Enduring commitment: a study of lawyering under authoritarian conditions in post-coup Myanmar

Since 1 February 2021, the Myanmar military has reintroduced military rule, marked by bloody crackdowns, extrajudicial killings, arbitrary detentions, and indiscriminate attacks on civilians. Legal aid lawyers supporting political detainees have been imprisoned, while others are on the run to evade arrest warrants. This article focuses on the effects of the return to military rule and the reactivation of a militarised criminal justice system, and the consequences for lawyers providing legal aid to political detainees and other unlawfully arrested individuals. Through semi-structured interviews with lawyers, we draw out the consequences for lawyers across three spheres (personal, professional, and material) identifying the way they are subject to intimidation; the subversion of lawyer-client privilege; and financial stress and strain. Drawing on work by Myanmar scholars we explore how, despite the challenges lawyers face, they endure and persist with their work demonstrating a ‘refusal’ (Prasse-Freeman, 2019) to accept the authority of the military regime and a determination to ‘advocate for law’ (Cheesman and San, 2014). Finally, in the activist spirit of this journal we consider the needs generated by the compromised circumstances faced by lawyers and explore possible ameliorating factors.