Everyday Justice in Myanmar

The first papers produced under the DIIS-coordinated research project on ‘Everyday Justice and Security in Myanmar’ (EverJust) were presented by Myanmar and Danish researchers at the Australian National University (ANU) on February 17-18. This took place at a large international conference on the political and economic transformation in Myanmar, which saw the attendance of several distinguished international scholars and diplomats.

The EverJust researchers presented at a specific roundtable on ‘Justice’. The papers all concerned local level justice provision, and informal institutions, including the justice systems of the Ethnic Armed Organizations, which hitherto have received little attention. Until recently, research on justice in Myanmar has predominantly focused on the formal justice sector as well as on wider injustices related to HR abuses, civil war and military law and order enforcement. These are indeed very important areas of research, but it is just as important to understand how people deal with social disputes and minor crimes in the everyday. One core reason for this is that most cases never reach the official courts, but are either left unreported or resolved outside the courts by village and ward leaders, or by various informal actors, such as religious leaders and armed actors. Official courts are seen by most Myanmar citizens as places to avoid whenever possible.

The political history of mistrust in state institutions is one reason for this view of the official courts, but important are also cultural and religious beliefs that inform how people understand problems and justice in ways that differ to a large extent from state-legal norms and principles.

Ethnographic research by EverJust researchers reveals a complex landscape of legal pluralism in Myanmar – of a variety of norms, practices, and actors who regulate social behavior and resolve disputes. Legal pluralism exists not only in the sense of the co-existence of the Myanmar official justice system with those of the ethnic armed groups. There is also legal pluralism within each of these areas, in rural as well as in urban contexts. Politically this also reflects a plurality of authorities and centers of power and decision-making, which exist in addition to macro-level political structures.

The EverJust papers discussed these matters, looking at the particular topics of land disputes, urban migrants, religious beliefs and ethnic armed groups.