Criminal Liability of COVID – 19 Transmission

Abstract

Thailand has a law that controls the spread of serious communicable diseases, namely the Communicable Diseases Act B.E. 2558. When considering the punishment, it was found that the punishment was still less severe compared to the severity and impact of COVID-19 infection and the application of punishment according to the Criminal Code for the offense of murder or the offense of bodily harm or the offense of negligence causing the death of others or the offense of negligence causing serious harm to others or the offense of negligence causing bodily harm to others or the offense of unlawful deprivation of liberty, there must be proof of the intent of the offense on a case by case. Therefore, it is difficult to bring the offender to justice.     The finding found that current laws are inadequate as a tool to reduce the spread of pathogens while foreign countries have specific laws to punish offenders for spreading serious diseases and have severe penalties because these pathogens affect most people. Therefore, Thailand should have specific laws to control and manage the spread of covid-19, including other serious contagious diseases that may occur in the future.