Sections 56 and 58 do not mention the word “public participation”. However, the concept of participation and access to information are central in both documents. The right of a person instead of the public has an important legal implication. In order to assert his or her right to participate, the individual does not need to be a member of any legally recognized entity. He can act on his own behalf. In other words, the concept of the public is organically present in those sections of the Thai Constitution, but its content can be expressed in the terms of an aggregate of all interested persons. The public includes all those persons who may participate in the protection, promotion and preservation of the quality of the environment. The circle of such persons is not determined, and cannot be determined in advance. It will include anyone whose interests are at stake when making decisions in environmental issues, and because of the nature of such issues, it has the potential to include everyone.

This indeterminacy of the circle of interested persons poses a significant problem for law as well as administrative and judicial processes in environmental cases. If it were only about the rights to participate, the problem would not be of concern. In law, if the right (to participate) is not asserted then the corresponding duty (to provide such participation) can not be enforced. the basic principle, which gets its powerful grip on environmental issues, is that the public and every concerned person has a duty to protect the environment. At the same time, the State has a duty to encourage and facilitate such participation.

Thai folk wisdom does not sharply separate a right and a duty as law does. The idea that the exercise of one’s owned right can be a duty was presented in a number of folktales commented on in the book Thai Folktales and Law(8). For example, in the stories of Phigunthong and Twelve Women the son or sons of the victims had not only the right to seek redress, but also a moral duty to do that. Environmental law has the following implication: environmental issues are of such nature that the right of the public is not confronted by a duty of the State, but the duty of the public to participate is conditioned by the duty of the State to make such participation easy and effective. The basis of the individual’s obligation to protect his or her environment can be inferred not only from positive law, but also from the folk moral idea of personal and social responsibility which springs from the nature of the individual and society.

Part 5

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(8) Shytov A. Thai Folktales and Law. Chiang Mai, Acts: 2004.