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. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in San Francisco.
Contents
Before the Court
Extraterritorial jurisdiction in China was first granted to the United States by the Treaty of Wanghia upon ratification in 1845, followed by the Treaty of Tientsin ratified in 1860.
Under the treaties, cases against US citizens were tried in US consular courts, while cases against Chinese nationals were tried in Chinese courts. Consuls had jurisdiction in the following matters:
The commissioner had jurisdiction to hear all cases, and could prescribe rules of civil and criminal procedure for the consuls to follow.
Creation
The Court was established in 1906 and located in the Shanghai International Settlement, with additional sessions held at least annually in the Chinese cities of Canton, Tientsin, and Hankow. It was similar in structure to the British Supreme Court for China and Corea that had been established in Shanghai in 1865. The Court had only one judge, and those on trial sometimes had to wait months for proceedings. Appeals were allowed to the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
The U.S. consular courts in China retained limited jurisdiction, including civil cases where property involved in the controversy did not exceed $500 and criminal cases where the punishment did not exceed $100 in fines or 60 days' imprisonment. The Court exercised appellate jurisdiction over them, as well as over similar Consular Courts in Korea.
Persons who were convicted of criminal offences were generally sent to the federal penitentiary at McNeil Island in Washington to serve their sentence.
Jurisprudence
Its jurisdiction was given an expansive interpretation:
The sources of law drawn upon by the Court were quite varied:
The question as to what constituted "common law" led to severe difficulties, because U.S. federal law did not cover many criminal offenses or civil matters (which were normally provided for by U.S. state law). The Ninth Circuit provided a solution to this conundrum in the case of Biddle v. United States, where it was held that the laws of the Territory of Alaska or the District of Columbia were federal law and could be applied by the Court. As a result, Judge Lobingier would later hold that "there can be no half way adoption of that doctrine; it includes all such laws or none. It cannot logically be restricted to any particular class of acts. It is just as applicable to civil laws as to criminal; just as 'necessary' in respect to corporations as to procedure."
The Court prescribed its own rules for procedures to be followed. This was in contrast to the situation in the States, where civil procedure in actions at law (i.e., most lawsuits for monetary damages) in U.S. federal courts was normally provided for by state law, by virtue of the Conformity Act of 1872, until the promulgation of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure in 1938.
The United States Congress also passed several statutes conferring specific powers on the Court:
Abolition
The United States Consulate and Court in Shanghai were occupied by the Japanese on 8 December 1941 at the beginning of the Pacific War. The Judge and other staff were interned for 6 months before being repatriated. Americans continued to enjoy extraterritorial rights in those parts of China not occupied by the Japanese.
On 11 January 1943, the U.S. and China signed the Treaty for Relinquishment of Extraterritorial Rights in China, thereby relinquishing all U.S. extraterritorial rights. The treaty was ratified in May 1943 and came into force then. As a result, both the U.S. Court for China and the U.S. Consular Courts in China were abolished. However, their judgments continued to serve as res judicata within China.
The very last case before the court was heard in Kunming starting on 14 January 1943. Boatner Carney of the Flying Tigers was prosecuted for manslaughter before Special Judge Bertrand E Johnson. Carney was convicted of unlawful killing and sentenced to two years imprisonment. He was pardoned 6 months later by President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Judges of the United States Court for China
Two individuals were also appointed Special Judges of the Court to try cases when the Judge was not available. They were:
Commissioners of the United States Court for China
Notable Attorneys
The following attorneys of note practiced before the court: