Re-examination of Abolishing Consular Jurisdiction as the Start of Law Modification in Late Qing

Abstract

In recent years, the proposition that the abolition of consular jurisdiction was the start of the late Qing legal reforms was challenged. According to the arguments of scholars engaged in subverting the traditional mainstream view, the “Mackay Treaty” was signed on September 5, 1902, but Empress Cixi issued the “Law Reform Decree” on her way back from Xi’an after the Gengzi Event, then the Qing government’s decision for law reform was not a consequence of Article 12 of the “Mackay Treaty.” This article argues that methodology of historical textual research requires a comprehensive view of the whence and whither. The traditional view that the abolition of consular jurisdiction served as an urgent cause for the modernization of Chinese law cannot be rejected imprudently by a superficial approach to pounce on one point and ignore all others; our vision should be broadened by taking the overall situation into consideration. Otherwise over-corrections will result in an incomplete view of the whole scenario. The relation between the law modifications in late Qing and the reclamation of consular jurisdiction is extremely intricate and complex. Previously this had to be discussed by Robert Hart and others in detail.