Treaty Translation And Interpretation In Early 20th Century

The early 20th century saw an interesting image of the bilateral treaty translation and interpretation,that is,the phrase "special interests" in the U.S.-Japan Lansing-Ishii Agreement of 1917(the "Agreement").The two Opium Wars necessitated and promoted Chinese government to negotiate with foreign powers in a manner required by European international law.Under the help of W.A.P.Martin's English translation of Wheaton's Law of Nations and other international legal works,gradually,the Qing government got familiar with and applied the rules of international law in foreign affairsAt such time,treaty negotiations and application dominated the Sino-foreign communications to a large extend while there was no set of legally binding treaty interpretation rules like the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties of 1969.The writings of international lawyers were the prominent legal authority.Hugo Grotius,Samuel Pufendor and Emer de Vattel's contribution to the treaty interpretation theory were particularly adopted in such period.Their rules of treaty interpretation basically took literal interpretation as the first step,with different application though.Vattel paid attention to the motives and purposes of the parties.Grotius cared more for the elements of the meaning and context.On the whole,their paths were relatively consistent,that is,if a treaty term is vague,find out the common usage of the term,then the reasonable meaning,and finally,if necessary,resort to the context,subject matter,consequence and purpose.It can be found that literal interpretation is the first choice for treaty interpretation,and "conjecture" can only be applied when the former rules cannot yield a reasonable result.Above was the legal basis for the U.S.and Japan's translation and interpretation of the term "special interests" in the AgreementBased on the norms of international treaty interpretation,combing and studying the archives in Japanese,English and Chinese,the author found that Japan and the United States adopted different translations and interpretations of the term in the Chinese versions sent to China respectively:Japan translated the term into Chinese phrase“????”(special position)and expanded the interpretation to include political interests,generating the false appearance that the United States recognized its interests in Manchuria and Shandong,which triggered strong protests from China and the United States;The U.S.,based on the literal meaning of the word,translated and interpreted it as referring only to the "???? "(special relationship)of industry and commerce,and arising from its geographical proximityAs far as the context of the Agreement and the contracting situation are concerned,the term ought to be understood according to the U.S.interpretation.The reason for Japan's deliberate mistranslation and misinterpretation lies in its intention to repeat the fact that the same phrase "special interests" used in Anglo-Japanese alliance guaranteed the signing of Japan-Korea annexation Treaty of 1910.However,since the United States disagreed to include phrases such as "special status" and "preeminent interest",Japan made a mistranslation and misinterpretation.After seeing through Japan's trick,China immediately proposed to abolish the agreement at the Paris Peace Conference and Washington Conference.The Agreement was finally abrogated in 1923In short,in the early 20th century where no legally binding treaty interpretation rules were recognized,the translation and interpretation of international agreements presented a special image.The different interpretations of the phrase "special interests"by the United States and Japan are a remarkable example.This shows the political nature of translation and how translation can be used in translingual diplomacy to make the meaning of the treaty term not indicated literally to be believed after,so as to realize the essential intention not clearly realized before.The utilizing of translation and interpretation in translingual practice,not a single case in the 19-20 centuries,is an important aspect in the history of unequal treaties.The further research may contribute to an extension of the history of international law,treaty and translation.