Myanmar Customary Law is the Customary Law of Myanmar

Buddhists, Customary law gradually came to be confided to affairs of

Myanmar family mainly, and religious usages and institutions. Sources of
Myanmar Customary Law are -
(1) The Dhammathats
(2) Custom
(3) Judicial precedents
(4) Legislation or the legislative enactments
(a) The Registration of Kittima Adoption Act.
(b) Myanmar Buddhist Women's Special Marriage Law 2015.

The Dhammathats are "treatise of rules which are in accordance

with custom and usage and referred to in the settlement of disputes
relating to person and property". They are a principal source of Myanmar
Customary Law. They are not Codes of law in the strict sense. They reflect
the social customs of the day, and expound rules of wisdom as guides for
kings, ministers and judges to rule by and for the people to live by.
The History of the Pitikas, compiled by Mingyi Maha Zeyatu, the
royal librarian under the last king of Mandalay, lists 175 treatises, of which
the Dhammathats proper are 57, the Phyatthon or Rulings are 82, the
Compendia and Digests 10 and the limka or Verse 26.
All of those Dhammathas, Manugye is firstly translated by
Dr.Richardson in 1847, and the Manugye became ready reference and
frequently cited it in the Courts. The Privy Council remarked in a case the
Maungye Dhammathat was unambiguous other Dhammathats did not
require to be referred to.
The Dhammathat was translated by Dr.Richardson in 1847. With the
publication of the English Version of the ex-Kinwin Mingyi U Gaung's
Digest of Burmese Buddhist Law this unrivalled position of
Manugye has become shaky. As Myanmar jurists do not regard Manugye
as sacrosanct so that not only Manugye but other Dhammathats deserve
to be referred to for ascertaining the present custom of the Burmese
Buddhists.
The Supreme Court of the Republic of Union of Burma has declared
that the Manugye Dhammathat is not paramount authority in the body of
Dhammathats are enunciated by the judicial Committee of the Privy
Council in "Ma Hnin Bwin vs. U Shwe Gon", and followed by the Rangoon
High Court in "Ma Nyun vs. Mg San Thein, 5 Ran .537 (F.B).
The Dhammathats contain a record of the customs of the people and
rules of conducts; they appeared at varying intervals over a large number
of year during which the customs have changed and the rule of law, some
falling into desuetude. Any attempt, therefore to construct the
Dhammathats" would result in numerous flat contradictions.
 However, where a question has to be decided by a Court and
present custom affords no guide to its solution, and then recourse must
necessarily be had to the Dhammathats themselves. Myanmar Customary
law which is unconnected with Buddhism is not the law of Dhammathats
pure and simple but is the customary law of the Burmese Buddhists, or in
other words, it is the body of customs observed by the Burmese Buddhists.
Dhammathats form one of the most important sources of information
about that body of customs.