The Standard of Running Events in Thailand by Legal Aspect

Abstract

This article focuses on problems and related issues pertaining to the organizing and administration of public competition on public roads including overall control, applicable law, and other collateral impact involving public safety, environmental concerns and fraud. This article proposes guidelines for the public authority charged with managing such events in order to create minimum standards for those entities organizing such events in the future.

Preliminary review of current guidelines revealed that Thailand has no responsible organization with clear authority to manage public competitions. At the international level, the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) typically has broad authority to manage competitions utilizing public roads. In Thailand, national races are governed by local authorities with widely differing standards. In fact, there are several organizations who have issued 11 separate legislations including the Sports Authority of Thailand, the Road Traffic Act, the Enhancement and Conservation of National Environmental Quality, the Consumer Protection Act, as well as myriad local ordinances.

Thailand should assign the appropriate authority to agency units, for instance, local administrative organizations to act as Certification Providers. These local organizations would be in a better position to determine local impact and risk assessment and therefore, manage the competitions in a more efficient and effective manner. These agencies must also ensure compliance with existing laws which mandate that all event organizers complete an Environmental Assessment (EA) with the Environmental Committee before an event can proceed.