Nitiparitat Journal

Should Animal Welfare be Public Morality?: A Study of ‘Living Instrument Doctrine’ through Jurisprudential Perspectives

Chayanis Jongjailan — 2025-09-18

This article aims to explain how the European Court of Human Rights’ approach of the Living Instrument Doctrine reflects Legal Realism through its evolutive interpretation and evaluation in social facts of emerging trends in member States of the Council of Europe and to further analyze limitations of this approach, whether the Court’s interpretation of the Living Instrument Doctrine neglected minority’s rights, particularly Muslims and Jews’ rights to freedom of religion, and neglected the spirit of the European Convention on Human Rights.

This article thus intends to introduce Ronald Dworkin’s jurisprudence of ‘Law as Integrity’, which concerns the Court’s constructive interpretation in order to discover the best case. This jurisprudential approach better suits the case study and the Living Instrument Doctrine than Legal Realism’s approach by considering both past decisions and the present condition as a whole to preserve the spirit of the Convention and to protect the right to freedom of religion.

An Analysis of the Essence of Being Human in The Substance through Thomas Aquinas’s Philosophy

Panut Nirach — 2025-09-18

Thomas Aquinas, a philosopher of the natural law tradition, describes human beings as “rational animals.” According to Aquinas, once created by God, the capacity for reason constitutes the defining characteristic of living beings. When this perspective is applied to the film The Substance, one of the protagonists, Su, presents a complex case of humanity: Su’s origins are neither those of a naturally born human nor of a straightforward clone, nor was Su intended to coexist temporally with the film’s other characters. Moreover, Su ultimately transcends a mere extension of another human being, thereby opening up intriguing questions in legal philosophy.

As the narrative unfolds, Su exhibits not only “reason” but also “free will” and a “conscience” — qualities that Aquinas identifies as the very essence of humanity. Conversely, under the Civil and Commercial Code (Section 15), personality begins with the full completion of birth as a living child and ends with death. A child en ventre sa mere is capable of rights, provided that the child is thereafter born alive — a definition that plainly excludes Su’s existence. This discrepancy highlights a conflict between positive human law and the higher-order mandates of divine and natural law.

The Problems of Exclusion from the Inheritance based on Unworthy: A Jurisprudential Analysis through the Lens of Ronald Dworkin

Kessaraporn Kuntharak — 2025-09-18

The Civil and Commercial Code, Book 6 on Succession, establishes principles that can result in the disinheritance of heirs. One significant aspect is "disqualification from inheritance," which is the loss of the right to inherit by the law. Section 1606 provides the criteria where an heir is excluded from succession as being unworthy.

Section 1606 (1) presents two issues of interest to the writers. The first issue concerns the application of this section in Supreme Court Judgment No. 358/2554, which may be viewed as a decision deviating from this legal principle. The question is whether this application is appropriate and to what extent. The second issue considers whether heirs of the same class who kill or attempt to kill each other should be excluded from succession and the rationale for this study. Therefore, this article aims to address the two issues mentioned above through the lens of Ronald Dworkin, focusing on his perspective on the case of Riggs v. Palmer (1889), which serves as a counter-argument to the ideas of H.L.A. Hart.

Analysis of Arnim Zola’s Mind Upload into a Computer: Would the Computer Version Be Granted the Same Rights as the Original

Arthitpitchayangura Kanpai — 2025-09-18

The character of the Marvel film “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” was a digital mind capable of controlling external systems similar to human beings. The film presents the possibility that, in the future, the human mind could be transferred into a digital system, blurring the line between man and machine. This raises the question: Would a computer version have the same rights as the original? As writers, we will analyze the legal person theory from real entity in Gierke’s theory along with the jurisprudential implications of natural law, as expressed by Lon Fuller, and legal positivism, as mentioned by Hans Kelsen. Additionally, we will further explore the predicted contributions of Artificial Intelligence in the near future.

The Management of Maritime Boundary Dispute Between Thailand and Cambodia: The Considerations of International Law and Politics

Kanchanat Benjarongkapan — 2025-09-18

The gradual escalation of the maritime boundary dispute between Thailand and Cambodia over the past year has directly impacted the fundamental values of post-World War II international relations and law, namely peace and security. However, no academic study has yet presented the facts of the disputed situation, nor has it proposed a solution to resolve or manage the dispute appropriately and fairly, leading to good relations between the disputing parties in the future. Therefore, this article aims to present a model for “management” of the maritime boundary dispute between Thailand and Cambodia. This study, based on a comparative study of existing models for managing maritime boundary disputes worldwide, aims to identify the model most appropriate for Thailand's context. These models are then developed to provide recommendations for implementation in the aforementioned dispute.