Stephen A. Rosenbaum, Britane Hubbard, Kaylee Sharp-Bauer, and David Tushaus. “The Myanmar Shwe: Empowering Law Students, Teachers, And The Community Through Clinical Education And The Rule Of Law.” Indiana Journal of Global Studies, vol. 28, no. 1 (2021): 153-230.
This article explores the reform of legal education in Myanmar during a brief period of political opening, focusing on the role of clinical legal education (CLE) in empowering future lawyers under conditions of ongoing authoritarian legacy. Despite Myanmar’s transition to “disciplined democracy” in the 2010s, legal education remained dominated by bureaucratic control, rote learning, and weak institutional autonomy—conditions that undermine the capacity of attorneys to serve as defenders of the rule of law in a backsliding democracy.
Drawing on a CLE pilot project (2017–2019) implemented in partnership with BABSEACLE, the authors—two American legal educators and two students—detail efforts to introduce community-engaged teaching, peer-to-peer legal English instruction, and externship preparation at universities in marginalized areas. These programs aimed to foster legal consciousness, practical skills, and access to justice, while navigating systemic resistance, centralized decision-making, and cultural reluctance to challenge authority.
The article offers a cautionary reflection on international legal development, warning against top-down, liberal, or neocolonial models, and emphasizing the need for locally grounded partnerships that strengthen the legal profession’s role in democratic transformation.