After the absolute monarchy was replaced by the first constitution in 1932, the
military and technocrats had made up Thai bureaucracy leaving little room for
discussing stability of law and civil liberties. To date, there have been a number
of military interventions as well as 18 constitutions (including the latest version
in August 2007) as the ingredient of democratic regime for Thailand over the past
75 years. It is not surprising why it is commonly albeit wrongly perceived that the
rule of law does not exist in the kingdom of Thailand.
The fact that Thailand’s constitutional government developed along in a different
path from that of the Western world should not be solely used to sum up the
absence of the rule of law. Instead, such fact should be drawn on as the starting
point to illustrate how far the Thai Constitutions have learnt to embrace the rule of
law for the country. Accordingly, the following study is set to prove whether Thailand
does admire and advocate the constitutional governance where the laws and
administrative procedures are designed to protect individual liberties, restrict the
power of the state to infringe on individual rights, and hold leadership accountable
to the public.