Some eight decades ago on 24 June 1932, Thailand embarked on a journey towards democratic transformation when the People's Party, an elite group of civil servants, princes, army officers and young intellectuals, who were well educated in Europe and fully infused with the concept of Western democracy, staged a bloodless coup d'etat, demanding a change of government from an absolute monarchy to a constitutional monarchy. Determined to avoid any bloodshed, His Majesty King Prajadhipok (Rama VII) agreed to abolish absolute monarchy and the transfer of power to the constitution-based system of government by signing a temporary constitution on 27 June 1932. This constitution marked the arrival of Thailand's modern political constitutionalism - the idea that government can and should be legally limited in its powers. Since then, Thailand has been subject to 18 military coups followed by the promulgation of new and/or revised 18 constitutions and numerous changes of government. The turbulent history of Thailand's constitutionalism suggests that there is a need for major constitutional reform - one where the Constitution is reviewed to ensure adherence to the Rule of Law and democracy.

As a result of the overvvhelming weight of scientific evidence, it is now reasonable to maintain that peoples of the globe, especially those living in developing countries, are facing high risks posed by anthropogenic climate change. A recent report commissioned by the World Bank provides a forecast of the frightening impacts of 2°C warming on three tropical regions: Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia and South East Asia. The report highlights the key findings that have potentially devastating implications for development, such as unprecedented and more frequent heat extremes covering greater land areas both globally and in the three regions examined. For example, heat extremes in South East Asia are projected to increase substantially in the near term, and will have significant adverse effects on humans and ecosystems with as little as 2°C rise in temperature.

The article analyses the major principles of the good corporate governance in the common law in comparison with those in the Thai legal system. It focuses, in particular, on the standards of a duty of care and diligence applied to company directors in Australian and English cases, and compares the different standards set out in the Australian Corporations Act 2001 (Cth) and Thai Public Company Limited Act BE 2535 (1992). It goes on to discuss in detail Pin Chakkaphak v Government of Thailand (2001) and the failure on the part of the Thai Government in the case in the English High Court to extradite Mr Pin Chakkaphak, the former president of Finance One Co Ltd, from the UK. The article argues that the Pin Chakkaphak case clearly demonstrates a number of loopholes in Thai corporate laws and financial regulations, which need to be substantially reformed by incorporating an objective standard of a duty of care imposed on company directors and a duty to avoid insolvent trading.

Constitutional and political debates in Thailand currently revolve round good governance and the Rule of Law issues within the structure of the new 2007 Constitution. This paper aims to provide a critical analysis of the key issues relevant to the current constitutional and democratic reform process in Thailand after the military coup on 19 September 2006. This paper aims to provide a critical analysis of key issues relevant to the current constitutional and democratic reform process in Thailand. It will first trace Thailand's modern constitutional history. It will then discuss the fundamental principles of the 1997 Constitution in comparison with the new provisions of the 2007 Constitution that are designed to address some significant flaws of its predecessor. Specifically, it will examine the key issues for constitutional reform including the balance of powers, political vote buying and how to prevent future military coups. In order to break the vicious cycle of military coups followed by new constitutions and revolving door governments, the paper argues that Thailand needs to undergo radical changes, covering not only legal and political but also socio-economic reforms, which embrace the principles of constitutionalism, the rule of law and good governance at national, provincial and local or grassroots levels.

Within the equitable doctrine of rectification, a distinction between common or mutual mistake and unilateral mistake is currently adopted by courts, litigants and scholars. Based on this distinction the focus of a court is to identify who made a mistake and who had knowledge of any mistake. This approach is unhelpful and has led to unnecessary complexity which has been identified by judges and scholars in several recent cases in England and Australia. In addition, the boundary between common law construction and the equitable doctrine of rectification has become less clear. To address the complexity of the law and the uncertain boundary between construction and rectification this thesis examines the scope of the common law approach to construction, identifies the current law relating to when rectification will be granted, outlines in what ways is it difficult to reconcile the current case law, and explains where the law of rectification went wrong. After addressing those matters the thesis explains how the case law on the equitable doctrine of rectification needs to be restated, in accordance with principles established in earlier case law, so that the law is coherent and principled. This provides a comprehensive solution to the uncertainty and complexity in the law of rectification. The solution includes arguing that the distinction between common or mutual mistake and unilateral mistake should be rejected and that the correct distinction is between two different types of mistakes: mistakes made in the recording of agreements and mistakes made during the formation of agreements. In addition, courts in recent decades have focused on the intention of the parties rather than on agreements made by contracting parties. It is argued that a focus on the type of mistake made, and a focus on agreements rather than intentions, will remove the current complexity and uncertainty in the law of rectification that has emerged in recent cases.

On 2 December 2008, the Constitutional Court of Thailand passed a unanimous verdict dissolving the ruling People Power Party (PPP), and banning Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat, from politics for five years because PPP executives had been convicted of electoral fraud in the general elections in December 2007. In two separate verdicts on the same day, the Constitutional Court also dissolved two parties in his coalition Chart Thai and Matchimathipataya on the similar grounds. As a result of the Court's rulings, anti-government protesters, led by the so-called 'People's Alliance for Democracy' (PAD) or the 'Yellow Shirts', ended the week-long siege of Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi and Don Mueang airports. While the Constitutional Court's verdicts were greeted by the PAD and its supporters as a legitimate tool to heal Thailand's fractured democracy, others questioned whether a proper legal procedure was fully followed by the Court in arriving at such radical verdicts. The paper will first provide a review of the constitutional history of Thailand. It will then look at the powers and functions of the Constitutional courts under the former provisions of the 1997 Constitution in comparison with the new provisions of the current 2007 Constitution. In the next section, it will analyse the recent controversial cases decided by the Constitutional Court of Thailand, especially those concerning electoral fraud and corruption. Finally, the paper will critically assess the role of the Constitutional Court in protecting the Rule of Law and democracy in Thailand.

This paper intends to provide a critical analysis of key issues relevant to contemporary constitutional and political reforms with a view to promote and improve good governance practices in Thailand. It will first trace Thailand's modern constitutional history. It will then discuss the fundamental principles of the 1997 Constitution in comparison with the new provisions of the 2007 Constitution that are designed to address some significant flaws of its predecessor. Specifically, it will examine a number of important issues for recent constitutional reform including some of the current problems relating to the separation of powers and checks and balances, political vote buying and electoral fraud, rampant corruption, deterioration of good governance and challenges in preventing future military coups. In order to break the vicious cycle of military coups followed by new constitutions and revolving-door governments, the paper argues that Thailand needs to undergo radical changes, covering not only legal and political but also socio-economic reforms, which embrace the principles for good governance at national, provincial and local or grassroots levels. In order to accelerate such reforms in the digital age, Thailand must articulate its national Information and Communication Technology (ICT) policy towards building an informed civil society and thus promoting political inclusion and grassroots participation in democratic governance and decision-making processes.

Today there is no greater challenge facing humanity than that of global poverty in thewake of over a decade of globalisation. The search for global solutions to the povertyhas recently been the focal point of the UN General Assembly’s 2005 WorldSummit. The Summit, an important milestone in UN history, brought together worldleaders who pledged continuing support for the Millennium Development Goalsaiming at eradicating extreme poverty and hunger as their highest priority. No doubt,globalisation has brought in new opportunities for developing countries, includinggreater access to the market of developed countries. As a result of globalisation, thecountries of Southeast Asia have successfully built sustainable and growingeconomies which have helped elevate millions of people out of poverty. Butglobalisation has been associated with new challenges like global poverty andinequality across and within least developed countries. As illustrated in Table 1below, despite development aid and loans provided by the World Bank and theInternational Monetary Fund (IMF), which are conditional on free market policiessuch as trade liberalisation and privatization, the situation in sub-Saharan Africa isstill particularly critical and continues to worsen.

This study examines how the African Court of Justice and Human Rights can be more effective in human rights protection in Africa. At its core, it scrutinizes the current African human rights regime, its weaknesses and strengths. The study argues that for the African Court of Justice and Human rights to be an effective institution, it must remedy the shortcomings encountered by the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights as well as the African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights'. This thesis acknowledges that one of the main challenges for the consumers of human rights in Africa has been to find an effective forum in which the rights of the most vulnerable can be vindicated. It is argued that for the African Court of Justice and Human Rights to be an effective institution in Africa, it must position itself alongside African traditional judicial institutions and learn lessons from other well-established regional human rights institutions.

Over the past decades, world fisheries trade has been growing considerably both interms of quantity and quality. As with other agricultural products, trade in fish andfishery products is crucial for national economies in several developing countries as itrepresents a major source of foreign currency earnings for their national economies.The fishery industry thus plays an important role in income generation, employment andfood security.Thailand has been one of the largest exporters of fish and fish products in the world,despite the current problem of overfishing in the Gulf of Thailand. Given the marineliving resources in the Gulf have shown a steady declining trend, Thailand has faced anumber of serious challenges to its fisheries production and trade.The paper will first provide an overview of the current status of fisheries resources andgeneral trends in global production, utilisation and trade. Second, it will discuss thecurrent challenges to international fisheries trade, including the overfishing problem as aresult of inefficient fisheries management; international competition for access to fishstocks in EEZs and the highs seas; illegal, reported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing andfishing subsidies linked to overexploitation of fish stocks; fishing subsidies trademeasures linked to environmental protection arising from the WTO rules and otherconventions relating to biodiversity, global warming and climate change. Third, thepaper will look at current fisheries management in Thailand including it currentlegislative framework, policies and practice. Finally, the paper will argue that in orderto meet the challenges to its fisheries trade and increasing pressures of the world’smajor importers as highlighted in the Shrimp/Turtle case, Thailand needs to complywith international standards on conservation and sustainable development of fisheryresources both within and beyond its national waters, for instance, by undertaking amajor reform of its fisheries legislation and policies and by increasing cooperation withregional and international fisheries organisations.