ABSTRACT
Thailand’s constitutional narrative over the past 80 years has been extremely turbulent, but viewed from a different perspective it is possible to identify the antecedents of the contemporary Thai state originating from the reign of King Chulalongkorn (Rama V) (1868-1910). In particular, the foundations of the modern bureaucracy were laid down during a pre-constitutional era at national and local level and the Council of State from which the modern Administrative Courts originated was introduced in 1874. During the course of the twentieth century, Thailand acquired a substantial permanent civil service,1 and with it an effective functional administrative mechanism for implementing policy, but only a limited range of administrative remedies were open to its citizens.2 It is against this background that a national system of administrative courts was launched as one of the important innovations of the 1997 Constitution of the Kingdom of Thailand (Constitution). However, it was because there was already an existing Thai Council of State, closely modelled on the French example, that it was possible to have a system of courts up and running within four years. Indeed, this reform as it has been drafted might be regarded as part of a continuing modernization which replicates the institutional characteristics and principles of established Western European models. Put another way, there are few, if any, features of the new system of administrative justice which display obvious autochthonous Thai characteristics relating to Thailand’s traditional law.3
