Legal Transplants as Historical Data: Exemplum Birmanicum

摘要

A flurry of scholarly interest in Burmese legal history occurred between 1882 and 1885. Before 1882 it had been assumed that Burma had its own distinctive, Buddhist, legal tradition. A new theory was announced: that Burmese Law was a late offshoot of the Sanskrit legal literature typified by Manusmrti. I shall argue that the new theory was not supported by persuasive evidence. The new theory, I suggest, partook less of scholarship and more of propaganda in support of the annexation of Upper Burma.