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Promiscuity, Polygyny, and the Power of Revenge: The Past and Future of Burmese Buddhist Law in Myanmar

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 February 2016

Melissa CROUCH
Melissa CROUCH*
Affiliation:
Law Faculty, University of New South Wales
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Abstract

Myanmar is the only Buddhism-majority country in the world that has developed and maintained a system of family law for Buddhists enforced by the courts. This article considers the construction of Burmese Buddhist law by lawyers, judges, and legislators, and the changes made through legislative intervention in 2015. It begins by addressing the creation and contestation of Burmese Buddhist law to demonstrate that it has largely been defined by men and by its perceived opposites, Hinduism and Islam. Three aspects of Burmese Buddhist law that affect women are then examined more closely. First, Burmese Buddhist law carries no penalties for men who commit adultery, although women may risk divorce and the loss of her property. Second, a man can take more than one wife under Burmese Buddhist law; a woman cannot. Third, restrictions on Buddhist women who marry non-Buddhist men operate to ensure the primacy of Burmese Buddhist law over the potential application of Islamic law. This article deconstructs the popular claim that women are better off under Burmese Buddhist law than under Hindu law or Islamic law by showing how Burmese Buddhist law has been preoccupied with regulating the position of women. The 2015 laws build on this history of Burmese Buddhist law, creating new problems, but also potentially operating as a new source of revenge.

Keywords

BurmaMyanmarBuddhist lawcourtsIslamwomenmarriagepolygynydivorcepersonal law
Type
Buddhism and Law
Information
Asian Journal of Law and Society , Volume 3 , Issue 1 , May 2016 , pp. 85 - 104
Copyright
© Cambridge University Press and KoGuan Law School, Shanghai Jiao Tong University 

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Footnotes

*

Lecturer, Law Faculty, University of New South Wales. I would like to thank Professor Daw Khin Phone Myint Kyi of the University of Yangon for our discussions on Myanmar Customary Law. I would also like to thank Tom Ginsburg and Benjamin Schonthal as editors, Nyi Nyi Kyaw, and the anonymous referees for their very useful comments on a previous draft. All errors remain my own. Correspondence to Melissa Crouch, The Law Building, UNSW, Sydney NSW 2052, Australia. E-mail address: [email protected].

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