Nearly twenty years after Cornell Law School and the Thai Bar established a program in honor of Her Royal Highness Princess Bajrakitiyabha Mahidol, LL.M. ’02, J.S.D. ’05, representatives of Cornell and Thailand’s legal institutions gathered in Myron Taylor Hall on September 1 to renew the partnership and pay tribute to the Princess, who died in June at age forty-seven.

Jens David Ohlin, the Allan R. Tessler Dean and Professor of Law, presided over the signing ceremony and memorial tribute. “Among our international relationships, our connection with Thailand holds a special place,” Ohlin said. “Maintaining and strengthening this strategic partnership is one of the priorities of my deanship, and today’s ceremony marks another important step in that shared journey.”

Cornell President Michael I. Kotlikoff welcomed the delegation as Cornell Law School, the Thai Bar, and the Thailand Institute of Justice signed their fifth memorandum of agreement, ensuring the continuation of the Bajrakitiyabha Fund for Legal Education. The fund provides full financial support for an outstanding Thai legal professional to pursue an LL.M. at Cornell each year and supports academic exchange between Cornell and Thailand. Eighteen scholars have completed LL.M. degrees through the program.

For the Honorable Chief Justice Adisak Tantiwong, president of the Supreme Court of Thailand and president of the Thai Bar, the renewal carried meaning beyond its formal terms. “A memorandum speaks in the language of terms, obligations, and signatures,” he said. “But for the Thai Bar, what we sign today is much more than a legal document. It is a promise between institutions, between countries, and between generations.”

The fund originated in conversations between Stewart J. Schwab, dean of Cornell Law School from 2004 to 2014, and Kittipong Kittayarak, LL.M. ’83, now chairman of the Thailand Institute of Justice board. It was formally established in Bangkok in January 2007 and subsequently renewed in 2012, 2017, and 2021. Its graduates have returned to Thailand to serve as judges, prosecutors, diplomats, practitioners, academics, and public officials.

The memorial highlighted Princess Bajrakitiyabha’s work as a prosecutor, diplomat, and advocate for incarcerated women. Her efforts helped lead to the United Nations General Assembly’s 2010 adoption of the Bangkok Rules, which address the particular needs of women prisoners and women offenders.

The fund’s continuing impact was evident during the delegation’s visit. On August 31, Napakamol Havanond Sawangchaeng, LL.M. ’16, Judge of the Office of the President of the Supreme Court and Coordinator of the Bajrakitiyabha Fund for Legal Education, discussed Thailand’s use of technology to make its courts more accessible. She described initiatives supporting domestic-violence survivors and self-represented litigants while emphasizing that paper services must remain available to those unable to use digital systems.

“We don’t want to be just high-tech, we want to be high touch,” Havanond said. “We must leave no one behind.”

Kittipong closed the memorial by reflecting on the Princess’s enduring influence: “Her Royal Highness came to Cornell to study justice. She left Cornell to enlarge it.”