ePAPER: Mariya Tait Slys on The Rise and Fall of Extraterritorial Jurisdiction in the Ottoman Empire and China

Mariya Tait Slys, Exporting Legality: The Rise and Fall of Extraterritorial Jurisdiction in the Ottoman Empire and China

How did two radically different legal cultures, those of the Ottomans and the Chinese, gradually acquire a legal architecture analogous to that of Europe? This ePaper attempts to answer this question by providing a comparative study in legal history of the rise and demise of extraterritorial consular jurisdiction, utilizing a post-colonial and inter-disciplinary approach to international law. The study reveals that the establishment of consular jurisdiction during the nineteenth century was closely linked to the process of legal ‘modernization’ that affected many Asian and Arab societies. As such, this study contributes to the explanation of the gradual convergence of many non-Western traditional legal cultures with typically continental legal structures. This ePaper provides an in-depth analysis of the origin, further development and termination of this controversial institution of public international law as applied to the Ottoman Empire and China.

Very interesting. SPD

ARTICLE: Palombella on Global Legislation and its Discontents

Gianluigi Palombella’s ‘Global legislation and its discontents’ is available online at Cadmus:

‘Legislation’ is flourishing in the global sphere from a large number of sources, in the lack of a unified system. Current redefinitions of legality/validity, or attempts at a global constitution deserve some scrutiny and should cope with a global sphere legislation bearing unprecedented features: issued from deracinated sources, bearing new scope and functions, developing ‘managerial’/regulatory modes, cancelling the distinction vis-à-vis 'administration', electing functional rationalities with 'limited responsibility', loosing connection to the comprehensive well being of social communities. Despite the search for devices of accountability ‘global’ legislation remains a source of discontents. The promises of legal form are at stake in keeping alive the distinction between global decision making and universalizability. The future of global legislation (and its legitimacy) shall depend not only on shared criteria of legality, but also on how it shall interfere against the autonomy of less-than-global orders: that is, on the justice-related, legal quality of the relationships between the plurality of orders.