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The Invention of Burmese Buddhist Law: A Case Study in Legal Orientalism Volume 4, No. 1 Hilary McGeachy Hilary McGeachy studied law and arts at the Australian National University, Canberra. This article locates the 1882 Notes on Buddhist Law of Sir John Jardine, a British Judicial Commissioner in colonial Burma, in the context of discourse on Orientalism in comparative law. It argues that his now-contested account of Burmese customary law as derived from Indian traditions was at once intended to provide resources to colonial administrators and was a product of a belief in the inherent value of scholarship. Critiques of Orientalism notwithstanding, the author concludes there remains much of value in colonial writing about law in Asia. |