Thin Rule of Law or Un-Rule of Law in Myanmar?

Cheesman, Nicholas

doi:10.5509/2009824597

Cited by 38 publications

(10 citation statements)

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“…22 As this definition indicates, the substantive 'content' of the law is conceived as separate to the 'rule' of law. 23 To promote and protect substantive outcomes such as civil and political rights and socio-economic development, the onus on the legislature to make 'good' laws is thus much higher in a civil law system than in a common law system. This in turn relates to the constitutional structure of the executive and legislative branches and the political culture on which they rest.…”

Section: Civil and Common Law Systems And The Rule Of Lawmentioning

confidence: 99%

The limits to judicial independence: Cambodia’s political culture and the civil law

West

2018

Democratization

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Distinctions between the common and civil law are crucial when considering the rule of law and judicial independence in a political system. The 1993 Constitution of the Kingdom of Cambodia provides for a democratic government with separation of powers, judicial independence and human rights guarantees consistent with international legal instruments. However, Cambodia ranks poorly in international indices of political interference and corruption in the judiciary and for the rule of law. Drawing on interviews with Cambodian state officials and legal practitioners, the article situates the domestic judiciary within the socio-political environment and constitutional arrangements in which it must operate and examines the limits to judicial independence in the country. The article argues that the lack of judicial independence in contemporary Cambodia is not only attributable to its neopatrimonial political culture but also to the legal-institutional framework established during the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC) period. The legalphilosophical underpinnings of civil law, the nature of the civil law system operating in Cambodia, and how it is interpreted locally, are crucial to understanding the limits to judicial independence in the country.

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Section: Civil and Common Law Systems And The Rule Of Lawmentioning

confidence: 99%

The limits to judicial independence: Cambodia’s political culture and the civil law

West

2018

Democratization

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“…Le statut « commun » ou « villageois » d'une terre pose alors la question du rapport à l'État, dans la mesure où les gouvernements birmans après l'indépendance ont repris les outils de la régulation foncière coloniale pour développer leurs politiques (Huard, 2014). Le régime colonial a imposé un système administratif et judiciaire reposant sur le Rule of Law (Cheesman, 2010).…”

Section: Déploiement Local Des Pratiques Gouvernementalesunclassified

Dossier « Réaffectations du foncier : régulation étatique, investissements privés et initiatives citoyennes » - Une terre commune dans le village ? Relations village-État et économie morale au travers de la biographie d’une parcelle dans le centre du Myanmar

Huard¹

2016

Nat. Sci. Soc.

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Reconstruire la biographie d'une terre dans un village du centre du Myanmar permet d'analyser les rapports entre les relations foncières locales et les pratiques gouvernementales. Cette étude de cas se focalise sur une parcelle en particulier : détenue par un premier couple de villageois dans les années cinquante, puis confisquée et réattribuée par le gouvernement à un second couple, elle fut par la suite transformée en terre « vacante » et est aujourd'hui un terrain de football. Cependant, cette parcelle est dépendante d'usages locaux, lesquels ont été récemment confrontés à des enjeux de développement qui ont actualisé la question de son statut : terre commune, terre villageoise, ou terre vacante ? La biographie de cette parcelle montre d'une part comment l'enchâssement des usages et des statuts est lié à des pratiques gouvernementales qui sont confrontées aux relations foncières et à l'économie morale villageoises, et d'autre part comment le statut de cette terre est actuellement négocié. Abstract -A common land in the village? Land biography, village-state interplay and moral economy in central Myanmar, Burma.Through the description of a biography of a land in a village located in central Myanmar, this paper analyzes the interplay between local land relations and government practices. In Myanmar, colonial and postcolonial land reforms and policies have partly changed land access for local populations. This case study focuses on a specific plot of land: originally held by a family of villagers in the 1950s, the plot was latter allocated by government agents to the couple who cultivated it via a land-lease arrangement. The land was afterward turned into a "vacant land" following the implementation of a military-socialist policy and is now the village's football ground. Meanwhile, the parcel remained dependent upon local uses and regulations challenged by development issues that update the question of its status: common land, village land, or vacant land? First, the plot's biography enables to show successive and overlapping uses and status. Second, the unfolding of government practices (colonialists, military-socialists and post-democracy) are analyzed and confronted to local land relations and moral economy. Finally, the role of village headman is highlighted in regard to how land status are claimed and negotiated, concluding on the importance of local-government relations to understand the dynamics of social changes at play in this area.Disponible en ligne sur : www.nss-journal.org Auteur correspondant : Stéphen Huard, s.huard@uea.ac.uk Voir dans ce numéro les autres contributions au dossier « Réaffectations du foncier : régulation étatique, investissements privés et initiatives citoyennes ».

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“…In contrast to popular Western portrayals that romanticize the celebrity of nat kadaw or traditional spirit mediums (Ho ), the majority of whom are a‐pwint , the reality for most SOGI minorities is much grimmer. Police use their wide arrest powers to persecute a‐pwint , compounding the endemic abuse of authority in Myanmar (see, e.g., Cheesman ) with the stereotypes of a‐pwint as sexually deviant and criminally suspect. They sexually assault a‐pwint , extort bribes, or threaten to escalate charges to Section 377 of the Penal Code, a law inherited from colonial rule that criminalizes “carnal intercourse against the order of nature.”…”

Section: Political Context and Sociolegal Conditions Of Myanmar's Sogmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Vernacular Mobilization of Human Rights in Myanmar's Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Movement

Chua¹

2015

Law Soc Rev

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This article examines how activists build a movement for sexual orientation and gender identity minorities in Myanmar, a country that is known for violent suppression of protests and is undergoing political reform. Based on original fieldwork, it finds that activists deploy a strategy of "vernacular mobilization of human rights" to persuade others to join their cause despite the risks to personal safety and to get around political constraints on collective organizing. Conceptualized at the intersection of the cultural study of human rights and social movements scholarship, "vernacular mobilization of human rights" theorizes the relationship between vernacularization-the translation and local adaptation of human rights-and movement micromobilization, specifying how the former unfolds as collective action framing processes. Through vernacularization activities, such as human rights workshops, movement leaders reframe grievances and shift the attribution of blame to empower and recruit new activists. Furthermore, with these framing processes, they generate a political community with a collective identity and social networks that they use to continue expanding the movement. The article enriches debates about the implications of implementing human rights and understandings of the relationship between human rights and movement mobilization, especially under repressive or uncertain political conditions.

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Thin Rule of Law or Un-Rule of Law in Myanmar?

Cited by 38 publications

References 1 publication

The limits to judicial independence: Cambodia’s political culture and the civil law

The limits to judicial independence: Cambodia’s political culture and the civil law

Dossier « Réaffectations du foncier : régulation étatique, investissements privés et initiatives citoyennes » - Une terre commune dans le village ? Relations village-État et économie morale au travers de la biographie d’une parcelle dans le centre du Myanmar

The Vernacular Mobilization of Human Rights in Myanmar's Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Movement

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