Shout for Freedom to Curse at the Kingdom: Contrasting Thai Lese Majeste Law with United States First Amendment Freedoms
![handle is hein.journals/iicl24 and id is 749 raw text is: SHOUT FOR FREEDOM TO CURSE AT THE
KINGDOM: CONTRASTING THAI LESE MAJESTE
LAW WITH UNITED STATES FIRST AMENDMENT
FREEDOMS
Sukrat Baber*
I. INTRODUCTION
A. Thai L~se-majestd Law
Lse-majest6 (or lese majesty) laws prohibit insults, defamation, and
criticism towards royal sovereigns of States.' In an age of rising
transparency and fight for democracy, these laws are seldom enforced and
seem to be disappearing in countries where they exist.2 However,
Thailand's 16se majest6 laws, more than 100 years after their
implementation, are still strongly enforced-more than 400 cases came to
trial between 2006 and 2011.4 To avoid reprimand, citizens must at all times
be wary of their public or even private discussions and published works
relating to Thailand's royalty. One need not look further than the codified
law to understand the length and strength of its reach: Section 112 of the
Thai Criminal Code states, Whoever, defames, insults or threatens the
King, the Queen, the Heir-apparent or the Regent, shall be punished with
imprisonment of three to fifteen years.
* Sukrat Baber is a 2014 J.D. graduate of Indiana University Robert H. McKinney
School of Law. Mr. Baber was inspired to write about this topic after he arrived in Thailand
for an internship in the summer of 2012, and was advised that he was better off not speaking
about the Thai king at all because almost any comment could be construed as insulting the
revered king and cause social or legal issues.
1. See CRIMINAL CODE [CRIM. C.] B.E. 2499 (1956), s. 112, amended by CRIM. C. (No.
17), B.E. 2547 (2003) (Thai.); see also David Streckfuss, Kings in the Age of Nations: The
Paradox of Lese-Majeste as Political Crime in Thailand, 37 COMP. STUD. Soc'Y & HIST.
445, 463 n.25 (1995) (Rattana Utthaphan, a student who wrote a personal letter to the king
asking him to abdicate and enter politics, and the late Anan Senaakhan, who made two
speeches criticizing the Queen at Sanam Luang, were each given six years.).
2. See generally Streckfuss, supra note 1.
3. Thailand's King Pardons Swiss Man, BBC NEws (Apr. 12, 2007),
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6547413.stm, archived at http://perma.cc/4TQR-
4BDH.
4. Todd Pitman & Sinfah Tunsarawuth, Thailand Arrests American for Alleged King
Insult, AssocIATED PRESS (May 28, 2011), http://sg.news.yahoo.com/thailand-arrests-
american-alleged-king-insult-073615032.html, archived at http://perma.cc/GL5R-LCKK.
5. CRiM. C. B.E. 2499 (1956), s. 112, amended by CRIM. C. (No. 17), B.E. 2547 (2003)
(Thai.).](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/iicl24&div=29&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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Shout for Freedom to Curse at the Kingdom: Contrasting Thai Lese Majeste Law with United States First Amendment Freedoms
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