On 6 March 2019, a delegation of four lawyers from Myanmar visited the University of Bristol to gain insight into the legal support services the Clinic offers the Bristol community.
The visit was part of a fact-finding trip to help inform the establishment of legal clinics at universities in Yangon. The team also met with the Crown Court, Magistrates Court, criminal lawyers, and the police.
Stephen McNamara, former Head of Legal Services and Returning Officer at Bristol City Council, commented:
“The trip was an extraordinary experience for our Myanmar colleagues. Myanmar lawyers have a bravery we can only guess at. They very much appreciated the generosity and openness of their colleagues in Bristol. In different ways we are all working to support the rule of law. This visit may well have contributed to bringing about fundamental change.”
The meeting laid the foundations for the continued exchange of ideas and development of links across continents, with discussions about how support could be offered to potential clinics in Myanmar, including the idea of student exchange programs.
The delegation's visit was funded by Tharthi Myay Foundation, a Myanmar NGO supporting local groups working on land, law and gender issues, and supported by Stephen who has been working with Myanmar lawyers to develop ideas about how the law and criminal procedure in Myanmar, which is based on an unreformed penal code dating back to 1861, could be updated.
The lawyers sought answers as to how the Law Clinic operates in providing a pro bono service to the community and educating students on running cases and applying the law in practice. There is currently one university law clinic in Myanmar, which has been running for six months, so the delegation was particularly interested in how cases are distributed and managed throughout, and how the system effectively functions with only three practising solicitors overseeing 200 students.
In return the Law Clinic was given the opportunity to learn about a legal system where the rule of law has to be consistently fought for at the most basic level.
During the meeting Saffron Lim, student director of the Law Clinic, spoke about the Clinical Legal Studies module, which embeds practical application of law into the Law School’s LLB as a third-year option, and explained how the student committee runs day-to-day clinic tasks such as allocating cases. Commenting on the learning opportunity the visit presented, she said:
“It was fascinating to learn about how the law worked in Myanmar and how starkly it differed from the way the law is viewed and used in England. English people trust the law as a tool for people to ensure equality and justice, but it seems there is a deep distrust of the law in Myanmar. It was also really inspiring to hear about the cases that the women lawyers in the delegation worked on, like ensuring a fairer sentence for an accidental trespass case or a stabbing done in self-defence.”
Sumayyah Malna, Teaching Associate and Law Clinic Adviser, said: “It was a very interesting meeting. The lawyers were well respected in their fields, and they had all done amazing things in the pursuit of justice in Myanmar. One of them sits on the Legal Aid Board in Myanmar, and had actually served a prison sentence many years ago for trying to establish justice during the dictatorship.
I found the lawyers really inspirational. They are obviously hugely dedicated to establishing a fair and just legal process with Myanmar. They are trying to change a system where bribery is the norm, and where your connections to people high up may be more important than whether you have a strong defence in law. It really highlighted aspects of our legal system that we just take for granted.”