Lèse-majesté
The legal doctrine criminalising insult to the sovereign. In Thailand it is encoded in Criminal Code §112 and carries felony-grade sentences.
Lèse-majesté ("injured majesty") is a doctrine inherited from monarchical-era European law. Most democracies have either repealed their lèse-majesté statutes (Norway: 2015 defamation reform; Netherlands: 2020) or kept them purely symbolic. Thailand is the global outlier: §112 prosecutions have surged since November 2020, sentences stack per offending message, and bail is routinely denied. The 2024 WJP Rule of Law Index ranks Thailand 78th of 142 (score 0.50/1.00) — and the criminal-justice sub-factor is documented by the WJP as scoring "much lower" than its overall placement would suggest.
Sources
- §112 prosecution statistics — April 2024 update — Thai Lawyers for Human Rights, April 2024
- Thailand: lèse-majesté verdicts reach 100 in less than two years — FIDH, November 2023
- WJP Rule of Law Index 2024 — Thailand country profile — World Justice Project, October 2024