Thai Law: Buddhist Law: Essays on the Legal History of Thailand, Laos and Burma

The volume opens with Andrew Huxley’s introduction, which reviews the development of Thai legal history as a research field and discusses major methodological questions concerning manuscripts, regional law, Buddhist influence, and the interpretation of the Three Seals Code. The subsequent essays examine Lanna customary law, new source materials from the Siamese kingdom, legal manuscripts from southern Thailand, and the legal traditions associated with Khun Borom. The later chapters broaden the comparative scope by analyzing Thai, Mon, and Burmese dhammasat traditions and by examining the Constitution of Ayutthaya through the Three Seals Code. Together, the chapters present pre-modern Southeast Asian law not as a single centralized system, but as a layered legal culture shaped by Buddhist texts, royal administration, regional customs, manuscript transmission, and changing political authority.