Laws of the land and the tales they tell | Melinda Tun | TEDxYangon

Who knew that laws could be so interesting and inspirational? Melinda Thet Tun achieves this by exploring the modern history of her birth country Myanmar, through a collection of its patchwork of laws across colonial, socialist, dictatorship and democratic eras. In a country where the law had too often been used as a sword to penalise and punish, she makes an inspirational call for the law to be used as a shield to protect the fundamental rights and freedom of its citizens.

Melinda Thet Tun is a Myanmar-born Australian-trained lawyer. Melinda was a senior lawyer specialising in mergers and acquisitions at an international law firm before transitioning to a career in law, governance and development in 2014. Her career transition was prompted after she started returning to Myanmar in 2012 to witness her own birth country’s rapid transition from military rule. She grew up listening to tales of Burma told by her grandparents, aunts, uncles and parents. She was partly led to a career in law after discovering her great-great-grandfather and great grandfather studied law in the UK, which ignited her interest in the tumultuous legal history of her country. Melinda is a partner at Opade Partners, a boutique consultancy advising on legal and justice sector reforms in Myanmar. She hopes to help rebuild the Myanmar legal system so that laws can be a shield, and not a sword, for the people of her birth country.

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx