The 'Treaty Tribunal' and International Commerce: Dispute Resolution in-between British and Chinese Legal Systems in Mid-Nineteenth-Century Shanghai

• In Event: Extraterritoriality in China and Japan

Abstract

'Extraterritoriality' was a core component of Sino-foreign treaty relations from 1842 to 1943. The century saw the extension and diversification of 'unequal' treaty relations between China and foreign states, with the British Empire as the pioneering foreign power. All commercial disputes between Chinese and British subjects were managed, in theory, according to Article 17 of the Treaty of Tianjin of 1858, which regulated British consular mediation and international trial as resolution methods. To execute such foreign civil jurisdiction, the British Empire instituted imperial laws for China. This dispute resolution method experienced significant reforms in the 1870s. I will argue that on the ground in China diplomacy and commerce were closely intertwined through the practice of mixed civil jurisdiction under those treaty principles. Specifically, I will demonstrate how the development of Sino-British diplomatic discussions and local commercial rules in the 1870s China was stimulated by the practice of mixed civil jurisdiction in one conflict in Sino-British tea trade at Shanghai, the Chunji case. The commercial conflict produced new commercial rules and led to diplomatic negotiations on mixed jurisdiction in China in order to settle existing deficits. An implication of this argument is to shed light on the developmental mechanism of the 'treaty system'. Occasionally, Chinese and British merchants deviated from commercial rules, and they attempted to declare new commercial rules in an international and imperial legal situation in China. This interaction between trans-imperial rules and commercial realities was the constitutive and interactive dynamism of treaty development in China.

Author

• Takaki Nishiyama, University College London