Abstract
The study looks into six cases of health and environmental damage compensation in Thailand. The study aims to provide an economic foundation for determining the economic value of health and environmental damages to be compensated to the victims. These economic values will reflect the true opportunity cost of natural resource and environmental damage forgone hence will enable the court system to arrive at a more accurate value of compensation. Accuracy in court compensation will be achieved under three conditions, they are, accuracy in terms of the economic value of the damages, a complete coverage of items to be compensated and a complete list of both the liable parties involved and the concern beneficiaries to whom compensation is to be made. From the six cases the study found that 1) health and environmental litigation frequently lacks evidence that will provide linkages between the source of pollution and the health or environmental outcome, 2) legal processes are time consuming and involve substantial legal expenses that can become a burden to the low income families, 3) legal procedures rely heavily on concrete scientific evidence that can be difficult to obtain, 4) the Thai court system does not provide compensation when lack of concrete evidence, and 5) the amount of compensation often vary depending on court judgment.
From reviewing the five cases the study makes the following recommendations that will enhance health and environmental damage compensation of the Thai court system. First, the causes, both scientific and administrative, of environmental damages need to be carefully assessed. Second, the rights of the parties concerned have to be clearly specified. Third, court compensation should be based on sound economic valuation fundamentals. Forth, compensation scheme ought not involve double counting error. Fifth, compensation procedures ought to involve all the liable parties and all the rightful victims. Not only an increase in the accuracy of damage compensation will provide fairness to all the parties concern it will also play a role as incentives and disincentives mechanism and hence help promote sustainable development in Thailand.
