Consular Jurisdiction And The Legal Reform In The Late Qing Dynasty

Since the ancient time, there is a gap in legal system between China and the western countries. In the western countries, private relationships are in dominant; where in China, the Criminal Law is in dominant. Since the17th century, the Bourgeois Revolution broke out. The bourgeois’legal system established. But in China, the feudal legal system remained.Since the Opium War in1840, the western countries grabbed Extraterritoriality from China one by one, in the excuse that the Chinese law was cruel and backward. But their main purpose was to seek more interest from China. The Chinese treated the Extraterritoriality as great shame. The Chinese people tried their best to withdraw the very right. The ruler of the late Qing Dynasty also had a try. The method of the legal reform was to learn from the western countries in the legal system to reform the Chinese legal system. The legal reform lasted ten years. After that, China established bourgeois’ legal system as the western countries. Although the western countries grabbed Extraterritoriality from China was to seek more interest from China. But, the objective role is always different from the subjective purpose.We should distinguish the objective role from the subjective purpose. The subjective purpose of western countries grabbing Extraterritoriality from China was to seek more interest from China. However, the objective role was not just as what they want. Every coin has two sides. When we discuss something, we should think about the two sides. Indeed, the existence of Extraterritoriality pushed forward the modernization of the Chinese legal system objectively.