At
the start of a New Year, its always useful to look back to see where we have
been and where we have directed our efforts. I have been fortunate to be
involved in various initiatives in Myanmar over the past few years, but particularly while I was at National University of Singapore (2012-2014). Here is a
recap on events
October 2012: Workshop
on Directions and Determinants in Law Reform in Myanmar - held at NUS,
organised by Professor Andrew Harding. Harding has summarised the discussions
from this workshop in a chapter Law,
Society and Transition in Myanmar.
Semester 1,
2012:
Asian Legal Studies Colloquium (2012), I
contributed to two of Prof Andrew
Harding’s classes on the legal system of Myanmar.
April 2013: Roundtable
on Human Rights and Responsible Business in Myanmar, I gave an
update on the legal system at a roundtable organised by Melbourne Law School.
May 2013: Australia-Myanmar Constitutional Law Workshop, - I gave a talk on emergency powers
and the relationship between the military and the Constitution. The workshop
was facilitated by the Sydney Law School in Yangon.
May 2013: Training Assessment Workshop for the Union Attorney General’s
Office, Naypyidaw. This was a preliminary workshop with a range of donors,
law schools and law officers from the AG’s office about the future training
needs of the Attorney General’s Office. Dr Melissa Crouch attended on behalf of
CALS.
June 2013: Annual ATLAS Agora June 2013, Prof
Andrew Harding and I gave a seminar on legal reform in Myanmar held at the Law
Faculty, NUS.
August 2013: Ministry
of Law (Singapore) delegation to University of Yangon and Mandalay
University Law Departments. I represented NUS on this trip. The focus was on
legal education and possible future cooperation between NUS and the two Law
Departments in Myanmar. [MOUs were signed in early 2014]
October
2013: Seminar on ‘Prospects and Challenges for Constitutional Reform in
Myanmar’, which I gave at the Asian Law Centre, Melbourne
Law School, University of Melbourne.
October 2013:
Rule of Law in Asia LLM course: I taught in the Masters course at the Melbourne
Law School, the University of Melbourne. The class was on ‘The Rule of Law in
Myanmar’.
January – April
2014 (sem 2): Transition and the Rule of Law in Myanmar elective, I taught a new elective course for LLB/LLM/PhD
students at the Law Faculty, NUS.
January 2014: Workshop on Islam, Law and the State in
Myanmar, which I organised. The edited volume Islam and the State in Myanmar: Muslim-Buddhist Relations and the
Politics of Belonging is forthcoming.
February 2014: Workshop on Constitutionalism and Law
Reform in Myanmar, was held at NUS, organised by Professor Andrew Harding,
which I also assisted with. I gave a talk on The Constitutional Writs in Myanmar.
April 2014:
Seminar at UNSW:
I gave a talk on Constitutionalism in Transition: The Writs as a Litmus Test for Law
Reform in Myanmar, at the
Law Faculty, University of New South Wales, Sydney.
June 2014:
Workshop on Legal Education with Myanmar Japan Legal Resource Centre and the
University of Yangon, Yangon. I attended on behalf of National University of
Singapore.
July 2014: Law
Department Review as part of the Social Science Curriculum Working Group
Meeting,
hosted by the Open Society Foundation, the University of Yangon and Mandalay
University, Yangon.
1-3 August 2014:
Bi-annual Burma Studies Group Conference: This was an inter-disciplinary
academic event organised in collaboration with the Faculty of Arts and Social
Sciences, the Lee Kwan Yew School of Public Policy, and the Law Faculty, the
National University of Singapore. The panel I organised was on Religion,
Identity and Politics in Myanmar.
August 2014: USAID/Promoting the Rule of Law Project
– I participated in a project on Administrative Justice in Myanmar. This
including giving a lecture at Mandalay University Law Department.
October 2014: Parliamentary Resource Centre,
Naypyidaw: I gave a talk on Administrative Law at the National Democratic
Institute in Naypyidaw to Members of Parliament. I also gave a talk in Yangon
to lawyers and civil society.
November 2014: Australia-Myanmar Constitutional Democracy
Workshop. I contributed to a panel on The Rule of Law, focusing
specifically on the issues for the rule of law that are raised in a state of
emergency.
It
has been a dynamic and fascinating experience. Now I have moved to UNSW, I am becoming
involved in initiatives here. I’ll post more on these soon
