Publications

Rule of Law curriculum

 The "Foundations in Rule of Law" training course for Myanmar lawyers, and community representatives, uses participatory and interactive methods. This ten-day training course provides participants with the knowledge, skills, and values needed to provide public legal awareness and human rights in their work, and a basic grounding in legal professional knowledge.  The innovative interactive and participatory methodology and the demonstrated impact of the training for past participants was highlighted in a Myanmar Times feature article: “Desert Island Debates inside Mandalay’s Rule of Law Centre”.

The Foundation Course has been modified to engage additional beneficiaries. This includes “Mobile Trainings” for rural communities and ethnic minority groups, “Legal Service Provider Workshops” for law students and lawyers, Trainer of Trainers, and most recently governmental justice actors such as prosecutors (law officers) and local administrative officials.

criminal defense practice manual 

The Myanmar Criminal Defense Practice Manual provides practical analysis and advice for criminal defense lawyers in Myanmar to provide a robust defense on behalf of their clients. The Manual is part of an ongoing effort to build the capacity of legal professionals to defend the rights of the accused, create a fairer criminal justice system, and expand access to justice. The first of its kind, the manual is available in both Burmese and English editions allowing for cooperation between Myanmar lawyers, regional lawyers and international experts.  The Manual integrates Myanmar law and practice with international standards and a focus on the role of the defense attorney, starting with the need to provide early representation and make bail arguments, following the path of the case from investigation to appeal, and then a special emphasis on evidentiary issues.  Attention is paid to the needs of special populations: (1) juveniles; (2) women; (3) lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) individuals; (4) people with mental illness; and (5) drug users.  

In the Absence of the Rule of Law: Everyday Lawyering, Dignity and Resistance in Myanmar’s ‘Disciplined Democracy’

Batesmith, A. & Stevens, J. 

October 29, 2018, Social & Legal Studies (UK)

This article explores how ‘everyday’ lawyers undertaking routine criminal defence cases navigate an authoritarian legal system. Based on original fieldwork in the ‘disciplined democracy’ of Myanmar, the article examines how hegemonic state power and a functional absence of the rule of law have created a culture of passivity among ordinary practitioners. ‘Everyday’ lawyers are nevertheless able to uphold their clients’ dignity by practical and material support for the individual human experience – and in so doing, subtly resist, evade or disrupt state power. The article draws upon the literature on the sociology of lawyering and resistance, arguing for a multilayered understanding of dignity going beyond lawyers’ contributions to their clients’ legal autonomy. Focusing on dignity provides an alternative perspective to the otherwise often all-consuming rule of law discourse. In authoritarian legal systems, enhancing their clients’ dignity beyond legal autonomy may be the only meaningful contribution that ‘everyday’ lawyers can make.