Pritzker Legal Research Center: Myanmar: Center for International Human Rights: Domestic (Myanmar) Legal Materials

Legal System

Myanmar has a mixed system of common law and customary law. Sources of law include customary law (pertaining to issues such as marriage and divorce, adoption, and succession), English common law, legislation, and judicial decisions.

The Oxford Handbook of International Law in Asia and the Pacific by Simon Chesterman, Hisashi Owada & Ben Saul
Call Number: E-book (online access)
Publication Date: 2019
See Part III - Chapter 22 (Myanmar) for an overview of Myanmar's legal system.

An Introduction to the Law and Judicial System of Myanmar (2014)
Provides an introduction to the law and legal system of Myanmar, including an overview of the main sources of law and legal institutions.
Council of ASEAN Chief Justices: Myanmar
Provides an overview of Myanmar's judiciary and legal system and laws.

Research Process

Use the following strategy to efficiently find laws and cases from Myanmar:

Step 1: Consult secondary sources such as journal articles or news articles to familiarize yourself with the topic and identify relevant laws and cases.

Step 2: Using a research guide to assist you (including this one), identify relevant resources (e.g., websites, databases) where you can access legal materials from Myanmar.

Step 3: Retrieve or search for the foreign legal materials using the suggested resources.

Note that Westlaw and Lexis do not provide access to laws and cases from Myanmar. You will need to rely on a combination of free websites (including government websites) and databases to find legal materials from Myanmar.

Research Guides

These research guides are useful starting points for understanding Myanmar's legal system and well as the sources of law in Myanmar. These guides include links to recommended online resources that provide access to legal materials from this country.

GlobaLex: The Legal System of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar
Foreign Law Guide: Myanmar
Library of Congress Guide to Law Online: Burma
A Short Research Guide to Myanmar's Legal System
This is a book chapter in Law, Society and Transition in Myanmar (Crouch & Lindsey eds., 2014).

Constitution

The Constitution of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar (2008) is the version currently in force. The resources below provide access to the current constitution in both English and Burmese as well as historical versions.

The Constitution of Myanmar by Melissa Crouch
Call Number: Law Library: Stacks N,HBU KNL1750 .C76 2019
Publication Date: 2019
"This timely and accessible book is the first to provide a thorough analysis of the 2008 Constitution of Myanmar (Burma) in its historical, political and social context. The book identifies and articulates the principles of the Constitution through an in-depth analysis of legal and political processes and practises, particularly since the 1990s. The core argument of this book is that the 2008 Constitution is crucial to the establishment and maintenance of the military-state." - Publisher

Laws and Cases

If you conduct a Google search to retrieve a copy of a law or case, make sure to evaluate the website's authoritativeness and reputability. Laws and cases from Myanmar are not available on Westlaw or Lexis.

Older laws and cases may be found in print. If you are looking for older legal materials, see the Myanmar research guides linked above for lists of law reports that you can search for on NUsearch by publication name.

Myanmar Law Information System
Provides access to union laws, region or state laws, and other legal materials.
Online Burma/Myanmar Library
Provides access to more than 60,000 full-text documents on Burma/Myanmar, including articles, periodicals, reports, books, and laws.
Myanmar Law LIbrary
Provides access to laws, cases, and other legal materials from Myanmar from the colonial period to present.

In addition to checking country-specific databases and websites to find the foreign legal materials you need, subject-specific collections of laws, which collect laws from various countries pertaining to a particular subject, can be useful resources to incorporate into your research process. These resources often have better search capabilities than foreign government websites. For additional suggestions for subject law collections beyond the selected databases listed below, see the GlobaLex Foreign Law - Subject Law Collections on the Web research guide.

ECOLEX
Provides access to legislation and jurisprudence pertaining to environmental law from various jurisdictions.
FAOLEX
Provides access to national laws, regulations, and policies pertaining to food, agriculture, and natural resources management from around the world.
NATLEX
Provides access to national labor, social security, and related human rights legislation from more than 196 countries.
Refworld
Provides access to national legislation and case law pertaining to refugees and asylum seekers from around the world.

Customary Law

Customary law primarily concerns family matters such as marriage, divorce, inheritance, and succession. Because customary law is generally unwritten, the best strategy for understanding the role of customary law in a country is to consult books, journal articles, and other secondary sources describing its application. See the Secondary Sources tab of this guide for guidance.