The British Courts and Extra-territoriality in Japan, 1859-1899

Book excerpt: In 'The British Courts and extra-territoriality in Japan, 1859-1899', Christopher Roberts reviews the Courts' day-to-day workings and examines the nature of, and fluctuations in, their case-load. By examining the Courts' case-load, it shows that, whilst some complaints that earlier commentators have made about the system's structure and the Consuls' lack of legal training and poor judgments may have been justified initially, the British authorities responded to them so that, over time, the Courts-and the practitioners within the system-came to reflect an increasing professionalism andsophistication. Using both a quantitative and a qualitative analysis of the reported cases, the author concludes that accusations of an anti-Japanese, pro-British bias on the part of the Courts are overstated.