"...I shall sketch the main outline of Burmese family law rather than concentrate on recent developments. There are two main aspects of comparative interest. First, Buddhist ethics combine with Burmese sentiments to produce a system with very little sexual discrimination: ?There is ho country where the principle of equality of the sexes has been carried further than in Burma,”1 enthused an English judge in 1927. Second, law, meaning both state-appointed judges applying state-based sanctions and religious leaders applying conscience-based sanctions, is strikingly absent from the regulation of the Burmese family. The important sanctions are those of local group pressure, which restrict parties to a narrow range of behavior permitted by family law..."