British Supreme Court for China

The British Supreme Court for China, first called the British Supreme Court for China and Japan, was a British court set up in the Shanghai International Settlement to try cases against British subjects in China, Japan and Korea under the principle of extraterritoriality. Britain had won such rights in China under the Treaty of Nanking in 1842 and the Treaty of Tientsin, and in Japan in 1858. Consular courts heard cases in the first instance, and the Supreme Court took appeals from them, along with appeals from the British Court for Japan that opened at Kanagawa in 1879. Over its history the name changed to the British Supreme Court for China and Corea in 1900 and back to the British Supreme Court for China in 1911, as Britain gave up its rights in Japan in 1899 and lost them in Korea on its annexation in 1910. The court applied English law and equity and heard everything from murder trials before juries to divorces, commercial disputes and trademark claims. It always had two permanent judges and sat from 1865 until 1943, when Britain relinquished extraterritorial rights in China; it had effectively stopped working in December 1941 when the Japanese navy occupied its premises.