publications

Many publications are available here; or write to request something. For a general resource bibliography of interpretive political science and international studies go here. For new and archived publications on Myanmar or Burma go here.

books

Myanmar: A Political Lexicon, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2023 [Pre-publication Open Access manuscript available here]

Opposing the Rule of Law: How Myanmar's Courts Make Law and Order, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2015 [Symposia in Asian Journal of Law and Society 5, 2 (2018) 485-498; with Terence Halliday, Lynette Chua and Sida Liu; and Hague Journal on the Rule of Law 9, 1 (2017) 29-44 with Martin Krygier, Sally Engle Merry, Frank Munger, and Jothie Rajah]

articles

‘Interpretation and Political Science in Australia.’ Australian Journal of Political Science 59, 4, (2025) 361-370; with April Biccum [Open access; Introduction to special issue: Doing Interpretive Political Science — in Australia]

‘What’s to Know about Politics? Positivism and Tradition in Australian Undergraduate Programme and Course Descriptions.’ Australian Journal of Political Science 59, 4 (2025) 424-436; with Will Howe [Open access]

‘Revolution and Solidarity in Myanmar.’ Journal of Contemporary Asia 54, 5 (2024) 741-758; with Justine Chambers [Open access; introduction to special issue of same title; summary here]

‘Torture in Thailand at the Limits of Law.’ Law & Social Inquiry 48, 1 (2023) 236-261

‘Law and Order.’ Annual Review of Law and Social Science 18 (2022) 263-281 [Open access]

‘On the Banality of Paperwork and the Brutality of Judicial Bureaucracy in Myanmar.’ History and Anthropology 33, 1 (2022) 165-182 [In special issue on Material Encounters; republished here]

‘Reading Paperwork Realistically.’ Politics, Groups, and Identities 9, 4 (2021) 835-840 [In special section on Misunderstanding Ethnography]

‘Routine Impunity as Practice (in Myanmar).’ Human Rights Quarterly 41, 4 (2019) 873-892

'Coming to Terms with Moral Authorities in Myanmar', Sojourn 34, 2 (2019) 231-257; with Justine Chambers

'Martin Krygier's Passion for the Rule of Law (and His Virtues)', Hague Journal on the Rule of Law 11, 2-3 (2019) 255-276; with Ronald Janse [Open access; introduction to special issue of the same title]

'Rule-of-Law Ethnography', Annual Review of Law and Social Science 14 (20188) 167-184

'How in Myanmar "National Races" Came to Surpass Citizenship and Exclude Rohingya', Journal of Contemporary Asia 47, 3 (2017) 461-483 [Republished here; summary here]

'Interpreting Communal Violence in Myanmar', Journal of Contemporary Asia 47, 3 (2017) 335-352 [Open access; introduction to special issue of same title; republished here]

'Reading Hobbes's Sovereign into a Burmese Narrative of Police Torture', Asia Pacific Journal on Human Rights and the Law 17, 2 (2016) 199-211 [In special section on torture after 9/11 coedited with Cynthia Banham]

'Rule-of-Law Lineages in Colonial and Early Post-colonial Burma', Modern Asian Studies 50, 2 (2016) 564-601

'Anticipating the Struggle against Everyday Impunity in Myanmar through Accounts from Bangladesh and Thailand', Asia & The Pacific Policy Studies, 3, 1 (2016) 48-61; with Bina D’Costa and Tyrell Haberkorn [Open access]

'That Signifier of Desire, the Rule of Law', Social Research, 82, 2 (2015) 267-290

'What Does the Rule of Law Have to Do with Democratization (in Myanmar)?' South East Asia Research, 22, 2 (2014) 213-232

'Not Just Defending; Advocating for Law in Myanmar', Wisconsin International Law Journal, 31, 3 (2014) 702-733; with Kyaw Min San

'Law and Order as Asymmetrical Opposite to the Rule of Law', Hague Journal on the Rule of Law, 6, 1 (2014) 96-114

'How an Authoritarian Regime in Burma Used Special Courts to Defeat Judicial Independence', Law and Society Review, 45, 4 (2011) 801-830

'Thin Rule of Law or Un-Rule of Law in Myanmar?' Pacific Affairs, 82, 4 (2009) 597-613

'School, State and Sangha in Burma', Comparative Education 39, 1 (2003) 45-63

'Seeing Karen in the Union of Myanmar', Asian Ethnicity 3, 2 (2002) 199-220

chapters

‘How Intermediaries Broker the Rule of Law Transnationally’, in Sevel, M (ed.), Routledge Handbook of the Rule of Law, Routledge, London, 2024, pp. 179-194; with Kristina Simion

‘Land and Law between Reform and Revolution’, in Simpson, A & Farrelly, N (eds), Myanmar: Politics, Economy and Society, 2nd ed., Routledge, London, 2023, pp. 60-74; with Dorothy Mason

‘Political Lawyers and the Legal Occupation in Myanmar,’ in Whalen-Bridge, H (ed.) The Role of Lawyers in Access to Justice: Asian and Comparative Perspectives, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2022, pp. 124-144; with Alice Dawkins

‘An Experiment with the Island Detention of Public Enemies in Postcolonial Burma’, in Cribb, R, Twomey, C & Wilson, S (eds), Detention Camps in Asia, Brill, Leiden, 2022, pp. 63-81

‘Unbound Comparison’, in Smith, N & Simmons, E (eds), Rethinking Comparison, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2021, pp. 64-83

‘Police Torture: A Case for Interdisciplinarity’, in Talesh, S, Mertz, E & Klug, H (eds), Research Handbook on Modern Legal Realism, Edward Elgar, 2021, pp.112-123

'Law, Lawyers and Legal Institutions', in Simpson, A & Farrelly, N (eds), Myanmar: Politics, Economy and Society, 1st ed., Routledge, London, 2020, pp. 44-58; with Mish Khan

'Why Asian Legal Institutions Fail to Protect the Rights of the Vulnerable', in De Varennes, F & Gardiner, C (eds), Routledge Handbook of Human Rights in Asia, Routledge, New York, 2019, pp. 16-29; with Basil Fernando

'Pragmatic Critique of Torture, in Sri Lanka', in Fassin, D & Harcourt, B (eds), A Time for Critique, Columbia University Press, New York, 2019, pp. 193-209

'Las cuatro décadas de lucha interna en Birmania' (Burma's four decades of struggle within), in Iacobelli, P, Cribb, R & Perrelló J (eds), Asia y el Pacífico durante la Guerra Fría (Asia and the Pacific during the Cold War), Fondo de Cultura Economica, Santiago, 2017, pp. 209-222

'Myanmar and the promise of the political', in Cheesman, N & Farrelly, F (eds), Conflict in Myanmar: War, Politics, Religion, ISEAS, Singapore, 2016, pp. 353-366

'The Right to Have Rights' / အခွင့်အရေး ရပိုင်ခွင့် in Cheesman N & Htoo Kyaw Win (eds), Communal Violence in Myanmar / မြန်မာနိုင်ငံမှာ လူမျိုးရေးဘာသာရေးပဋိပက္ခ Myanmar Knowledge Society, Yangon (2015) 139-164

'Bodies on the Line in Burma's Law Reports, 1892-1922', in Crouch, M & Lindsey (eds), Law, Society and Transition in Myanmar, Hart, Oxford, 2014, pp. 77-94

'A Short Research Guide to Myanmar's Legal System', in Crouch, M & Lindsey, T (eds), Law, Society and Transition in Myanmar, Hart, Oxford, pp. 21-32; with Melissa Crouch

'Democratization, Violence, and Myanmar', in Cheesman, N, Farrelly, N & Wilson T (eds), Debating Democratization in Myanmar, ISEAS, Singapore, 2014, pp. 331-349

'Myanmar's Courts and the Sounds Money Makes', in Cheesman, N, Skidmore, M & Wilson, T (eds), Myanmar's Transition: Openings, Obstacles and Opportunities, ISEAS, Singapore, 2012, pp. 231-248

'The Incongruous Return of Habeas Corpus to Myanmar', in Cheesman, N, Skidmore, M & Wilson, T (eds), Ruling Myanmar: From Cyclone Nargis to National Elections, ISEAS, Singapore, 2010, pp. 90-111

reviews

‘Armenia, Gaza, and the Trouble of Political Trial’ (review essay of Ertür, Spectacles and Specters) in Law and Social Inquiry (2025) 50, 3, pp. 927-933.

‘Cyborgs, Torturers, and the Making of Forensic Psychological Knowledge’ (review essay of Lokaneeta, The Truth Machines), in Law and Social Inquiry (2022) 47, 2, pp. 714-719.

Short reviews of Schatz, Slow Anti-Americanism, in Cambridge Review of International Affairs (2023); Bertrand, Pelletier & Thawnghmung, Winning by Process, in South East Asia Research (2023); Celermajer, The Prevention of Torture, in Law and Society Review (2021); Camacho, Sacred Men, in Journal of Pacific History (2021); Chua, The Politics of Love in Myanmar, in Asian Journal of Law and Society (2020); David & Holliday, Liberalism and Democracy in Myanmar, in Asian Journal of Law and Society (2020); Schonthal, Buddhism, Politics, and the Limits of Law, in Law and Society Review (2017); Horsey, Ending Forced Labour in Myanmar, in South East Asia Research (2013); Davis & Galligan, Human Rights in Asia, in Journal of Contemporary Asia, (2012); Harding & Nicholson, New Courts in Asia, in Asian Journal of Criminology (2011); and, Evans, Hutton & Kuah Khun Eng (eds), Where China Meets Southeast Asia, in Asian Ethnicity (2003).

essays

‘From the Verge’, Demos, 13 (2025) 71-74; ‘Has Meritocracy Gotten the Better of Our Universities?’ ABC Religion & Ethics, September 15, 2025; ‘Becoming James C. Scott’, APSA Comparative Politics 37, 2 (2025) 43-46; ‘Where the People Are’, Arena Quarterly 14 (2023) 68-75; ‘What Constitutes Torture?’ ABC Religion & Ethics, September 6, 2021 [Discussed on ABC Radio National, The Minefield]; ‘State Terror and Torture’, ABC Religion & Ethics, July 23, 2021; ‘Myanmar’s Theatre of Violence’, ABC Religion & Ethics, June 14, 2021 [Discussed on The Minefield]; ‘Revolution in Myanmar’, Arena Quarterly 8 (2021) 60-65; ‘Post-legalism and the Fear of Politics’, ABC Religion & Ethics, February 9, 2021; ‘George Floyd Was Not Just Killed — He Was Tortured’, ABC Religion & Ethics, June 24, 2020

papers

Myanmar, Law and Order, the Moon and Me, presented at London School of Economics, June 6, 2019; Theorizing about Torture, Institute for Advanced Study, School of Social Science, Occasional Paper No. 59, 2017

dissertations

The Politics of Law and Order in Myanmar, Australian National University, 2012;

Legitimising the Union of Myanmar through Primary School Textbooks, University of Western Australia, 2002