Trafficking in Law: Cause Lawyer, Bureaucratic State, and the Rights of Human Trafficking Victims in Thailand

Abstract

In this case study of a young, Thai ‘cause lawyer,’ advocacy for human rights is considered in context. The most important elements of that context are the path of development of Thai political and legal institutions, globalizations of law, and the networks of relationships which penetrate the state itself. The case study shows that human rights advocacy by NGO lawyers can adapt creatively to unpromising conditions where courts provide little access or oversight. At the same time, the case study raises profound questions about the ultimate independence of cause lawyers where the state must be made a partner as well as an adversary in order to establish the the authority of law needed to make human rights advocacy possible. The ambiguity of the lawyer’s position is apparent from the relative ineffectiveness of her interventions and her growing moral authority on behalf of best practices under law. Her position suggests the limitations on law imposed by the underpinnings of the Thai state itself.