LL.B. (Magna Cum Laude)/ LL.M.(Chulalongkorn). ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2282-4153. I am grateful to Frederick Ceely, Jantree Sinsuppraroek, Duangden Nakseeharach and anonymous reviewers for their careful reading of my manuscript and their insightful comments and suggestions for improving this article. I have greatly benefited from Panwara Permpoon for her research assistance. The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author's and do not necessarily reflect the official positions or policies of his affiliated institutions.
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) presents varieties of questions concerning not only international law, but also the domestic laws of states affected by this global pandemic. One of legal issues amid COVID-19 pandemic is the state immunity principle. There have been many lawsuits against foreign state challenging the state immunity principle amid the COVID-19 pandemic. In Thailand, the Chiangmai Provincial Court (court) addressed in its judgment that it did not have jurisdiction to adjudicate the compensation for COVID-19 pandemic's damages dispute between Thai restaurant owner and the United States (US). Notwithstanding surrounding controversies over COVID-19 pandemic, the court considered the motion denied. The main implication of the judgment is that Thailand accepted state immunity principle under customary international law. This research briefly explains the sovereign immunity doctrine relating to this case, summarizes the facts and analyses the potential ramifications of this judgement under international law.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.