The Standard of Civilisation in Anglo-Japanese Treaty Revision, 1890–94

The concept of civilisation was central to nineteenth century international legal thought. The concept was an ambiguous one, however. Its ambiguities were particularly marked in the case of consular jurisdiction, or extraterritoriality, in Japan. Beginning in the late 1880s the treaties by which extraterritoriality had been established in Japan were revised, culminating in the abolition of extraterritoriality in 1899. The first power to revise its treaty with Japan was Great Britain, with negotiations concluding successfully in 1894. British residents in Japan strongly opposed treaty revision, an opposition which they justified by recourse to the concept of civilisation. As well as making legal arguments in favour of the maintenance of extraterritoriality, the residents challenged the assumption inherent to the project of treaty revision that Japan was sufficiently civilised to become an equal subject of international law. The residents’ pleas were largely ignored by the Foreign Office, which had determined that consenting to treaty revision was advantageous to Britain’s relations with Japan. In this way, the British government agreed to abolish extraterritoriality in Japan against the wishes of those who enjoyed its privileges, and Japan came to be formally accepted as a civilised state.