Origins of the legal regulation of foreigners in China

• Authors: Michal Tomášek
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

Foreigners in China always stood outside the local culture, including the legal one. Under imperial codification, justice to people of non-Chinese civilisations was to be administered according to their own customs. Already in early last millennium, Chinese introduced for foreigners so-called fanfang regime. Foreigners were concentrated in restricted areas, municipal districts or streets called fanfang. They were subject to their own jurisdiction there. Their national was appointed by the Chinese authorities to exercise the jurisdiction. Foreigners were treated as equals to the Chinese only when they were deemed useful to the local monarch. The opposite was true during the times of China’s semi-colonial status between 1842 and 1941 when foreigners took a position above the legal and general culture of China. The situation was reversed, therefore if the foreigners deemed a Chinese useful they treated him as equal.

Keywords

EN

China; foreigners; international private law; Buddhism; Islam; Jesuits

Discipline

• LAW_&_ADMINISTRATION: LAW & ADMINISTRATION

• Publisher: Institute of State and Law, Czech Academy of Sciences
• Journal: The Lawyer Quarterly
• Year: 2021
• Volume: 11
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 70-82
• Document type: ARTICLE

Contributors

author

Michal Tomášek

• ---