The Justice of the Western Consular Courts in Nineteenth-Century Japan

Abstract

Author Richard Chang maintains that there is no factual evidence to support the Japanese contention that the Western consular tribunals of the nineteenth century were partial to Westerners and prejudiced against Japanese, and, consequently, seldom rendered equal justice. He ascertained how many of the more than 3,500 mixed cases were decided prejudicially against Japanese litigants. Chang's careful treatment of the five most celebrated mixed cases makes it possible to see for the first time how international law operated through consular jurisdiction and how the Japanese were trying to protect national interests within a justice system dependent on Western jurists. The book also provides the first overview of the extra-territorial agreements between Japan and the Western powers with which it traded during this period.