Legal Measures for Preventing SLAPP (Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation) in Criminal Lawsuits

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Jatuporn Owattanapanich

Abstract

Public participation in public issues is a fundamental right recognized by the Constitution. Even though the Criminal Procedure Code has been amended to screen cases in which the plaintiffs are suing in bad faith and the public prosecutor has the discretion to execute non-prosecution order, but they could not solve the problem of using the criminal justice process as a tool to block public participation of the people (Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation: SLAPP). This has a stronger deterrent effect than other types of cases because the criminal force affects the life and body of the defendant, and the plaintiff has more power to negotiate with the defendant. For this reason, there have been an increasing number of SLAPPs in Thai society.


This article aims to analyze the problems of SLAPP lawsuits in Thailand, which are: problems of screening measures for instituting a criminal case by injured person; problems in exercising discretion in ordering non-prosecution of prosecutors in sedition cases; problems of drafting preventive measures against SLAPPs in the offense of malfeasance and misconduct.

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Research Articles