(i) Substantive criminal law
Some consequences of criminal offences under old Thai laws go against modern law. Sometimes, members of the criminal’s family or neighbors were punished along with the criminal himself. For instance, neighbors of the place that was robbed were guilty if they themselves could not arrest robbers. Since this offence prevented neighbors from providing refuge to criminals from officials, it was appropriate for the community’s peace and security. However, under a modern view of law, the responsibility for a criminal offence must be particular to the one who committed the crime, not an innocent person. Also, the application of punishment throughout the family line prevented revenge from the executed criminal’s relatives, and frightened others who were thinking about committing a rebellion. However, it conflicted with the principle that a criminal offence must be particular to the criminal. Old Thai criminal law still made a criminal offence for a person who merely behaved suspiciously, called Nilumparajon. The offence of Nilumparajon is totally contrary to the modern principle of presumption of innocence that requires unambiguous facts and evidence before punishing an accused. As a western principle, in dubio pro reo, in case of doubt, the court shall decide in favor of the accused.
(ii) Criminal Procedure
Old Thai laws used the method of bodily infliction and torture, called Jareet Nakornbarn, to prove guilt. An accused might be nailed through his nails, or have the temple of his head compressed for confession. To prove guilt, an accused might be forced to walk through fire, or to submerge himself in water. These methods were based on the principle that an accused was already a criminal. This way of proof brought an accused excessive suffering as Prince Rabi noted:
At that t This deficient method to prove guilt was the strongest reason for westerners to refuse Thai jurisdiction, and to make provisions for extraterritoriality with Thailand. A Thai lawyer who lived during the reformation, who had a perspective different from nationalists’ opinions, stated that:
As for the circumstance that Thailand was cut off from the judicial sovereignty, if we are fair enough, it seems unfair to say that such westerners were taking advantage of us alone. Surely, they had to protect their benefits as much as possible. Thai laws at that time were insufficient to govern all matters happening in present society. Besides, old Thai laws were never organized so they were hard to study and search. Some provisions, especially proving guilt by the ordeal system, were truly obsolete. Westerners could not stand methods of nailing nail, compressing temples, walking on fire, etc. Losing judicial sovereignty has instead brought many advantages to us. It forced us to improve and reform our laws and our courts to be consistent with other civilized countries(21).
(iii) Severity of punishment
Under old Thai laws, punishments were extremely severe. Not only was there the death penalty, there were also punishments such as the cutting off of limbs, hands and feet, pillory, flogging, tattooing a mark on the face indicating a criminal offence, confiscating all properties of the criminal’s family, and all kinds of public humiliation.
(iv) Arbitrariness
The period of punishment under old Thai laws was not exactly specified. Some criminals were imprisoned lengthily without proper cause. One of the royal duties of the king under the ancient tradition said that the king was the supreme judge who could appoint any punishment as the king pleased upon the accused. This way of punishment had worked for a small society. Yet, when the population and the size of the society grew larger, the deliberation of one person, the king, on the punishment of the accused affected the rights and liberties of the citizenry more and more.
Prince Rabi(22) explained that:
Under the old law, an imprisonment had no limitations. If imprisoned, that meant imprisonment for life, unless the king graciously forgave, or reduced the period of imprisonment. All courts thus always had to bring petitions for the king’s clemency. The king was always diligent to fix a period of punishment case by case for criminals all over the country. This task was too burdensome for one person to execute alone(23).”
There were many examples of suffering from the vagueness of the period of punishment. The first example is the case of Ai Rung, an accused who shared the responsibility for a robbery with other criminals. Ai Rung was imprisoned with his nine other friends. All nine friends later died. Ai Rung was still imprisoned for another 14 years without either a clear offence or limitation of sentence. Second, the case of Ai Shim, accused for the offence of murder. Chao Phra Ya Yommaraj (Shey), the judge for this case, imprisoned Ai Shim for 16 years and 11 months with no limit of imprisonment.
In addition to the two above examples, a letter of Dr. William Willis, the Chief Doctor of the Division of Heavy Penalty in the government of King Rama V, informed King Rama V that:
In Siam, there are so many prisoners who have been imprisoned without judgments, and prisoners who have no idea how long they will have to be imprisoned. They have been so miserable, so anxious. It is a true pity to see long-term prisoners whose bodies are weaker and weaker. And how much would they be whipped? One day, I had a patient who had been imprisoned for 28 years because of a petty offence and he also did not know whether he had even been found guilty(24).
To solve this problem, King Rama V appointed Prince Bijit, Prince Siridhaj, and Phra-Ya Vudhikaraboti to fix limits on punishments. In 1896, King Rama V granted the metropolitan court and provincial courts the power to fix the limitation of imprisonment. As for old cases that had not had limitations set, King Rama V appointed Prince Rabi to help execute this work as well.
(i) Substantive criminal lawSome consequences of criminal offences under old Thai laws go against modern law. Sometimes, members of the criminal’s family or neighbors were punished along with the criminal himself. For instance, neighbors of the place that was robbed were guilty if they themselves could not arrest robbers. Since this offence prevented neighbors from providing refuge to criminals from officials, it was appropriate for the community’s peace and security. However, under a modern view of law, the responsibility for a criminal offence must be particular to the one who committed the crime, not an innocent person. Also, the application of punishment throughout the family line prevented revenge from the executed criminal’s relatives, and frightened others who were thinking about committing a rebellion. However, it conflicted with the principle that a criminal offence must be particular to the criminal. Old Thai criminal law still made a criminal offence for a person who merely behaved suspiciously, called Nilumparajon. The offence of Nilumparajon is totally contrary to the modern principle of presumption of innocence that requires unambiguous facts and evidence before punishing an accused. As a western principle, in dubio pro reo, in case of doubt, the court shall decide in favor of the accused.(ii) Criminal ProcedureOld Thai laws used the method of bodily infliction and torture, called Jareet Nakornbarn, to prove guilt. An accused might be nailed through his nails, or have the temple of his head compressed for confession. To prove guilt, an accused might be forced to walk through fire, or to submerge himself in water. These methods were based on the principle that an accused was already a criminal. This way of proof brought an accused excessive suffering as Prince Rabi noted:At that t This deficient method to prove guilt was the strongest reason for westerners to refuse Thai jurisdiction, and to make provisions for extraterritoriality with Thailand. A Thai lawyer who lived during the reformation, who had a perspective different from nationalists’ opinions, stated that:As for the circumstance that Thailand was cut off from the judicial sovereignty, if we are fair enough, it seems unfair to say that such westerners were taking advantage of us alone. Surely, they had to protect their benefits as much as possible. Thai laws at that time were insufficient to govern all matters happening in present society. Besides, old Thai laws were never organized so they were hard to study and search. Some provisions, especially proving guilt by the ordeal system, were truly obsolete. Westerners could not stand methods of nailing nail, compressing temples, walking on fire, etc. Losing judicial sovereignty has instead brought many advantages to us. It forced us to improve and reform our laws and our courts to be consistent with other civilized countries(21).(iii) ความรุนแรงของการลงโทษภายใต้กฎหมายไทยเก่า ลงโทษรุนแรงมาก ไม่ ได้มีโทษประหารชีวิต มียังถูกลงโทษเช่นการตัดแขนขามือ และเท้า pillory สาหัส เพ้นท์แบบชั่วคราวเครื่องหน้าบ่งชี้อาญา และคุณสมบัติทั้งหมดของครอบครัวของอาญา และผู้ทรงสาธารณะทุกชนิด(iv) arbitrarinessไม่ว่ามีระบุระยะเวลาของการลงโทษภายใต้กฎหมายไทยเก่า อาชญากรบางคนถูกจำคุกเป็นเวลา lengthily โดยไม่มีสาเหตุที่เหมาะสม หนึ่งในหน้าที่ของพระมหากษัตริย์ภายใต้ประเพณีโบราณกล่าวว่า พระมหากษัตริย์เป็นผู้พิพากษาสูงสุดที่สามารถแต่งตั้งลงโทษใด ๆ เป็นกษัตริย์ความยินดีเมื่อผู้ถูกกล่าวหา การลงโทษวิธีนี้ได้ทำงานในสังคมขนาดเล็ก ยัง เมื่อประชากรและขนาดของสังคมเติบโตใหญ่ สุขุมของคน พระราชา ในการลงโทษผู้ถูกกล่าวหามีผลกระทบสิทธิและเสรีภาพของการมามากเจ้าชาย Rabi(22) อธิบายว่า:กฎหมายเก่า มีโทษจำคุกได้ไม่จำกัด ถ้าจำคุกเป็นเวลา ที่หมาย จำคุกชีวิต ยกเว้นว่าพระปรมิองค์ หรือลดระยะเวลาจำคุก ศาลทั้งหมดจึงจะได้นำ petitions สำหรับกษัตริย์ clemency พระมหากษัตริย์ถูกเสมอขยันแก้ไขรอบระยะเวลาของการลงโทษกรณีโดยกรณีสำหรับอาชญากรทั่วประเทศ งานนี้มีที่เป็นภาระมากเกินไปสำหรับคนดำเนิน alone(23)"มีตัวอย่างมากของการทุกข์ทรมานจาก vagueness ของรอบระยะเวลาของการลงโทษ ตัวอย่างแรกเป็นกรณีของไอรุ้ง ผู้ต้องหาที่ร่วมรับผิดชอบสำหรับปล้นอาชญากรอื่น ๆ ไอรุ้งถูกจำคุกเป็นเวลากับเพื่อนของเขาเก้าอื่น ๆ เพื่อนทั้งหมดเก้าเสียชีวิตในภายหลัง อ้ายรุ่งได้ยัง imprisoned อีก 14 ปีโดยไม่มีความผิดชัดเจนหรือข้อจำกัดของประโยค ที่สอง กรณีของ Ai Shim ถูกกล่าวหาว่าในคดีความผิดของการฆาตกรรม เจ้าพระยา Yommaraj (Shey), ผู้พิพากษาในกรณีนี้ จำคุกเป็นเวลา Shim อาย 16 ปี และ 11 เดือนโดยไม่จำกัดจำคุกนอกจากสองข้างตัวอย่าง จดหมายของดร. William Willis แพทย์หัวหน้าแผนกของหนักเมลล์ในรัฐบาลรัชกาล ทราบรัชกาลที่:สยาม มีนักโทษจำนวนมากที่ได้ถูกจำคุกเป็นเวลา โดยไม่มีการตัดสิน และนักโทษที่มีความคิดไม่นานจะได้ติด พวกเขาได้รับนั้นเอง ดังนั้นกังวล สงสารจริงเห็นนักโทษระยะยาวที่มีร่างกายที่แข็งแกร่ง และแข็งแกร่งได้ และว่าจะพวกเขาจะถูกตี วันเดียว มีผู้ป่วยที่มีการจำคุกเป็นเวลา 28 ปีเนื่องจากคดีความผิด petty และเขายังไม่รู้ว่า เขาก็ได้พบ guilty(24)To solve this problem, King Rama V appointed Prince Bijit, Prince Siridhaj, and Phra-Ya Vudhikaraboti to fix limits on punishments. In 1896, King Rama V granted the metropolitan court and provincial courts the power to fix the limitation of imprisonment. As for old cases that had not had limitations set, King Rama V appointed Prince Rabi to help execute this work as well.
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