Consular courts were law courts established by foreign powers in countries where they had

extraterritorial rights Extraterritorial jurisdiction (ETJ) is the legal ability of a government to exercise authority beyond its normal boundaries. Any authority can claim ETJ over any external territory they wish. However, for the claim to be effective in the externa ...

. They were presided over by consular officers.

Extraterritoriality

United States Consular Court Constantinople

Western powers when establishing diplomatic relations with countries they considered to have underdeveloped legal systems would demand

. Treaty provisions provided that the laws of the local country did not apply to citizens of the treaty powers and that local courts did not have jurisdiction over them. Consular courts were established to handle civil and criminal cases against citizens and subjects of the subjects of the country. The British had the widest system of consular courts run by the

Foreign Office Foreign may refer to: Government * Foreign policy, how a country interacts with other countries * Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in many countries ** Foreign Office, a department of the UK government ** Foreign office and foreign minister * Unit ...

. British consular courts could be found in Africa, the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University) ...

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...

, China, Japan, Korea and Siam.Turan Kayaoğlu, Legal Imperialism, Sovereignty and Extraterritoriality in Japan, the Ottoman Empire, and China

China and Japan

In China and Japan under the "

unequal treaties Unequal treaty is the name given by the Chinese to a series of treaties signed during the 19th and early 20th centuries, between China (mostly referring to the Qing dynasty) and various Western powers (specifically the British Empire, France, the ...

" signed in the mid-19th century many countries established consular courts in cities open to foreign trade (called

treaty ports Treaty ports (; ja, 条約港) were the port cities in China and Japan that were opened to foreign trade mainly by the unequal treaties forced upon them by Western powers, as well as cities in Korea opened up similarly by the Japanese Empire. ...

). Britain established a fully fledged court system in China and Japan. In 1865, the British Supreme Court for China and Japan was established in

Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flow ...

, China as a first instance consular court for cases in the Shanghai region as well as an appellate court for cases heard by consular courts in the rest of China, Japan and, from the 1880s Korea. In 1879, a British Court for Japan was established in

Yokohama is the second-largest city in Japan by population and the most populous municipality of Japan. It is the capital city and the most populous city in Kanagawa Prefecture, with a 2020 population of 3.8 million. It lies on Tokyo Bay, south of To ...

to replace the Kanagawa Consular Court to hear first instance cases for Yokohama region as well as to act as an appellate court for cases from consular courts in other Japanese cities. In Japan

extraterritoriality In international law, extraterritoriality is the state of being exempted from the jurisdiction of local law, usually as the result of diplomatic negotiations. Historically, this primarily applied to individuals, as jurisdiction was usually cla ...

came to an end on 4 August 1899 and the

British Court for Japan The British Court for Japan (formally Her Britannic Majesty's Court for Japan) was a court established in Yokohama in 1879 to try cases against British subjects in Japan, under the principles of extraterritoriality. The court also heard appeals ...

and other consular courts closed soon after that after finalising pending cases. There was a right of appeal to the

Judicial Committee of the Privy Council The Judicial Committee of the Privy Council (JCPC) is the highest court of appeal for the Crown Dependencies, the British Overseas Territories, some Commonwealth countries and a few institutions in the United Kingdom. Established on 14 Augus ...

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

from the British consular courts. In 1906, the United States established the

United States Court for China The United States Court for China was a United States district court that had extraterritorial jurisdiction over U.S. citizens in China. It existed from 1906 to 1943 and had jurisdiction in civil and criminal matters, with appeals taken to the U.S ...

modelled on the British Supreme Court for China and Japan. In China, consular courts operated up until the 1940s when

for most nations came to an end then.

References

{{Authority control Consular affairs Courts Extraterritorial jurisdiction