Law change urged to unclog courts

By The Nation

 

The Council of State is considering proposing that the Cabinet move some criminal penalties to administrative jurisdiction due to an overabundance of laws and prison overcrowding.

 

The excessive number of laws undermines their importance, resulting in disrespect for the law, cases flooding the courts and overcrowding in prisons, Pokpong Srisanit, a member of the panel revising the criminal code, said at a public seminar on the principles on prescribing punishments in legislation on Wednesday.

 

The new Constitution, however, has opened a way to resolve those issues. Pokpong said that Article 77 stipulates that only severe cases should be regarded as criminal offences.

 

Hence, the Council of State panel is reviewing legislation in the criminal code, with the view to recommending that the Cabinet prescribe administrative penalties for minor offences, such as the violation of intellectual property law or wrongdoings regarding the illegal issuance of cheques, Pokpong said.

 

Any change would require new legislation, he added.

 

Pratan Wattanawanich, another legislator, pointed out the problem of an overabundance of laws and the lack of knowledge about administrative penalties even among officials.

 

In addition, the principles underpinning such penalties remained debatable, he said. So, most of the time, criminal penalties came out on top, Pratan explained.

 

“What makes this difficult is that if we propose to change some [offences] to administrative penalties, some officials may not get it,” he said. “Even as members of the Council of State we do not cover such principles. As a result, Thailand is full of criminal penalties.”

 

Article 77 of the new Constitution is an important step to bring about change to this, Pratan said.

 

Surasak Likasitwattanakul, another legislator sitting in the panel reviewing criminal legislation, said that a certain definition would be needed for the term “severe cases” to determine which offences would be penalised or not under which law.

 

Currently, there were no clear standards to determine which offences were criminal, he said.

 

The legislator proposed that what should be taken into consideration was whether or not the act impacted public interests and society at large. This would be based on the spirit of the law, the period of the legislation and the legal process.

 

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/breakingnews/30326609

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2017-9-13

Computer Crimes Act

 

Right now this law makes it impossible for the country to move forward as it allows those who are corrupt and dishonest to hide behind this draconian law and stop people being reported for the illegal things they do.

 

All they have to do is stop this law being a criminal act and make it a civil act where those who are corrupt and dishonest can be named and shamed. This would also give the Police more time to work on real crimes and even driving offenses instead of having to spend so much time and money helping the corrupt and dishonest.

 

The corrupt and dishonest could still take their cases to court, but pay for the costs of doing so. But they would not as then they would end up loosing face twice.

 

Over 50.000 CCA case now on going.

 

Come on Thailand join the 21st century and drop the current CCA, if you do not the rest of the world will in time not deal with you as you will not be trusted, that is why so many now do not visit on holiday, but many of those who do are con artists.

Edited September 13, 20178 yr by wakeupplease

33 minutes ago, snoop1130 said:

The excessive number of laws undermines their importance

and so do the people who are supposed to enforce them but don't. Can have as many laws as you like, but if you don't act on them they're meaningless.

 

Just get rid of the silly laws that are upheld so often. Like defamation and the computer crimes one where some idiot goes to the police to complain someone online called them a 'water lizard'. 

Computer Crimes Act
 
Right now this law makes it impossible for the country to move forward as it allows those who are corrupt and dishonest to hide behind this draconian law and stop people being reported for the illegal things they do.
 
All they have to do is stop this law being a criminal act and make it a civil act where those who are corrupt and dishonest can be named and shamed. This would also give the Police more time to work on real crimes and even driving offenses instead of having to spend so much time and money helping the corrupt and dishonest.
 
The corrupt and dishonest could still take their cases to court, but pay for the costs of doing so. But they would not as then they would end up loosing face twice.
 
Over 50.000 CCA case now on going.
 
Come on Thailand join the 21st century and drop the current CCA, if you do not the rest of the world will in time not deal with you as you will not be trusted, that is why so many now do not visit on holiday, but many of those who do are con artists.

"..Police more time to work on real crimes and even driving offenses.."

Just because they would have more time does not mean they would suddenly WANT to do what you suggest. Come on, wakeup people, lack of time is not what holds the BiB back from doing their jobs.

1 minute ago, SABloke said:

 

"..Police more time to work on real crimes and even driving offenses.."

Just because they would have more time does not mean they would suddenly WANT to do what you suggest. Come on, wakeup people, lack of time is not what holds the BiB back from doing their jobs.

You know that and I know that but trying to be nice, but you never know it might help and they might get bored talking to Hiso and crims and just want to get out of the office, I live in hope, but well its an idea, got to start somewhere, maybenot.

Considering that, according to articles I've previously read, that approximately 70% of the prison population are doing sentences based on 'drug related crime', perhaps it's time to stop tossing users into jails and focus on traffickers, meth labs, and heroin labs..  Refer users of hard drugs (heroin, meth, crack) to medical intervention, and simply stop trying to control the use of kratom, pot, and mushrooms.  It's impossible and all it does is to ruin the lives of people based on a 'morality crime.'  
Kratom, pot, mushrooms, alcohol: all can be abused; all can be used responsibly. 
If you're going to make one illegal, make them all illegal including alcohol. 
If you're going to make one legal, make them all legal.  This is simply prohibition 4.0.

 

Instead, they talk about decriminalizing white collar crime.  Now, that's the way to tackle the corruption issue!  

Edited September 14, 20178 yr by connda

I'd think having less than a metric ton of Khartoum leaves should be a misdemeanor. Now stuffing a bunch in your mouth and then spitting on the road or sidewalk or floor should be a double misdemeanor.