The Legal Standing of an Injured Party in Environmental Administrative Lawsuits

Abstract

              The purpose of this article was to explore problems in the legal standing of an injured party in administrative lawsuits related to environmental issues, using concepts and theories related to the environment, principles of class action lawsuits, the Act on Establishment of Administrative Courts and Administrative Court Procedures B.E. 2542 (1999) along with the Rule of the General Assembly of Judges of the Supreme Administrative Court on Administrative Litigation Procedure B.E. 2543 (2000), the Recommendation of the President of Supreme Administrative Court Regarding Administrative Procedure in Environmental Lawsuit, and foreign laws namely: France; Germany; and United States of America.

              The study found that, in the Act on Establishment of Administrative Courts and Administrative Court Procedures B.E. 2542 (1999), there is no provision granting the right for a group of persons to file an administrative lawsuit as a class action lawsuit. Therefore, in the event that an administrative dispute arises from an environmental problem that affects the rights of a group of persons or damages the environment that a group of persons intends to protect under its objectives, the group of persons cannot file an environmental administrative lawsuit as a class action lawsuit.

              Thus, an issue that needs to be considered further is, in the event that a natural person or a juristic person files an environmental administrative lawsuit with the Administrative Court, what is the scope of consideration of the legal standing of an injured party in such a case. Another issue relates to the scope of the definition of an environmental administrative case in the event that a lawsuit is filed with the Administrative Court, and in particular, what criteria are used to consider which cases are environmental administrative cases. Lastly, another issue is that if class action lawsuits are used for environmental administrative cases, what are the advantages and disadvantages.

              Therefore, solutions to these problems are proposed in this research. The researcher holds the opinion that new provisions allowing a group of persons to register and establish an environmental protection and natural resource conservation private organization, with juristic person status, should be added to The Enhancement and Conservation of the National Environmental Quality Act B.E. 2535 (1992). Moreover, some consideration criteria should also be added to the Recommendation of the President of the Supreme Administrative Court Regarding Administrative Procedure in Environmental Lawsuits, specifying that the legal standing of an injured party in environmental administrative cases should be considered broadly in every case. In addition, caution should be exercised by adding consideration guidelines to determine whether a case qualifies as an environmental administrative case, in order to promote and support an efficient judiciary in environmental administrative cases.