IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/endesu/v21y2019i1d10.1007_s10668-017-0044-4.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Green Bench: Can an environmental court protect natural resources in Thailand?

Author

Listed:
  • Narong Kiettikunwong

    (Khon Kaen University)

Abstract

Environmental destruction due to development is widespread throughout Thailand, and is increasing, both in scope and severity. In addition, tensions between developers (sometimes including the government) and the public have risen, and will only become more strained as both sides become more aggressive in their tactics and demands. Members of the public and the public sector have filed nearly five thousand civil and criminal claims to force government agencies to take action against or revoke permits from corporations or development projects causing environmental destruction. However, the prolonged period required for judicial remedies to be administered appears to significantly worsen the overall environmental impact of development projects, which continue to create environmental problems while cases are lodged, heard, appealed, and ultimately decided upon. Today, using existing civil or criminal court systems and attempting to treat environmental cases differently within their procedures requires tremendous effort and also specific environmental knowledge in order to ensure a fair judicial process. Thus, many have proposed reforming judicial procedures for environmental cases by establishing a specialist environmental court or tribunal. In addition, a specialist court would be expected to issue sound judgments, producing a record in case law and contributing to good jurisprudence. This article provides an overview of the establishment of environmental courts as specialized agencies in several different countries in order to shed light on how such a transformation might feasibly be undertaken. Additionally, the article analyses the possibilities for establishing an environmental court or tribunal as a specialized agency in Thailand.

Suggested Citation

  • Narong Kiettikunwong, 2019. "The Green Bench: Can an environmental court protect natural resources in Thailand?," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 21(1), pages 385-404, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:endesu:v:21:y:2019:i:1:d:10.1007_s10668-017-0044-4
    DOI: 10.1007/s10668-017-0044-4
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10668-017-0044-4
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10668-017-0044-4?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Muradian, Roldan & Corbera, Esteve & Pascual, Unai & Kosoy, Nicolás & May, Peter H., 2010. "Reconciling theory and practice: An alternative conceptual framework for understanding payments for environmental services," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(6), pages 1202-1208, April.
    2. repec:cup:cbooks:9780521564298 is not listed on IDEAS
    3. Igor Shishlov & Romain Morel & Valentin Bellassen, 2016. "Compliance of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol in the first commitment period," Climate Policy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 16(6), pages 768-782, August.
    4. Per Sandin & Martin Peterson & Sven Ove Hansson & Christina Rudén & André Juthe, 2002. "Five charges against the precautionary principle," Journal of Risk Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 5(4), pages 287-299, October.
    5. Harriet Bulkeley & Kristine Kern, 2006. "Local Government and the Governing of Climate Change in Germany and the UK," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 43(12), pages 2237-2259, November.
    6. Luppi, Barbara & Parisi, Francesco & Rajagopalan, Shruti, 2012. "The rise and fall of the polluter-pays principle in developing countries," International Review of Law and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(1), pages 135-144.
    7. repec:cup:cbooks:9780521564403 is not listed on IDEAS
    8. Lucie Laurian, 2008. "Environmental Injustice in France," Journal of Environmental Planning and Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 51(1), pages 55-79.
    9. R Lidskog, 1993. "Whose Environment? Which Perspective? A Critical Approach to Hazardous Waste Management in Sweden," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 25(4), pages 571-588, April.
    10. Woerdman Edwin & Arcuri Alessandra & Clò Stefano, 2008. "Emissions Trading and the Polluter-Pays Principle: Do Polluters Pay under Grandfathering?," Review of Law & Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 4(2), pages 565-590, December.
    11. Hurley, Terrance M. & Shogren, Jason F., 1997. "Environmental Conflicts and the SLAPP," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 33(3), pages 253-273, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Rao, Neethi Varadaraja & Bhaskaran, Varsha & Nagendra, Harini, 2023. "Can green tribunals help to resist neo-liberalism in environmental governance – The case of India," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 131(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Farley, Joshua & Costanza, Robert & Flomenhoft, Gary & Kirk, Daniel, 2015. "The Vermont Common Assets Trust: An institution for sustainable, just and efficient resource allocation," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 109(C), pages 71-79.
    2. Frings, Oliver & Abildtrup, Jens & Montagné-Huck, Claire & Gorel, Salomé & Stenger, Anne, 2023. "Do individual PES buyers care about additionality and free-riding? A choice experiment," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 213(C).
    3. McGrath, F.L. & Carrasco, L.R. & Leimona, B., 2017. "How auctions to allocate payments for ecosystem services contracts impact social equity," Ecosystem Services, Elsevier, vol. 25(C), pages 44-55.
    4. Caiado, Nathália & Guarnieri, Patricia & Xavier, Lúcia Helena & de Lorena Diniz Chaves, Gisele, 2017. "A characterization of the Brazilian market of reverse logistic credits (RLC) and an analogy with the existing carbon credit market," Resources, Conservation & Recycling, Elsevier, vol. 118(C), pages 47-59.
    5. repec:gat:wpaper:1509 is not listed on IDEAS
    6. Rodríguez-Ortega, T. & Olaizola, A.M. & Bernués, A., 2018. "A novel management-based system of payments for ecosystem services for targeted agri-environmental policy," Ecosystem Services, Elsevier, vol. 34(PA), pages 74-84.
    7. Frank, Alejandro Germán & Gerstlberger, Wolfgang & Paslauski, Carolline Amaral & Lerman, Laura Visintainer & Ayala, Néstor Fabián, 2018. "The contribution of innovation policy criteria to the development of local renewable energy systems," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 115(C), pages 353-365.
    8. Desbureaux, Sébastien & Brimont, Laura, 2015. "Between economic loss and social identity: The multi-dimensional cost of avoiding deforestation in Eastern Madagascar," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 118(C), pages 10-20.
    9. Dieter Schmidtchen & Jenny Helstroffer & Christian Koboldt, 2021. "Regulatory failure and the polluter pays principle: why regulatory impact assessment dominates the polluter pays principle," Environmental Economics and Policy Studies, Springer;Society for Environmental Economics and Policy Studies - SEEPS, vol. 23(1), pages 109-144, January.
    10. Yu, Bing & Xu, Linyu, 2016. "Review of ecological compensation in hydropower development," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 729-738.
    11. Bennett, Drew E. & Gosnell, Hannah & Lurie, Susan & Duncan, Sally, 2014. "Utility engagement with payments for watershed services in the United States," Ecosystem Services, Elsevier, vol. 8(C), pages 56-64.
    12. Kosoy, Nicolás & Corbera, Esteve, 2010. "Payments for ecosystem services as commodity fetishism," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(6), pages 1228-1236, April.
    13. Beichen Ge & Congjin Wang & Yuhong Song, 2023. "Ecosystem Services Research in Rural Areas: A Systematic Review Based on Bibliometric Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(6), pages 1-18, March.
    14. Torres-Brito, David Israel & Cruz-Aké, Salvador & Venegas-Martínez, Francisco, 2023. "Impacto de los contaminantes por gases de efecto invernadero en el crecimiento económico en 86 países (1990-2019): Sobre la curva inversa de Kuznets [Impact of the Effect of Greenhouse Gas Pollutan," MPRA Paper 119031, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    15. Duran Fiack & Sheldon Kamieniecki, 2017. "Stakeholder engagement in climate change policymaking in American cities," Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, Springer;Association of Environmental Studies and Sciences, vol. 7(1), pages 127-140, March.
    16. Trædal, Leif Tore & Vedeld, Pål Olav & Pétursson, Jón Geir, 2016. "Analyzing the transformations of forest PES in Vietnam: Implications for REDD+," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 109-117.
    17. Krause, Rachel M., 2012. "The impact of municipal governments' renewable electricity use on greenhouse gas emissions in the United States," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 246-253.
    18. Lima, Letícia Santos de & Ramos Barón, Pablo Andres & Villamayor-Tomas, Sergio & Krueger, Tobias, 2019. "Will PES Schemes Survive in the Long-term Without Evidence of Their Effectiveness? Exploring Four Water-related Cases in Colombia," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 156(C), pages 211-223.
    19. Batabyal, Amittrajeet A., 1996. "An agenda for the design and study of international environmental agreements," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 19(1), pages 3-9, October.
    20. Börner, Jan & Wunder, Sven & Wertz-Kanounnikoff, Sheila & Tito, Marcos Rügnitz & Pereira, Ligia & Nascimento, Nathalia, 2010. "Direct conservation payments in the Brazilian Amazon: Scope and equity implications," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(6), pages 1272-1282, April.
    21. Jens Koehrsen, 2017. "Boundary Bridging Arrangements: A Boundary Work Approach to Local Energy Transitions," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(3), pages 1-23, March.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:endesu:v:21:y:2019:i:1:d:10.1007_s10668-017-0044-4. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.