Andrew Harding

This book assesses the attempt to establish a modern system of democratic government in Thailand against the background of Thai politics and culture. The fact that since 1932, when it became a constitutional monarchy, Thailand has had 18 constitutions speaks of an unstable political system which has seen rapid and repeated fluctuations between military rule and elected government. The main focus of this study is a critical discussion of the institutional frameworks which have been established under recent constitutions. Individual chapters deal with: Thai history and context, including the role of the monarchy and the military, and of constitutional drafting processes; parliament and elections; the executive branch of government, including the role of ministers, the civil service, of a contracting state and of anti-corruption initiatives; the structure and challenges of local government, including discussion of the southern insurgency; the Constitutional Court and constitutional enforcement; the constitutional role of administrative law and of the administrative courts; the constitutional protection of human rights, with freedom of speech as a particular case study.

If one were to define a lawyer's practice as "comparative law", who would not smile at the naivety expressed by such a confusion of the academic and the "practical"? Yet such a definition comes close to reality for an increasing number of practitioners. As society becomes more global and multicultural, many lawyers find themselves researching and applying principles and rules from several legal traditions. In Europe especially, the gradual convergence of civil law and common law that has been under way for decades is now gaining depth and breadth from aspects of Islamic, Asian and African legal cultures, and we are all the better for it. So it is time to take stock of where the discipline of comparative law stands and where it is going, a task undertaken in the 16 essays in this book. The originals of these papers were delivered at the 2000 W.G. Hart Legal Workshop at the Institute of Legal Studies of the University of London. They may be read here as not merely comparative law studies, but penetrating theses about what comparative law is actually about, or what it is for.The general discussion tends to fall into three major areas: comparative public law, focusing on the growing scrutiny worldwide on constitutionalism, human rights, and administrative accountability; transmigration of legal ideas and institutions, emphasizing the need to look at similarities and differences from an "importation" perspective as well as from the once-exclusive "exportation" perspective; and the European dimension, in which the need for the study of economic and social background and the role of law in the political process has come to the fore.