Shanghai International Settlement - Legal System in The Shanghai International Settlement

Legal System in The Shanghai International Settlement

The International Settlement did not have a unified legal system. The Municipal Council issued Land Regulations and regulations under this, that were binding on all people in the settlement. Other than this, citizens and subjects of powers that had treaties with China that provided for extraterritorial rights were subject to the laws of their own countries and civil and criminal complaints against them were required to be brought against them to their consular courts (courts overseen by consular officials) under the laws of their own countries.

Treaty Powers included Britain, France, Germany, Austro-Hungary, Belgium and the United States. Japanese citizens also enjoyed extraterritorial rights under a reciprocal treaty signed in the 1870s and then under the Treaty of Shimonoseki signed in 1895. Chinese citizens and citizens of non-treaty powers, for example Portugal, and after World War I, Germany, were subject to Chinese law. Inside the Settlement, cases against them would be brought to the Mixed Court a court established in the Settlement in the 1870s which existed until 1927. In cases involving foreigners, a foreign assessor, usually a consular officer, would sit with the Chinese magistrate and in many cases acted like a judge.

Two countries, Britain and the United States established formal court systems in China to try cases. The British Supreme Court for China and Japan was established in 1865 and located in its own building in the British Consulate compound and the United States Court for China was established in the US Consulate in 1906. Both courts were occupied by the Japanese on 8 December 1941 and effectively ceased to function from that date.