Abstract
This present, Badda world began, in Burmese myth and legend, after previous worlds had been destroyed seven times by fire and once by water. This earth emerged as the water fell away, and a lotus flower blossomed to announce that on this earth a Buddha would appear.
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References
D. Richardson, Laws of Manu, translation, Rangoon, 1896, pp. 4–18; Htin Aung, “Customary Law in Burma,” in Burma 5th. anniversary number, Government Information, Rangoon, 1953.
H. Fielding Hall, The Soul of a People, London, 1904, p. 115.
Maung Maung, Aung San of Burma, Martinus Nijhoff, 1962.
H.E. Rance, “Burma Today” in Asian Survey, London, July, 1956.
Burma Weekly, Government Information, Rangoon, December 14, 1961.
Land Nationalization, speeches made in Parliament, and the Bill, Government Information, Rangoon, 1948; also Maung Maung, Burma’s Constitution, 2nd. ed., Nijhoff, 1962, p. 105 — the book is a study of the constitution and its history including the Ne Win caretaker government.
E. Maung, Expansion of Burmese Buddhist Law, Rangoon, 1951.
J. S. Furnivall, “Manu in Burma,” Journal of the Burma Research Society, vol. xxx, pt. 2, August, 1940.
Arthur Eggar, Laws of India, pt. I, London, 1929, p. 12, relying on the authority of Prof. G.H. Luce of the University of Rangoon.
Sir Herbert Thirkell White, A Civil Servant in Burma, London, 1913, p. 192.
Kinwunmingyi Digest, 2 vols., Rangoon, 1909.
Ma Hnin Bwin vs. U Shwe Gon, 8 LBR 1.
Eggar, Laws of India, pp. 14-15; Htin Aung, Customary Law in Burma.
G.E. Harvey, History of Burma, London, 1925.
Sangermano, The Burmese Empire, Rangoon, 1893, see introduction by Sir John Jardine.
Kinwunmingyi Digest, I, p. 2.
Maung Thein Maung vs. Ma Kywe, 13 Ran. 412 F.B.
E. Maung, Expansion of Burmese Buddhist Law.
Furnivall, Manu in Burma; E. Maung, J., in Dr. Tha Myavs. Daw Khin Pu, 1951 BLR 108 S.C.
Jardine prize essay on Sources and Development of Burmese Buddhist Law, Rangoon, 1885.
See appendix I for the 36 Dhammathats. Kinwunmingyi U Gaung served as chief minister to Thibaw, last King of Mandalay, and went on missions to Europe in last desperate efforts to win friends and alliances for Burma. He served as an adviser, when British rule came, and a member of the legislative council of the Lieutenant-Governor.
Notes on Buddhist Law, Rangoon, circular memorandum number 31 of 1882.
Ma Hnin Bwin vs. U Shwe Gon.
Dr. Tha Mya vs. Daw Khin Pu.
Sir Arthur Page, C.J., in Ma Hnin Zan vs. Ma Myaing, 13 Ran. 487.
Ma Po vs. Ma Shwe Mi, 2 UBR 79; Tha Gywe, Treatise on Buddhist Law, vol. I, Mandalay, 1909.
Ma Hnin Zan vs. Ma Myaing; and compare Mr. Justice Holmes: “It is revolting to have no better reason for a rule of law than that it was laid down in the time of Henry IV. It is still more revolting if the grounds upon which it was laid down have vanished long since and the rule simply persists from blind imitation of the past.” Ephraim London, ed., The World of Law, New York, 1960.
Dr. Ba U, My Burma, New York, 1959, p. 112.
Wagaru Dhammathat, English translation, Rangoon, 1892.
Chan Toon, Principles of Buddhist Law, Rangoon, 1903, p. 20.
Proclamation made by the President in Parliament, Proceedings, January 4, 1948, also in Independence Celebration Number, Government Information, Rangoon, 1948; chapter 2 of the constitution, defining fundamental rights: the Slavery Act, 1843, was an earlier legal measure against sale of persons, or compulsory labour or services.
Kinwunmingyi Digest, II, p. 20.
ibid. p. 18.
ibid., p. 151.
E. Maung, “Insolvency Jurisdiction in Early Burmese Law,” Journal of Burma Research Society, December, 1951.
Ma Yin Mya vs. Tan Yauk Pu, 5 Ran. 406, F. B., at p. 421.
U Nu and other leaders have used the Jataka tales with good effect to enforce or emphasise their points in parliamentary debates and public speeches. For judicial procedure in early Burmese days: E. Maung, Expansion of Burmese Buddhist Law; Maung Maung, Burma in the Family of Nations, Amsterdam, 1956, pp. 14-20; Shwe Yoe, The Burman, His Life and Nations, London, 1910, chap. 55; Than Tun, “The Legal System in Burma, 1000-1300 A. D.,” Burma Law Institute Journal, Rangoon, June 1959.
Burma Reforms Committee, Record of Evidence, vol II, Rangoon, 1922, p. 73.
The Soul of a People, p. 54; for qualifications of a judge, see Rajaniti, para 10: “He shall be appointed a judge who is full of family piety and virtue, who maintains the true law, who is full of wisdom, amiable, and shrewd.” J. Gray, Ancient Proverbs and Maxims from Burmese Sources, London, 1886.
Jardine, Notes on Buddhist Law, part, 2, p. 16; eating pickled tea, though no longer practised in the courts, is still referred to as symbolic of amicable settlement, e. g., Prime Minister U Nu to Justice Minister Dr. E. Maung on the subject of a running feud between the Government and the Press — “Don’t say anything to them, just keep quiet. I take the appearance of such huge black banner-lines as presaging a good meal to be offered by journalists just as they made us relish the pickled tea when the previous feud ended.” Burma Weekly, Government Information bulletin, Rangoon, December 7, 1961.
E Maung, Expansion of Burmese Buddhist Law; lawyers are called’ shay-nay’ or Standers at the Front, in Burmese, or nicknamed,’ shar-shay’, the Long-Tongued.
Shwe Yoe.
Burma Courts Manual, Rangoon, 1960, p. 75.
Sangermano, pp. 86-90; Michael Symes, An Account of an Embassy to Ava in 1795, London, 1800, p. 476, for description of a trial by ordeal with wax-candles.
E Maung, Expansion of Burmese Buddhist Law.
Harvey, History of Burma, p. 353.
Selections from the Records of the Hluttaw, Rangoon, 1889, which also reproduces some edicts of King Thibaw relating to judicial procedure.
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© 1963 Martinus Nijhoff, The Hague, Netherlands
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Maung, M. (1963). Burmese Customary Law. In: Law and Custom in Burma and the Burmese Family. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-9257-6_1
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