Woe Unto Ye Lawyers: Three Royal Orders concerning Pleaders in Early Seventeenth-Century Burma

Abstract

This article translates (from early 17th century 'royal' Burmese language) , 'annotates', elaborates and comments on three separate Royal Orders concerning Pleaders (shay-nay or she-ne in Burmese) issued by King Anaukphetlun of the Burmese kingdom of Ava on a single day - 23 June 1607. Historical, cultural, contextual, literary, sociological as well as analyses and commentary based on comparative law are stated in various parts of the article. Comparative analysis of the development, functioning and regulation of the lawyers in early 17th century Burma is made by referring among others to Biblical passages of Jesus's 'scolding' of the pleaders/lawyers, (from which the title of the article is taken). Analogies of the mode of the operation of the legal profession as well as the argumentative methods used in early 17th century Burmese legal and literary discourse that can be gleaned from the Royal Orders are made with reference to certain aspects of the common law legal system and civil legal system as well as from the writings of Shakepeare and a tenets or concept from the American realist movement which mainly flourished in the 1930s. It is an article which makes historical, comparative and literary analyses of the three Royal Orders emanating from a single King on the same day in early 17th century Burma.