English.

Expert Evidence
Art. 33/1 allows the Arbitral Tribunal to order the parties to bring in expert witnesses to testify concurrently (i.e. “hot tubbing”) at any stage of the proceedings. 

Costs of arbitration
Article 56, paragraph 2 providing that the amount of the Arbitrator’s fees and expenses incurred during the arbitral proceedings (i.e. fees of assistants or representatives) shall be determined or certified by the TAI in an attachment to the arbitral award. A new Article 57 is introduced, which provides detailed criteria that the Arbitral Tribunal will take into consideration when determining the issue of apportionment of the costs of arbitration.