Constitutional Court Practice in Political Conflict in 2006

Abstract

By using historical institutionalism approach, this article intends to understand the decision making of Thai Constitutional Court when faced with the political crisis in 2006. It analyzes history context and interaction among the Constitutional Court and other political groups/institutions, playing their role in the period the Constitutional Court made its judgment each case. This article reveals that Thai Constitutional Court, as a part of judiciary power, determined to take part in solving political crisis, cooperated with Court of Justice and Administrative Court, by arbitrating that the 2nd April 2006 general election was unlawfully held. Moreover, in order to set up a new election legally, Thai Constitutional Court decided to schedule general election date, which is beyond what the petitioner solicited.