On Thursday May 16, the German Southeast Asian Center of Excellence for Public Policy and Good Governance (CPG) based at the Faculty of Law, Thammasat University, will copresent with the Asian Governance Foundation (AGF), the Faculty of Political Science and Law, Burapha University, and the Hanns Seidel Foundation a seminar on Good Policing – Police Reform Issues for Postelection Thailand.
The event will be held from 9am to 4:30pm in the Jitti Tingsabadh Room of the Faculty of Law, Thammasat University, Tha Prachan campus. All are welcome to reserve a seat and attend. Students in the Faculties of Law, Political Science, Sociology, and related fields may be interested to know that the Thammasat University Library owns a number of books published by and about the Royal Thai Police.
As the CPG website explains:
Police reform has been a perpetual issue of policy reform debates on law and governance in Thailand since decades. After the 2006-2007 Police Reform Committee had made detailed reform recommendations to the Ministry of Justice without much avail, reform discussion have been surging again after the 2014 Coup. This reform impulse has also been reflected by the 2017 Constitution which requires among other reforms also a reform of the police (sect. 258). Accordingly, police reform issues have been dealt with by both a police reform commission as well as the justice reform commission. Yet, final steps have not been taken yet and are not expected to be taken before the national elections in March.
Discussions which have manifested in a pending amendment proposal pertain in particular to the way how and by whom crime cases are handled within the police and the role of the prosecutor aiming at improving the effectiveness of police work and entrenching internal check-and-balances and thus to enhance good policing in Thailand. Another reform issue is the role of public prosecutors who shall be given also a function in joining police in criminal investigations similar to the practice in many other countries.
To present these reform issues to broader audience and to discuss them with experts from all related fields is the objective of this conference on police reform which continues a series of events offered by the organizers on this topic. Additional to highly experienced speakers from Thailand, foreign experts, in particular from other ASEAN countries, will present further perspectives.
Conference language is Thai and English, professional simultaneous translation will be provided.
Among scheduled speakers to give international perspectives on police reform is Professor Sang Won Lee, PhD, who teaches criminal law and procedure at The School of Law, Seoul National University. Professor Lee is a Former Justice of the Supreme Court and the Constitutional Court of South Korea. He earned a bachelor’s degree in law at Seoul National University (SNU), and a master’s degree at the University of California at Berkeley, USA, before returning to SNU for his doctorate. His research and teaching interests include criminal law, criminal procedure, legal theories and practices, new technology and criminal procedure and criminal and civil adjudications. As director of the SNU Asia-Pacific Law Institute (APLI), Professor Lee offers words of greetings on the APLI website:
Established in 2012, Seoul National University Asia-Pacific Law Institute (APLI) is the first of the Korean research institutions specifically dedicated to the laws and legal systems in the Asia-Pacific region. As a result of expanding and improving cooperative exchanges in the region, it is recognized that centralizing research accumulation of various nations’ legal regimes within the region has become increasingly significant. Therefore, APLI strives to encourage Korea to serve as a next hub for academic research on laws and enhance the legal development of each nation in the region by promoting collaboration across legal practices and research. APLI has organized annual international conferences, strengthening legal and educational relationships with nations in the region. Moreover, by hosting a series of domestic workshops and conferences, it has responded to the need for Asia-Pacific-focused research on legal practices and systems. APLI endeavors to play various roles in providing academic courses and training programs, producing legal publications and materials, and building a region-wide network of lawyers in the Asia Pacific.
The goals and missions of APLI also include to
- Promote comprehensive and organized research on legal regimes in the Asia-Pacific region.
- Generate solutions to key issues of current legal concerns through mutual exchanges within the region and to develop constructive interaction with scholarship, business, and government for the solutions.
- Support the developing countries in the region to improve their legal systems, and enhance contacts and mutual exchanges with these nations to support them.
- APLI serves as an important hub for the Asia-Pacific-focused research on laws and legal systems.
Other speakers are scheduled to include Dr. Duy Le, Ho Chi Minh City University of Law, Vietnam; Salim Bashir Bhaskaran, Co-Deputy Chairperson of the Criminal Law Committee of Bar Council and an active council member of the Bar Council Malaysia/ University Technology Mara Malaysia; and Narendra Jatna, Jakarta District Attorney General, The Attorney General’s Office of the Republic of Indonesia, Indonesia.
On the subject of Good Policing – Police Reform Issues for Postelection Thailand, Police Colonel Virute Sirisawasdibutre, Former Deputy of Commander, Office of the Inspector General, Royal Thai Police, will speak, as well as Dr. Namtaee Meeboonsalang, Provincial Public Prosecutor (Kanchanaburi).
Dr. Namtaee earned a bachelor of law degree from Thammasat University and a bachelor of political science degree from Ramkumheang University. A master of law degree from Chulalongkorn University was followed by a master of criminal justice diploma from West Texas A&M University, USA and a doctor of juridical science degree from Latrobe University, Melbourne, Australia.
Dr. Namtaee has authored books on class actions for environmental cases; the comparative criminal justice system; and a criminal procedure handbook for investigative officers. He has also published an extensive comparative study of the criminal justice system in the USA, the United Kingdom, France, and Japan. His special areas of research have included such topics as pepper spray, death penalty reform, forensic science evidence, and drug and narcotic codes.
Discussants for Dr. Namtaee’s presentation are scheduled to include Angkhana Neelapaijit, Commissioner of the National Human Rights Commission of Thailand.
As its website notes,
The National Human Rights Commission is an independent organization, under the Constitution of the Kingdom of Thailand B.E. 2540 (1997). It occurs from the driving force and the demands of the people to have an independent mechanism to promote and protect the rights and liberties of the people, according to the guarantee of the right to freedom in this constitution.
Amnesty International has described Khun Angkhana as a leading human rights defender in Southern Thailand. Professor Narong Jaiharn of the Faculty of Law, Thammasat University will also serve as discussant. Professor Narong, who is celebrating his 40th anniversary as a teacher at the TU Faculty of Law this year, focuses on criminal law, criminal justice, human rights, decentralization and environmental law. Professor Narong earned an LL.B. and LL.M. degree from Thammasat University as well as another LL.M. from the University of Kent at Canterbury, UK.
Concluding remarks will be offered by Ajarn Henning Glaser, Director of the CPG and Assistant Professor Police Captain Vichien Tansirikongkhon, PhD, of the Faculty of Political Science and Law, Burapha University.
(All images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)