Community Right and Management System for Check Dams : A Comparatives Study of Law and Mung-Rai Code

ABSTRACT

 

Management System for Check Dams specified in Mung-Rai Code was simultaneous developed with the argricultural society of Lanna people who resided on the law allurial plain of the valleys in order to carry water for agriculture. Until the era of King Mung-Rai who built the City of Chiang Mai, the understanding of the Management System for Check Dams was (elevated/upgraded) to be the Knowledge of the Kingdom and promulgated in the Mung-Rai Code which consisted of culture, custom and knowledge of the Management System for Check Dams. At present the Mung-Rai Code is still believed in and continuously implemented in a contrary form of Check Dams contract due to the fact that Mung-Rai Code is no longer in its enforcement condition.

                        At present, it is formed that the laws applied by the state in managing the natural resources create the effects on the Management System for Check Dams, including the laws pertaining to forest and waster resource both in the case of materials used in construction and in the case of the overlapping authority of the organizational hierarchical positions within the Management System for Check Dams which are (regarded/considered) crucially important for conservation of the way of life and the folk wisdom that have long been proceeded.

            The research focused on studying the Mung-Rai Code and the Management System for Check Dams which have been based upon the community’s way of life consistent with the philosophy of community right enacted in the constitution by way of considering the philosophy therein in order to analyse and find the correlation between the Mung-Rai Code and the Management System for Check Dams so that the community will have the right to conserve and revive their custom and tradition, folk wisdom, prestigious art or culture and participate in the management and preservation of natural resources and environment.

            This research is a documentational research that comprised the study of statutory provisions, books, text books, articles, research documents, theses and important historical documents, together with the analysis and synthesis of data related to the philosophy of the Management System for Check Dams.

            In the Mung-Rai Code and the Management System for Check Dams appeared the factual information that had the connection to customary philosophy which was the foundation of the ideology of community right, and that the fact about the Management System for Check Dams is not the obstacle to the preservation of natural resources and environment according to the laws about forest and water resource. Thus, the Management System for Check Dams should be given the recommendation and prevention from the State, as the management is community right.

            As the Management System for Check Dams is the folk’s way of life, and community accepts the sustainment of the check dams which exists through the signing of Check Dam Contract which is used to enforce one another. Hence, there should be a law that stipulates the essentials of Check Dam Contract, and prescribes that any activity procedures needs to be the cooperation between state and community and consistent with the Principle of Participation enacted in the Constitution and the support the preservation or the rehabilitation of their custom, local wisdom, prestigious art and culture. Additionally, there should be a stipulation of the utilization of natural resources in equilibrium and sustainable ways because Check Dams Contract comes from the custom of using water that is consistent with the needs and benefit of the public.