Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing Thai Criminal Law, this is more of a comparative Law piece. We are just going to be touching the broad strokes of Common Law, Criminal Law notions up against sort of the Thai Law, like procedures and how they differ. 

Now let me be clear, I am not a Thai Attorney, I am an American trained Attorney. I am a Thai National; I am a naturalized Thai citizen, I am the Managing Director of this firm. I have made this video after review with the Thai Attorneys here in the firm. This is for informational purposes only, this is not a legal opinion. For those who are looking for legal advice they need to get it from a legal professional here in Thailand based on their own personal set of circumstances. Long story short, what are we getting at when we are talking about this? Well there are major differences in the way Thai Criminal Law works as opposed to Western Criminal Law or I should say let's call it American Criminal Law for this context but I am talking about this much more in a Common Law context.

One of the big ones is the notion of a right to an Attorney. Now here in Thailand, you do have it right to an Attorney if you are accused of something but there are oftentimes circumstances where fact finding is being undertaken and one may not necessarily have a right to counsel if one is simply being questioned in the capacity of a witness for example. Now there is overlap and this can get murky where one might be a witness to something and then later on down the road, they might end up being charged with something. For this reason, you may want to be careful in what you do in Thailand but very careful in dealing with Thai Law enforcement because again rules regarding right to counsel are a little bit different here. Another big difference between Thailand and for example the American Common Law tradition with respect to Criminal Law as well as the wider Common Law tradition with respect to Criminal Law, a big one here is Thailand does not utilize juries in the same way that the Common Law jurisdictions do. Generally speaking, in major criminal matters there is going to be a tribunal of judges. Yes that is an appellate process, yes there is due process in Thailand but it is different and a major, major difference associated with Thai Criminal Law is the lack of jury usage when undertaking criminal trials. Another thing to think about, another thing to keep in mind when discussing Criminal Law here in Thailand is the issue of private criminal actions. Again very different from the Common Law tradition where it is the state or the commonwealth or the people versus a given individual acting as defendant. In Thailand, it may be possible to initiate a criminal lawsuit as a personal matter against another person, in a personal context. Very, very dissimilar from the way in which this would work in again American Common Law tradition or sort of the broader sort of Common Law tradition, the sort of British Common Law tradition. 

So again different; very, very different. All of these differences can have major ramifications if one is being accused of a crime so if you are sitting there and you are worried about your interaction with the Thai Justice System, it may be a good idea to contact a legal professional, gain some insight and guidance into how best to proceed.