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A Constitutional Ethnography of Monarchy: Buddhist Kingship, “Granted Constitutionalism,” and Royal State Ceremonies in Thailand

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 November 2022

Eugénie Mérieau
Eugénie Mérieau*
Affiliation:
Faculty of Law, University of Paris 1, Panthéon-Sorbonne, Paris
*
E-mail: eugenie.merieau@sciencespo.fr
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Abstract

This paper defines constitutional ethnography as the cultural study of constitutionalism through its symbolic representations. By focusing on the materiality of constitutionalism as embodied in various state ceremonies such as ceremonies of “royal octroy” (constitution-granting ceremonies) as well as in state monuments honouring the Constitution, it strives to offer an ethnography of a polity’s constitutional identity. In this paper, I argue that in Thailand, Westernized Hindu-Buddhist state ceremonies and monuments using Westernized Hindu-Buddhist symbolism represent the Thai monarch as the ultimate law-giver holding permanent “constituent power” and therefore yielding extra-constitutional customary powers pre-existing the Constitution. This representation, in turn, informs Thai constitutional identity as defined incrementally by courts and jurists since the early twentieth century, which in turn informs present Thai constitutional interpretation. Therefore, this paper argues that the study of state ceremonies can be a useful entry point into the analysis of a “constitutional culture” shaping modes of constitutional interpretation.

Keywords

ThailandmonarchyBuddhist kingshipstate ceremoniesconstitutional ethnographyconstitutional culture
Type
Monarchy and Society in Asia
Information
Asian Journal of Law and Society , Volume 9 , Issue 3 , October 2022 , pp. 363 - 381
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Asian Journal of Law and Society

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