The Law Application OF Chinese Inheritance In Batavia

Gong An Bu includes various aspects of Batavia’s Chinese social activities of nearly two centuries. It is a valuable firsthand material in studying the history of Batavia’s Chinese social activities. In Batavia, Chinese enjoyed the relative autonomy, carrying out Captain system. For example, Chinese managed their own internal affairs and the administration affairs, both civil and minor criminal cases were heared and decided independently in Batavia Tribunal. However, this autonomy was relatively which was under the Dutch East India Company’s control, and the Batavia Tribunal’s authority was gradually limited in the Dutch colonial period.Chapter1describes the nature of the organization and authority of Batavia Tribunal, which was one of the bases of Batavia’s Chinese realized their autonomy. Dutch East India Company authority appointed Chinese leaders dealing with Chinese internal affairs through Batavia Tribunal, and the primary legal basis was the Chinese convention. But, the Batavia Tribunal’s legal authority didn’t cover all matters, and in later period of Dutch colonial, Batavia Tribunal’autonomy had been changed in judicial authority, judicial procedure and legal basis.Chapter2selects the Chinese inheritance cases as the research topic, which was in the scope of autonomy, and discussing the application of Chinese regulations and Dutch law in Batavia’s Chinese inheritance matters. In legal practice, unless there were special provisions from Dutch law, the Chinese regulations were the primary applicable standard. Chinese regulations were applied to ensure succession qualification and share. The former was reflected in distinguishing adoptive son, married son and concubine’s son, as well as women’s inherited status; latter was used to decide different inheritance share because of different identities. As to the effect of Dutch law,it was mainly reflected in "The principle of testamentary succession priority" and "maximize the importance of evidence in the inheritance". Although Chinese regulations and Dutch law belonged to different legal systems and conflicted in some field. But they were not irreconcilable, on the contrary, they were applied collectively in Batavia’s Chinese inheritance matters, and runed very well.Chapter3attempts to explain the different rules of Chinese regulations and Dutch law in inheritance region from cultural perspective. Chinese regulations, as a extraterritorial application of traditional Chinese succession system, which appreciated identity and neglectd property, was affected by the patriarchal system. The family property was a relation of residence and wealth sharing, property ownership belonged to family, parents didn’t have right to deal with property freely, which was different from Dutch law that affected by Western inheritance system. Western inheritance system based on personal property system, individual was free to dispose their lawful property, others can not interfere it. Under this legal system, Testate Succession taked precedence over Statutory Succession.