Student activists campaign against judges at Thai universities

Student activists at Thammasat and Chulalongkorn universities launched campaigns targeting two Constitutional Court judges who also serve as guest lecturers at their institutions. This action follows the court’s recent ruling that led to the disbandment of the Move Forward Party (MFP).

Thammasat University Student Council Rangsit Campus and the committee of students from the Faculty of Law posted an open letter on Facebook on Saturday, August 10, urging law students to sign a petition to have Udom Rathamarit, a Constitutional Court judge, removed as a special lecturer.

These student groups accused the judge of failing to set a good example and embarrassing the legal community with his interpretation of the constitution in the MFP ruling, which they claim did not align with his teachings.

The groups plan to submit the collected signatures to the dean of Thammasat’s Faculty of Law tomorrow.

At Chulalongkorn University, the Student Council has invited Jiraniti Havanon, another Constitutional Court judge and special lecturer for Chulalongkorn’s Faculty of Law, to a meeting to discuss the controversial ruling. Scheduled for 1pm tomorrow, August 14, the meeting will be broadcast live on the council’s Facebook page, allowing anyone to watch and ask questions.

The council’s invitation expressed concerns that the Constitutional Court judges did not adequately address the Election Commission’s (EC) failure to follow proper court-mandated procedures. They also accused the judges of not adhering to the core principle that party dissolution should be a measure of last resort.

Education standards

In their statement, the student council argued that the ruling violated the principles of the Legal State and the Rule of Law, potentially harming the education standards for current and future law students at Chulalongkorn.

Nakarin Mektrairat, President of the Constitutional Court, declined to comment on the students’ actions against the court’s judges on Monday. He also refrained from commenting on the court’s anticipated ruling regarding Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin’s fate, expected tomorrow.

In a related incident, Warner Music Thailand issued a public apology on Sunday night for a post that appeared on its official Facebook page the previous day. The post featured a doctored image of the Constitutional Court judges with portraits of the King and King Rama IX in the background, which was deemed inappropriate and potentially contemptuous of the court, as well as a violation of the lese majeste law, reported Bangkok Post

Following a social media backlash, the doctored image was replaced with an apology note. Warner Music Thailand stated that the employee responsible for creating and posting the image did so without permission and would face a disciplinary hearing for actions that contravened the company’s rules and professional standards.