ABSTRACT

The objectives of this research are : to study the concepts and approaches in resolving disputes in Vinaya Pitaka, to study the concepts and approaches in resolving disputes of the Thai administrative court and to provide recommendations regarding the application of Buddhist approaches in resolving disputes as reflected in            Vinaya Pitaka with the dispute resolution of the Thai administrative court.

The study found that : There was no trace of conflicts or disputes among the community of monks at the earlier stage. After the community of monks  expanded and more people and groups became involved with the Buddhist structure, the variety in the society and the interaction among members of the society led to the conflicts among members of the society. The Lord Buddha thus stipulated           the Dharma-Vinaya to provide guidelines on living together of members in the community of monks and to set out the approaches for resolving the disputes of monks called Adhikarasamatha, which consists of 7 measures as follows 1) Resolving the dispute with the presence of all involved 2) Resolving the dispute by the verdict of innocence  3) Resolving the dispute by giving the benefit while having an unsound mind                4) Resolving the dispute by taking the defendant’s acceptance 5) Resolving                the dispute by using the majority vote 6) Resolving the dispute by punishing              the wrong doer 7) Resolving the dispute by compromise

These 7 approaches of conflict management are used to resolve disputes of monks in order to sustain the peace of monastery group and to enable                 the community of monks to move on as usual.

The administrative court is the entity which exercises judicial power               in order to examine the legality of the administration of state agencies. It has              the mandate in resolving disputes between state agencies/state officials and private individual or between state agencies or state officials themselves. Such disputes stem from the administrative activities of state agencies or state officials. With regard to the dispute resolution of the administrative court, the inquisitorial procedure            is used by the judges in charge of the case. The administrative court officials play an important role in finding the facts of the disputed cases. Moreover, the judges          in charge of declaring the case will provide the opinion on the case independently           in order to balance with the opinion of the panel of judges adjudicating the case.

The Buddhist approaches of conflict resolution in Vinaya Pitaka can be applied with the conflict resolution of the administrative court as appropriate.            This can be applied in a way to support the procedure of the administrative court to protect the conflicting parties who are good persons; to facilitate the conflicting parties to become involved with conflict resolution to jointly find the satisfactory resolution to end the dispute; to increase awareness of the state agencies to be responsible in the administrative acts; and to create confidence of people                   by maintaining the quality of judgments to be reliable by the public. Furthermore,           the provision of administrative justice must be prompt and solving the problem of pending cases without the judgments. Moreover, it should be improved that people should understand more on the roles and mandates of the administrative court by enhancing the efficiency of the public relation in different ways. This can be done         so as to enable people to have correct understanding for the benefit of people           who are service recipients of the administrative court. The last point that should be pushed forward is the establishment of internal sector to mediate the disputes             in order to have the systematic and sustainable compromise procedure.