The Thai civil court's order today is one step closer to full scale judicial coup. By preserving the emergency decree in form but invalidating its key contents, the court rendered the decree almost pointless for the government.
Two points need to be stressed:
1. The factual determination in emergency situation falls under jurisdiction of the executive. This is granted by the emergency decree which could be stuck down only by the constitutional court but by letting the decree stay the court and any other courts have no jurisdiction over this issue.
2. The constitutional court's ruling only binds the civil court legally but not factually. That means the civil court is bound by legal interpretation but there is no judicial basis for the civil court to rely on factual determination by the constitutional court. The constitutional court determined the facts at one point in time but facts change by minute, therefore it is judicially impossible and legally illogical for the civil court to disregard the current situation and conveniently rely on the constitutional court's ruling.
In sum, the civil court basically teamed up with the constitutional court in attempts to intervene in the executive domain, where the court has no accountability, and pave ways for the protestors to claim pseudo legitimacy to overthrow the government.