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Zusatztext Constitutional Bricolage offers a comprehensive understanding of Thai constitutional history through contextual legal studies. Informationen zum Autor Eugénie Mérieau is Associate Professor of Public Law at the University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, France, and a member of the Institute of Legal and Philosophical Sciences of the Sorbonne (ISJPS). She is also Academic Fellow of the Centre for Asian Legal Studies at the National University of Singapore.Critical and innovative account of the unique Thai constitutional model Zusammenfassung This book analyses the unique constitutional system in operation in Thailand as a continuous process of bricolage between various Western constitutional models and Buddhist doctrines of Kingship. Reflecting on the category of 'constitutional monarchy’ and its relationship with notions of the rule of law, it investigates the hybridised semi-authoritarian, semi-liberal monarchy that exists in Thailand. By studying constitutional texts and political practices in light of local legal doctrine, the book shows that the monarch's affirmation of extraordinary prerogative powers strongly rests on wider doctrinal claims about constitutionalism and the rule of law. This finding challenges commonly accepted assertions about Thailand, arguing that the King's political role is not the remnant of the 'unfinished' borrowing of Western constitutionalism, general disregard for the law, or cultural preference for 'charismatic authority', as generally thought. Drawing on materials and sources not previously available in English, this important work provides a comprehensive and critical account of the Thai ‘mixed constitutional monarchy’ from the late 19th century to the present day. Inhaltsverzeichnis 1. Introduction: Is Thailand a Constitutional Monarchy? I. The Purpose and General Argument of the Book: Why the Thai Constitution Matters II. The Issue of Royal Prerogatives in a Constitutional Monarchy: Text, Conventions and Doctrines III. Sacred Monarchy vs. the Rule of Law: The Interplay of Law and Religion Mediated through Kingship IV. Constitutional Bricolage: The Indeterminacy of Legal Transplants and their Political Re-assignments V. Outline of the Chapters PART I IMPORTING THE MODERN CONSTITUTION 2. Siam’s First Constitutions: The Rise and Fall of the Sacred Monarchy I. The Hindu-Khmer Origins of the Traditional Constitution II. The 1889, 1926 and 1932 Draft Constitutions: The Bonapartist and British Tropes III. The 1932 Constitutions: The Soviet/Chinese and Prussian/Japanese Influences 3. Legal Positivism and Buddhist Kingship: Establishing the King as the Source of the Constitution I. Hindu-Buddhist Theories: The Devaraja and Dharmaraja Kings II. The European Influence: Importing Doctrines of Royal Absolutism III. From the European Doctrine of ‘Royal Octroy’ to the King’s Granted Rattathammanun 4. From the Sacred Monarchy to the Sacred Constitution I. Royal Despotism, Theocracy and Sacred Law II. Royal Reforms: The Westernisation of Law and Kingship III. Royal Vetoes and Amnesties versus the Sacred Constitution PART II IMPORTING THE STATE OF EMERGENCY 5. Thailand’s Cold War Constitutions: Constitutions for the Military I. The 1947–1949 Constitutions: The Royalist Restoration and the Rejection of the British ModelII. The 1959, 1968 and 1972 Constitutions: Military Dictatorship and the Gaullist Inspiration III. The 1974–1991 Constitutions: The US Influence on Military Dictatorship under Royal Command? 6. Revolutionary Legality and Buddhist Kingship: Theorising the King’s Extra-Constitutional Powers in Times of Crisis I. From Kelsen’s Revolutionary Legality to Thai-Style Democracy II. From Bagehot’s Three Conventional Powers of the Monarch to the Invention of Thai Constitutional CustomsIII. Revolutionary Legality Revised: The Doctrine of Shared Sovereignty between the K...
