THAILAND’S JUDICIARY AND (UN)RULE OF LAW: A LOOK BACK AT THE UNDERMINING OF THAILAND’S JUDICIARY
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Abstract
The ongoing political conflict in Thailand stems from conflict among Thailand’s various elite factions, nominally those aligned with Thailand’s monarchy and those aligned with Thaksin Shinawatra. With political conflict spilling into the streets annually it has become apparent that Thailand’s political system has failed in its functional capacity as a conflict mediation/resolution mechanism. In the face of an increasingly assertive rural population and consecutive electoral victories by pro-Thaksin political parties Thailand’s conservative traditional elite have increasingly turned to the judicial branch of government in order to counter threats to their rule and overturn majoritarian electoral democracy. In this paper we argue that the politicization of Thailand’s judiciary since 2006 has undermined the legitimacy of Thailand’s courts as well as devolved dangerously into a system of Un-rule of law.
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