Practicing on the moon : globalization and the practice of foreign corporate lawyers in Myanmar
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- This dissertation presents a case study of Myanmar's emerging corporate legal bar dominated by foreign law firms and lawyers after its abrupt exposure to economic globalization in 2011. The emerging business demand from the economic opening of the country coupled with the lack of native corporate lawyers and absence of protectionist barriers explain the dominance of foreign lawyers and law firms during this formative stage. The study finds a diverse group of foreign law firms in Myanmar: global law firms, local law firms established by Western expatriates, and law firms from neighboring Asian countries. Foreign lawyers have not only taken the lead in transnational legal practice, but have also gained precedence even in providing local law advice to companies seeking to invest in the country. The highly discretionary and indeterminate government policy and practice, along with inadequate business laws and outdated common laws reflect the lack of legal certainty in Myanmar. Most foreign corporate lawyers who are newcomers that came into the country after 2011 perceive Myanmar's legal system as having "a void of law." Their deconstruction and marginalization of the authority of local law paves the way for a new type of hegemonic law based on globalized business norms and legal practices. Foreign corporate lawyers in Myanmar, regardless of their civil or common law background, all share a common mode of legal practice -- suggesting that a globalized identity of corporate lawyers has emerged. This practice focuses on stabilizing business, amidst Myanmar's legal uncertainty, by combining both technical legal practice and relational practice. Foreign lawyers in Myanmar serve as producers of legal structures -- their technical legal practice creates both de-facto hard legal structures along with soft legal structures as normative frameworks for business. They also assume the role of relational intermediaries -- serving as communication intermediaries, information intermediaries, and reputation intermediaries. By analyzing firsthand interview data with practitioners and other informants at a formative moment in Myanmar's history, I claim that the practice of foreign corporate lawyers is central to the transplantation of, first, a new conception of the legal profession; second, a new mode of legal practice; and third, a new mode of production of law into this previously closed society. In considering the nature of Law and Development as well as the process of legal transplant into a newly emerging economy, I place the roles of pioneering foreign lawyers front and center.
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Form | electronic resource; remote; computer; online resource |
| Extent | 1 online resource. |
| Place | California |
| Place | [Stanford, California] |
| Publisher | [Stanford University] |
| Copyright date | 2018; ©2018 |
| Publication date | 2018; 2018 |
| Issuance | monographic |
| Language | English |
Creators/Contributors
| Author | Tungnirun, Arm |
|---|---|
| Degree supervisor | Hensler, Deborah R, 1942- |
| Thesis advisor | Hensler, Deborah R, 1942- |
| Thesis advisor | Gordon, Robert W. (Robert Watson), 1941- |
| Thesis advisor | Pérez-Perdomo, Rogelio |
| Degree committee member | Gordon, Robert W. (Robert Watson), 1941- |
| Degree committee member | Pérez-Perdomo, Rogelio |
| Associated with | Stanford University, School of Law. |
Subjects
| Genre | Theses |
|---|---|
| Genre | Text |
Bibliographic information
| Statement of responsibility | Arm Tungnirun. |
|---|---|
| Note | Submitted to the School of Law. |
| Thesis | Thesis JSD Stanford University 2018. |
| Location | electronic resource |
Access conditions
- Copyright
- © 2018 by Arm Tungnirun
- License
- This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 3.0 Unported license (CC BY-NC).
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