Environmental Rights and Constitutional Reform in Thailand

Abstract

     Environmental rights in the constitutional law context has generated considerable public debate in Thailand. This is because Thailand is currently attempting to implement a new constitution in order to protect the rights of all Thais under the law of the land. The overall objective of this article is to provide a conceptual basis concerning the drafting of constitutional environmental provisions in Thailand. In essence, it aims to provide a more coherent framework for the constitutional
recognition of environmental rights, while at the same time satisfying norms of international environmental law. The recommendation proposes that reforms of the constitutional recognition of the right to environment are necessary in two areas. The first relates to the constitutional reform by adopting legal principles of previous Thai constitutions, new provisions for environmental rights in the Thai constitution (i.e. right to healthy environment, which was missing from the Thai 2550 Constitution), revoking some provisions, such as indigenous people’s rights, as well as internalizing founding principles of international environmental law into the Thai domestic legal framework. The second relates to the formulation of the courts’ working procedures on constitutional interpretation, thereby resolving problems of overlapping jurisdictions between the Constitutional Court and other judicial powers.