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Procedure Act B.E. 2539 (1996). This case demonstrates the interaction between
the central administrative branch of the government (through the centrally

appointed provincial governor) and an agent of a local authority (i.e. a member of
a municipal council, directly elected by the people in the community).

It should be evident by now that the Thai administrative procedure law
possesses a dual personality that is necessary to support the public administration

from the central structure at the top of the hierarchy to the local entities on the
periphery. The administrative procedural law manages the sharing of State powers

by restricting those that have potential adverse effects on individual rights and
civil liberties. It provides a procedural threshold binding all administrative actions

initiated by any government agent, except when superseded by a specific law in a
given case. The fact that the administrative law framework governs the official’s

actions across all branches of the public administration means that it is more
accessible and less costly for the people to equip themselves with the necessary

knowledge in order to protect their rights and liberties against wrongful actions
by government officials. As a result, the mirrored aspect of the duality of the

administrative law is that it helps protect individual rights and civil liberties,
primarily through offering certain privileges to the non-government party in an

administrative dispute, such as the rights to legal counsel, to speedy and fair
treatment by state officials, to inspect and dispute the evidence, and to appeal

the administrative order to the Administrative Court, to name just a few. Any
administrative act must comply with these procedural rights and privileges. Failure

to do so could lead to such act being annulled and the injured individual being
compensated. The administrative law principle reflects the liberal democratic value

first introduced in the People’s Constitution in 1997 and has remained at the core of
every constitutional iteration ever since, regardless of the political circumstances

that gave rise to each subsequent version of the Constitution.

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