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Thai Law: Buddhist Law. Essays on the Legal History of Thailand, Laos and Burma. Edited by ANDREW HUXLEY. Bangkok: White Orchid Press, 1996. vi, 211 pp.
We are currently entering what may be the most promising period in the study of premodern mainland Southeast Asia. New and established scholars in the field are carefully sifting through old records and other texts that have been "rediscovered" by local and international researchers. As a result, key aspects of the mainland Southeast Asian past, such as legal traditions, are getting a second look.
In the present contribution to scholarship on mainland Southeast Asian legal traditions, Thai Law: Buddhist Law, we have a new generation of scholars who have reexamined, and have gone well beyond, the legacy of colonial-era scholars whose outdated work has been very much in need of revision for some time. This valuable collection of six essays on various aspects of Thai, Lao, and Burmese legal history, was edited by Andrew Huxley who also wrote the (lengthy) introduction and contributed the fifth essay. Other contributors include Aroonrut Wichienkeeo, Pitinai Chaisaengsukkul, Sarup Ritchu, Mayoury Ngaosyvathn, and Michael Vickery, although the two articles by Vickery and Huxley together form the bulk of the book.
The justification for this collection is the relatively recent discovery and collection of an incredible number...