Opposing the Rule of Law
How Myanmar's Courts Make Law and Order

A striking new analysis of Myanmar's court system, revealing how the rule of law is 'lexically present but semantically absent'.

Nick Cheesman (Author)

9781107443761, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 28 May 2016

338 pages
23 x 15.3 x 1.8 cm, 0.5 kg

'Charting ideas and practices from British colonial rule through military dictatorship to the present day, [Cheesman] draws on political and legal theory to explain how and why institutions animated by a concern for law and order oppose the rule of law.' Law and Social Enquiry

The rule of law is a political ideal today endorsed and promoted worldwide. Or is it? In a significant contribution to the field, Nick Cheesman argues that Myanmar is a country in which the rule of law is 'lexically present but semantically absent'. Charting ideas and practices from British colonial rule through military dictatorship to the present day, Cheesman calls upon political and legal theory to explain how and why institutions animated by a concern for law and order oppose the rule of law. Empirically grounded in both Burmese and English sources, including criminal trial records and wide ranging official documents, Opposing the Rule of Law offers the first significant study of courts in contemporary Myanmar. It sheds new light on the politics of courts during dark times and sharply illuminates the tension between the demand for law and the imperatives of order.

Introduction
1. How law and order opposes the rule of law
2. Ordering law in the colony
3. Reordering law in the postcolony
4. Subsuming law to order
5. Embodying the law and order ideal
6. Performing order, making money
7. Through disorder, law and order
8. Speaking up for the rule of law
9. Against quietude
Glossary
Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: Law & society [LAQ], Law [L], Politics & government [JP], Asian history [HBJF]