Disambiguation of the Text of Paragraph 2 of Section 68 of the Thai Constitution (2007): A Transformational Grammar Perspective

Abstract

Reading the statute of Paragraph 2 of Section 68 of the Thai Constitution (2007) reveals a controversy. The Thai Constitutional Court’s interpretation of the law allows for the submission of a motion in one of two ways: (1) through the Prosecutor General or (2) directly to the Constitutional Court. Many lawyers and university law scholars have interpreted that the submission of a motion can be made only through the Prosecutor General. This study was conducted to find a plausible interpretation of the law using a linguistic approach. Participants in interpreting the statute included 104 university lecturers, and the interpretations of the lecturers fell into three groups. The first group interpreted that a motion can be submitted directly to the Constitutional Court by passing the Prosecutor General. The second group supported the idea that submitting a motion shall be made only through the Prosecutor General. The third group interpreted that submitting a motion can be made through either of the two channels. Diagrams have been integrated into the reading of the statute to attest to the various views.

Keywords: Constitution, constitutional court, prosecutor general, interpretation, tree diagram