Revised Thai Criminal Code Enacted

Date: January 1, 1957 • Location: Rome, Italy

The revised Thai criminal code came into force, strengthening the law on lèse-majesté in Thailand to include insult and treating it as a crime against national security.

In Thailand, lèse-majesté is a criminal offence under Section 112 of the Thai Criminal Code, which prohibits any act that defames, insults, or threatens the King, the Queen, the heir-apparent, or the Regent. The provision reflects the long-standing doctrine of the monarch's inviolability within Thai political culture. Modern lèse-majesté legislation has existed since 1908, first appearing in the Rattanakosin era's Criminal Code influenced by continental European legal systems. Thailand remains the only constitutional monarchy in the world that has strengthened, rather than liberalized, its lèse-majesté laws following World War II.