Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 5.djvu/48



NE of the most memorable incidents of Japan's modern career was her recovery of judicial autonomy; in other words, the removal of disabilities which had excluded her from the comity of Western States.

It has always been considered expedient that the subjects and citizens of Occidental Christian countries, when they visit or reside in non-Christian Oriental lands, should be exempted from the penalties and procedure prescribed by the latter's criminal law; that they should continue, in short, to enjoy, even within the territories of such countries, the privilege of being arraigned before tribunals of their own nationality and tried by judges of their own race. In civil cases a division of jurisdiction is effected, the question at issue being always adjudicated by a tribunal of the defendant's nationality; but in criminal cases jurisdiction is wholly reserved. In pursuance of that principle the various Powers having treaties with Oriental nations establish Consular Courts within the latter's borders, and the jurisdiction exercised by these Courts is called "extra-territorial" to dis-