Opposing the Rule of Law

Nick Cheesman is a Research Fellow in the Department of Political and Social Change at the Australian National University, Canberra, where he studied for a PhD. In 2013 his dissertation, on the politics of law and order in Myanmar, won the university medal, the J. G. Crawford Prize; and, the President's Prize of the Asian Studies Association of Australia. Before joining the Australian National University he worked in Hong Kong with the Asian Legal Resource Centre, a regional research and advocacy organisation. Earlier he convened a people's tribunal on militarisation in Myanmar, for a Thailand-based non-profit group. He also lived and worked in a refugee camp on the border of Thailand and Myanmar for a number of years. He teaches courses in politics and security, and co-convenes the Myanmar/Burma Update conferences at the Australian National University. His work has appeared in a variety of peer-reviewed journals, and edited books. This is his first monograph.

'This is a book of 'firsts' in many respects, not least because it is the first major study of courts in Myanmar … [It] will appeal to scholars from a wide range of disciplines in the social sciences, but legal scholars and practitioners working in the global 'industry' of the rule of law need to read this book in particular … Cheesman's [volume] is an invaluable and lasting contribution to scholarship on the rule of law, and an exemplary reminder of how the study of Southeast Asia can illuminate our understanding of the key political ideals of our time.' Melissa Crouch, Contemporary Southeast Asia

• Introduction; 1. How law and order opposes the rule of law; 2. Ordering law in the colony; 3. Reordering law in the postcolony; 4. Subsuming law to order; 5. Embodying the law and order ideal; 6. Performing order, making money; 7. Through disorder, law and order; 8. Speaking up for the rule of law; 9. Against quietude; Glossary; Bibliography; Index.