ပါမောက္ခ ဦးလှအောင်

Professor Hla Aung was born on 8th August 1923 in a small village in Sedoktaya township, Minbu District, Magwe Division, Myanmar. Hla Aung's ancestors on both sides were of peasant stock; but those on his father's side belonged to a long line of hereditary Ywathughis (Village Headmen). With the coming of British rule, however, in 1886, U (Pron: OO) Kaing Hla Aung's father, broke this family tradition and decided to become a government worker in the Land Records Department. 

So after completing a course of Studies at the Government Survey School in Shwe bo in upper Burma, U Kaing was appointed as Revenue Surveyor and posted to Salin township in Minbu District where he met (Miss) Ma Mya Khin, a village beauty, who later became Hla Aung's mother. 

A steady and conscientious worker

When the young boy was about six years old, Hla Aung was sent to the village kindergarten, a government - recognized primary school. Being an intelligent and obedient student, Hla Aung finished primary school in four years.

Hla Aung's father, who wanted his son to be educated in English, sent him to the Anglo-Vernacular High School in Salin town, some thirty miles from Tabwinywa where Vernacular Primary School was situated. 

The High School authorities placed Hla Aung in the 2nd Grade since he could not recite the English alphabet form A to Z. He however, found himself ahead of other class-mates in subjects other than English. He, therefore, concentrated on English and worked feverishly on improving his knowledge of English with the result that when the half-yearly promotion ex- amination was held in October, Hla Aung's name topped the list of successful students who were moved one Grade up, thus winning "a double promotion." The studious young boy worked hard by keeping the momentum thus accelerating his ascent up the academic ladder. Hla Aung finally passed the Tenth Grade (Matriculation) Examination a year earlier. The accolade Hla Aung received from his school Manager was that he was "a steady and conscientious worker."

Pursuit of higher education

Hla Aung wanted to pursue further studies at the University of Rangoon, But his graduation from Salin High School coincided with his father's retirement from government service and the outbreak of the second world war in 1941. So Hla Aung's parents could not afford to send him to the University. Consequently, Hla Aung had to work full time and study part-time to support his parents and to work for the B.A degree as a private candidate. He got his B.A (Bachelor of Arts) degree in 1950 and the B.L (Bachelor of Laws) degree in 1952. In the list of successful candidates for the B.L degree, Hla Aung stood first in order of merit. But Hla Aung's thirst for higher and further education was almost unquenchable. He applied for and won a Fulbright and Smidth-Mundt Scholarship from the United States Educational Foundation in Rangoon for a year's further study in the U.S.A. The Scholarship was tenable at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis for a period of one academic year commencing from August, 1952. 

Hla Aung arrived in Minnesota late in July 1952 and was duly inducted into a course of studies leading to the degree of Master of Arts in Public Administration (M.A.P.A). He completed the course work before the end of the academic year. But just before the end of the academic year Hla Aung received word from the Embassy of the Union of Burma in Washington D.C that he had been awarded a government State Scholarship tenable for a period of four years. The scholarship was to begin upon expiry of the Fulbright Scholarship. So Hla Aung continued working for the MAPA degree. Meanwhile Hla aung's academic advisor, Prof-George Warp of the Public Administration Program, told him that if he were to study law, the best Institution to go to was Harvard Law School. 

So after completing his Master's Thesis, which was unanimously approved by the Board of Examiners, Hla Aung left for Massachusetts to join the Harvard Law School in September 1953. After a grueling two-year struggle with the case method or Harvard style of teaching law, Hla Aung came out of Harvard with a L.L.M in 1955.

References

[1]https://www.burmalibrary.org/docs19/REDISCOVERING-red.pdf

PACIFIC RIM LAW & POLICY JOURNAL VOL. 23 No. 3 page 548

[1]

Another Burmese lawyer who wrote on this subject (in English),

under the kings and comparisons to the English common law.

30

the Attorney General of Burma (1971–1974).

among other areas of law,

Harvard Law School, he went on to work as an academic at the National University of Singapore, at Rangoon Arts and Science University, and as

31

is Professor Hla Aung. A 1955 graduate of

the negative impact of the transplant of the common law into Burma, and

argued that the “importation of Indian codes and statues into Burma had

shattered the whole fabric of Burmese law.”32 In a brief article, he tackles

the ubiquitous task of what is “law” and argues that the Burmese concept

of law has traversed three eras: the “Age of the Dhammathats,” British

34

30 For example, Hla Aung has also written short pieces on international and comparative law.

See HLA AUNG, LAW AND JUSTICE IN MYANMAR (2008).

31 Id. at Prefatory Note.

32 Hla Aung, The Effect of Anglo-Indian Legislation on Burmese Customary Law, in FAMILY LAW AND CUSTOMARY LAW IN ASIA: A CONTEMPORARY LEGAL PERSPECTIVE 67, 88 (David C. Buxbaum ed., 1968).

33 Hla Aung, Burmese Concept of Law, 52 J. BURMA RES. SOC’Y 27 (1969).

34 Id. at 31, 33.

[2]

https://www.burmalibrary.org/docs19/REDISCOVERING-red.pdf 

Rediscovering-red June 2014 pg 571

[2]

B. The Legal Profession and Education

The themes of legal education and the legal profession are intimately related. On legal education, Hla Aung has published a brief note describing the state of legal education in the late 1950s, in which he diagnosed the need for “radical change in modern Burmese legal education.”242

242 Hla Aung, A Brief Note on Legal Education, 1 BURMA L. INST. J. 83 (1958)

[3]

Legal Education in Burma Unpublished… pg 43

[3]

From about 1964 to his appointment by the late General Ne Win as Attorney-General in September 1971 Professor U Hla Aung, BA, BL (Rangoon), LLM (Harvard), MPA (Master of Public Administration, Minnesota) was the Head of the Department of Law at Rangoon Arts and Science University. To the best of the author’s knowledge among the full-time academic staff members of the Department of Law since 1964 Professor U Hla Aung was the only person who have academic degrees in law from a United States Law School (Harvard University) and Professors (the late) U Tin Ohn and Professor Dr Daw Than Nwe are the only persons to have academic degrees in law from the United Kingdom (University of London).

[4]

https://chemonics.com/projects/introducing-the-rule-of-law-in-myanmar/

http://www.developmentpi.com/index.php/project/myanmar.html 

Access to Justice and Administrative Law in Myanmar pg 34

Promoting the Rule of Law Project | USAID

[4]

U Hla Aung (1961) ‘The Law of Preventive Detention in Burma’ 3(1) Journal of the International Commission of Jurists 47–67.

[5]

https://www.law.ox.ac.uk/sites/files/oxlaw/myanmar_book_26_may_2015.pdf

[5] 

(2) Attorney General Professor U Hla Aung

Sayar Gyi U Hla Aung, Professor of Law, who served as the Attorney General from 25-9-1971 to 4-3-1974.  On 10-7-1973, we, the legal staff level 4 (probationary), met again with Sayar Gyi U Hla Aung in our working life.  As a law student, I was more respected as a Attorney General when I was a law clerk because I was a professor.

“However, we will rule with compassion for the students. ”  Hla Aung, a professor of law and attorney general, advises us on a daily basis: “You are not young anymore.  Students must prepare their minds.  Now that you are a law officer, you have to be more and more law-abiding. ”  Most of our law enforcement officers paid homage to U Hla Aung, the Attorney General who came from his teaching career.  The role of legal education and the situation in Myanmar;  I am reminded of how the Attorney General, U Hla Aung, taught the legal concept of having a legal staff.

International perspective

Among the teachings of the Attorney General, Professor U Hla Aung, is to consider the law from the perspective of international law.  It is always pointed out (that is not enough from a local point of view).  I especially remember this one.

University law education (for example, 1878 colonial-era university law education, 1920 Rangoon University law department, part-time teaching, B-L (Bachelor of Law) degree, Revolutionary Council education policy;  1964 University education  1965 Full-time Undergraduate Law Courses;  Yangon: The emergence of a separate law department at the University of Arts and Sciences, B.A (Law);  Sayar Gyi U Hla Aung, Professor of Law (Attorney General), talks about the LL.B assignments and systematically teaches how ideas flow through the life of the legal profession.

Goodwill

Because legal thinking is legal, it may not be the same as other ideas. It's just a thought of my goodwill to pay tribute to the gracious teachers who have pondered this concept over and over again.  

[6]

https://books.google.com/books/about/Law_and_Justice_in_Myanmar.html?id=ZRMAPwAACAAJ

The author of the book “Hla Aung, LAW AND JUSTICE IN MYANMAR”, published by Tun Foundation Bank Literacy Committee