A Barrister in the Far East - Duncan McNeill / T.M.Thorp (ePub)

I was called to the Bar in 1889 and went abroad very soon afterwards. For thirty-five years, from the beginning of 1891, I practised in Extra-territorial Courts. As we shall probably, before long, see the end of a system that has been in force ever since our country came into direct relations with the alien cultures of China and Japan, I think that perhaps this record, which covers the period of its decline, may be of interest to the international legal fraternity. Although some years may elapse before H.B.M Supreme Court for China goes the way of H.B.M Court for Japan, it is tolerably certain that no young barrister or solicitor commencing practice in Shanghai in 1930 will be able to report in 1950 that a British Court still exists there.

Most people have a general idea of what Extra-territoriality (or Ex-territoriality or Ex-trality) means; but I may as well state here that, in countries which have by Treaty conceded extra-territorial privileges to British subjects, such persons are amenable only to the law of England administered by British officials. The subjects of other countries having similar Treaties enjoy, of course, the like immunity from local jurisdiction. It is a typically Chinese system. Chinese jurisdiction applies to universal matters but, as we shall see, established Treaties provide us with much free rein to govern private disputes...