Legal Problems Concerning Liability for Wrongful Acts of Government Official

Abstract

The Act on Liabilty fow Wrongful Act of Official B.E. 2539 is in fact a substantive without specific procedural rule. It, therefore, entails consequent practical problems namely question of investigation, question of issuance of a compensation order which is an administrative order, question of appellate procedure and question of administrative enforcement. As for the question of appellate procedure, problems occur mainly because there is no specific rule of the appellate procedure. Regarding the question of administrative enforcement, problems have arisen due to the fact that the Administrative Procedure Act B.E. 2539 merely states that: ‘seizure and attachment of property and sale by auction are subject mutatis mutandis to Civil Procedure Code’. The Act fails to specify time period for the measures of administrative enforcement to be implemented and also does not state that the time period of judgment execution of Civil Procedure Code should be applied to the measures of administrative enforcement. Moreover, there is no central agency to conduct such administrative enforcement. As a result, the enforcement of the measures of administrative enforcement to the state officer is inefficient. Thus, the Tort Liability of State Officer Act and the Administrative Procedure Act should be improved in order to increase efficiency as well as a specific court should be established to cope with wrongful acts of government official.