Jonathan Liljeblad. “The Independent Lawyers’ Association Of Myanmar As A Legal Transplant: Local Challenges To The Idea Of An Independent National Bar Association.” In Legal Transplants in East Asia and Oceania, Ed. Vito Breda, pp. 211-230. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 2019.
This article examines the establishment of the Independent Lawyers’ Association of Myanmar (ILAM), created through a 2014–2016 program by the International Bar Association’s Human Rights Initiative (IBAHRI). Designed to promote the principle of an independent legal profession in Myanmar, ILAM represents a significant, though externally driven, effort to institutionalize professional autonomy and rule of law norms in a post-authoritarian legal system.
Framed within legal transplant theory, the article explores how international models, particularly the IBA’s vision of a national bar, were introduced into Myanmar’s tightly controlled legal environment. It highlights both the promise and limits of such initiatives in contexts where legal professions remain deeply entangled with the state and vulnerable to political pressure. For attorneys in backsliding democracies, ILAM’s story underscores the importance of independent legal institutions and the challenges of building them through transnational engagement, especially when democratic openings are fragile and short-lived.