711.933/192
The Chinese Legation to the Department of State39
undated
Memorandum
The suggestion that American courts in China apply Chinese laws, a suggestion similar to the one made by the British Government some three years ago, is hardly practicable or acceptable. The following reasons may at once be noted.
- 1.
- The present Chinese legal system is a combination of indigenous customs and legal traditions dating back thousands of years ago and of the principles of Civil Law and is thus an entirely different institution from Anglo-American law. It is hardly to be expected that a judge trained in the principles of common law could master overnight laws which are entirely strange to him and apply them to cases which may be extremely complicated.
- 2.
- The American judge has no knowledge of the Chinese language and must depend upon translations for the text of the laws and previous judicial decisions, if indeed translations exist. The difficulty of depending upon translations is at once apparent.
- 3.
- American lawyers will have the same difficulty as the judge for the reason that they do not have the requisite knowledge of Chinese law. Chinese lawyers who do have such knowledge will have the difficulty of arguing in English which they may not know at all.
- 4.
- It is difficult to see why Chinese laws should be put to the test in the American courts. The administration of justice is for the millions of Chinese and not for a handful of foreigners. It is for the foreigners to conform themselves to the conditions of the country.
- 5.
- The suggestion is very far from meeting the desire of China for the complete abolition of extraterritoriality.
- Apparently left with Assistant Secretary of State Johnson on December 12, 1929, “with the compliments of the Chinese Minister”.↩