Revisiting Distributive Justice and Justiciability of Social and Economic Rights in Thailand

In the context of the need to reform the country in 2010, social justice research in Thailand became to flourish across social science discipline, including sociology, political science, economics and laws. Nevertheless, the requirement of immediate policy recommendations had restrained theoretical research and policy research were constructed on justice concepts, which were seldom deliberated. Besides, most of researches contributed to states of economic and social inequality and social injustice causes more than social justice resolutions, especially which based on social and economic rights conceptions. This paper explores social justice concept among young Thai researchers through multidisciplinary lens and looking for the justiciability of social and economic rights. Ten young researchers, from various universities and various disciplines including political economics, economics, anthropology, sociology, social science, political science and laws are invited to co-learn and share knowledge from their own perspectives. Field trips to visit marginalized people, meetings with social work leaders, dialogue with senior researchers and among themselves are organized. Five of them generate academic papers, which are consulted by a senior research judge and peer-reviewed by three senior researchers for publication purpose. Their papers shed the light to spheres of justice they interested in, stakeholders of injustice they see, principle of justice they use. Additionally, social, legal and institutional mechanism toward resolutions, which are introduced by them, demonstrate an approach to justiciability of social and economic rights from multidisciplinary lens as well. However, this study requires more insight about procedural justice, especially in the recent authoritarian era, in which social justice became development agenda but without participation from civil society. More research papers from law, political science and social psychology perspectives are desirable.