Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jn8rn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-24T13:10:36.589Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Practising on the Moon: Globalization and Legal Consciousness of Foreign Corporate Lawyers in Myanmar

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 December 2017

Arm TUNGNIRUN
Arm TUNGNIRUN*
Affiliation:
Chulalongkorn University
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This paper argues that there are two contrasting versions of legal consciousness among foreign corporate lawyers in Myanmar. The old hands—expatriates who have practised there prior to the opening-up of the country in 2011—depict an image of a fairly developed legal system and an appreciation of local law and practices. In contrast, the newcomers who came to Myanmar after 2011 tell accounts of the void of law. Contrary to the old hands who see themselves as mere translators of Myanmar’s local law and practices, the newcomers assume a more active role of importers and educators of modern business law and norms to fill the void. The paper uses two theoretical models in legal consciousness studies—the “community of meaning” model and the “power and resistance” model—to explain the difference between the two groups, as well as the implication the newcomers’ legal consciousness has for the globalization of law.

Keywords

legal consciousnessforeign corporate lawyersMyanmarglobalizationpractice narratives
Type
Legal Consciousness in Asia
Information
Asian Journal of Law and Society , Volume 5 , Issue 1 , May 2018 , pp. 49 - 67
Copyright
© Cambridge University Press and KoGuan Law School, Shanghai Jiao Tong University 2018 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

*

Arm Tungnirun is a Lecturer of Law at Chulalongkorn University, a JSD Candidate at Stanford Law School, and a Doctoral Fellow at the Institute of Global Law and Policies at Harvard Law School. I am grateful to Deborah Hensler, Robert Gordon, and Rogelio Perez-Perdomo, who provided insights that greatly assisted in my research. I also thank David Engel, Lynette Chua, Vanja Hemzic, Doron Dorfman, Tai-Jan Huang, Rolando Garcia Miron, Jean Grosdidier, Luca Bonadiman, Tugba Basaran, and two anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments on an earlier version of the manuscript. This research received funding from the Graduate Program at Stanford Law School. I thank the Institute of Global Law and Policies at Harvard Law School for providing me with financial support to attend and get feedback from the 2016 IGLP Workshop in Madrid, Spain. I also thank the Asian Law Institute and the Centre for Asian Legal Studies at the National University of Singapore for providing me with partial funding to attend and get feedback from the Young Scholars’ Workshop and the Asian Law & Society Association’s 2016 annual conference in Singapore. Correspondence to Arm Tungnirun, Faculty of Law, Chulalongkorn University, Phayathai Road, Bangkok 10330, Thailand. E-mail address: [email protected].

References

REFERENCES

Anderson, Benedict (1991) Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origins and the Spread of Nationalism, London: Verso.Google Scholar
Chua, Lynette (2014) Mobilizing Gay Singapore: Rights and Resistance in an Authoritarian State, Philadelphia: Temple University Press.Google Scholar
Cooter, Robert (1996) “Decentralized Law for a Complex Economy: The Structural Approach to Adjudicating the New Law Merchant.” 144 University of Pennsylvania Law Review 1643–1696.Google Scholar
Crouch, Melissa (2014) “The Layers of Legal Development in Myanmar,” in M. Crouch & T. Lindsey, eds., Law, Society and Transition in Myanmar, Oxford: Hart Publishing, 33–56.Google Scholar
Crouch, Melissa ( 2017) “Understanding the Business of Transition in Myanmar,” in M. Crouch, ed., The Business of Transition: Law Reform, Development and Economics in Myanmar, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Cunha, Gross, Gabbay, Daniela, Ghirardi, Jose, Trubek, David, & Wilkins, David, eds. ( 2018) The Brazilian Legal Profession in the Age of Globalization, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Daboonme, Achara (2015) “Foreign Investors Still Attracted to Myanmar,” The Nation, 23 January.Google Scholar
Dezalay, Yves, & Garth, Bryant (2002) The Internationalization of Palace Wars: Lawyers, Economists and the Transformation of Latin American States, Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Dezalay, Yves, & Garth, Bryant (2010) Asian Legal Revivals: Lawyers in the Shadow of Empire, Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Engel, David (1984) “The Oven Bird’s Song: Insiders, Outsiders, and Personal Injuries in an American Community.” 18 Law and Society Review 551–582.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Engel, David (1998) “How Does Law Matter in the Constitution of Legal Consciousness?,” in B. Garth & A. Sarat, eds., How Does Law Matter? Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press, 109–144.Google Scholar
Engel, David (2005) “Globalization and the Decline of Legal Consciousness: Torts, Ghosts, and Karma in Thailand.” 30 Law and Social Inquiry 470–514.Google Scholar
Ewick, Patricia, & Silbey, Susan S. (1998) The Common Place of Law: Stories from Everyday Life, Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Gilliom, John (2001) Overseers of the Poor: Surveillance, Resistance, and the Limits of Privacy, Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Gomez, Manuel, & Perez-Perdomo, Rogelio, eds. (2018) Big Law in Latin America and Spain: Globalization and Adjustments in the Provision of High-End Legal Services, New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Greenhouse, Carol (1988) “Courting Difference: Issues of Interpretation and Comparison in the Studies of Ideologies.” 22 Law & Society Review 687–708.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute (2012) The Rule of Law in Myanmar: Challenges and Prospects, London: International Bar Association.Google Scholar
Krishnan, Jayanth, Dias, Vitor, & Pence, John (2016) “Legal Elites and the Shaping of Corporate Law Practice in Brazil: A Historical Study.” 41 Law & Social Inquiry 346–370.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kyaw, Aye Thidar (2015) “DICA Invites Comment on Draft Companies Act.” Myanmar Times, 19 June.Google Scholar
Liu, Sida (2008) “Globalization as Boundary Blurring: International and Local Law Firms in China’s Corporate Law Market.” 42 Law & Society Review 771–804.Google Scholar
Liu, Sida, Trubek, David, & Wilkins, David (2016) “Mapping the Ecology of China’s Corporate Legal Sector: Globalization and Its Impact on Lawyers and Society.” 3 Asian Journal of Law and Society 273–297.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marshall, Anna-Maria (2005) “Idle Rights: Employees’ Rights Consciousness and the Construction of Sexual Harassment Policies.” 39 Law & Society Review 83–123.Google Scholar
McCann, Michael (2012) “Expanding the Horizons of Horizontal Inquiry into Rights Consciousness: An Engagement with David Engel.” 19 Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies 467–488.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Saffin, Janelle, & Willis, Nathan (2017) “The Legal Profession and the Substantive Rule of Law in Myanmar,” in A. Harding & K. Khin Oo, eds., Constitutionalism and Legal Changes in Myanmar, Oregon: Hart Publishing, 235–252.Google Scholar
Sarat, Austin (1990) “The Law is All Over: Power, Resistance, and the Legal Consciousness of the Welfare Poor.” 2 Yale Journal of Law and the Humanities 343–379.Google Scholar
Scholte, Jan (2000) Globalization: A Critical Introduction, New York: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Silbey, Susan (2005) “After Legal Consciousness.” 1 Annual Review of Law and Social Sciences 323–368.Google Scholar
Silver, Carole, Phelan, Nicole Bruin, & Rabinowitz, Mikaela (2009) “Between Diffusion and Distinctiveness in Globalization: U.S. Law Firms Go Glocal.” 22 Georgetown Journal of Legal Ethics 1431–1471.Google Scholar
Steiger, Manfred (2003) Globalization: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Steinberg, David (2013) Burma/Myanmar: What Everyone Needs to Know, Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Stern, Rachel, & Li, Su (2016) “The Outpost Office: How International Law Firms Approach the China Market.” 41 Law & Social Inquiry 184–211.Google Scholar
Tan, Aviel (2014) “Destination: Myanmar.” Asian Legal Business, 1 October.Google Scholar
Wilkins, David, & Papa, Mihaela (2013) “The Rise of Corporate Legal Elites in the BRICS: Implications for Global Governance.” 54 Boston College Law Review 1149–1184.Google Scholar
Wilkins, David, Khanna, Vikramaditya, & Trubek, David, eds. (2017) The Indian Legal Profession in the Age of Globalization, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yngvesson, Barbara (1988) “Making Law at the Doorway: The Clerk, the Court, and the Construction of Community in a New England Town.” 22 Law & Society Review 409–448.Google Scholar
Zan, Myint (2008) “Legal Education in Burma Since the Mid-1960s.” 12 Journal of Burma Studies 63–107.Google Scholar