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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
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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 

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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].

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