Law and modern state-building in early republican China: The Supreme Court of Peking (1911--1926)

Drawing upon Supreme Court, provincial level, and local court case records in civil disputes over debt and obligation, this dissertation addresses the question of the significance of the expanded jurisdiction of the Supreme Court of Peking (Daliyuan) during the early republican period. The late-imperial state had been generally content to leave the resolution of civil dispute to local agencies; but with the introduction of a modern court system and the formal distinction between criminal and civil law in 1912, the Supreme Court of Peking now decided civil disputes that until recently had been resolved through the customary jurisdiction of family elders, lineage heads, or guild and community leaders, and the late-imperial state invoked, if at all, in the person of the county magistrate.; Through case study of disputes arising in different regions, State-heavy Beijing and commerce-heavy Shanghai and environs, this dissertation examines the tension inherent among three sources of law: formal law, local customs and usages, and Western-adopted legal principles. This tension reflects, in turn, broader issues of competition and accommodation between the Supreme Court and the merchant community as represented by the Chambers of Commerce. Through its civil jurisdiction in disputes over debt and obligation, the Supreme Court of Peking sought to nationalize the settlement of disputes among merchants, taking over the parapolitical work by the guilds. It also sought to work out a balance between the top-down imposition of legal principles and blind deference to local customs and trade usages. Increasingly, the Supreme Court relied upon trade guilds, merchant associations, and Chambers of Commerce to determine the existence and precise nature of a particular, alleged custom or business practice, but reserved for itself the final decision as to its force and application.; The accommodation between the Supreme Court and the Chambers of Commerce over jurisdictional turf to decide commercial matters was a fragile one. The expanded jurisdiction of the Supreme Court of Peking represented both a redistribution of rights and obligations of parties in the creation of substantive law and a potentially charged shifting of power relations among groups and institutions.