Mediation in Administrative Disputes: A Comparative Analysis of Principles and Practices in English and Thai Legal Systems

Abstract

The amendment of the Act on Establishment of Administrative Courts and Administrative Court Procedure B.E. 2542 (1999) in 2019, along with the subsequent promulgation of the Rule of the General Assembly of Judges of the Supreme Administrative Court on Administrative Dispute Mediation B.E. 2562 (2019), allows parties to an administrative case to settle the dispute through mediation instead of a court trial. Given that mediation in the context of administrative disputes is relatively new in the Thai legal system, it may not yet be entirely clear how mediation can effectively and efficiently assist the resolution of administrative disputes. This article, therefore, intends to comparatively study administrative dispute mediation in the English legal system and demonstrate the experiences of England which has encouraged parties to use mediation to resolve administrative disputes for more than 20 years. In doing so, this article seeks to determine the practices and principles of administrative dispute mediation in the English legal system, whether mediation can be used to effectively resolve administrative disputes involving the exercise of administrative power, how it benefits the parties, and the key differences as well as interesting aspects between administrative dispute mediation in the English and the Thai legal systems. This will be beneficial for the development of administrative dispute mediation in Thailand and will ultimately promote the greater use of mediation to resolve administrative disputes.