About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline
LOG IN
LOG IN

6 law&history 85 (2019)
British Extradition Practice in Early Colonial Hong Kong

handle is hein.journals/lwanhist6 and id is 93 raw text is: British Extradition Practice in Early Colonial Hong Kong Ivan Lee* Between 1843 and 1873, British Hong Kong extradited hundreds of Chinese fugitives under treaty for crimes ranging from piracy to slave trading. The story of this regime has never been told, even though it produced the only extradition case to reach the judicial Committee of the Privy Council during the nineteenth century. Although the case in question, Attorney General of Hong Kong v Kwok-A-Sing (1873), has received scholarly attention, it has been read mostly as proof of prevailing British contempt for Chinese sovereignty. An examination of legal practice over a longer period reveals a more ambivalent reality. Complex circumstances, including local resource constraints and the perceived difficulties of meting out English justice to Chinese subjects, encouraged British officials to strategically disclaim jurisdiction over them. Extradition was used instead to maintain colonial order in Hong Kong, and to further British interests in China, at minimal economic and political cost. Keywords: extradition, extraterritoriality, piracy, Hong Kong, China Many consequences of the First Opium War, including the cession of Hong Kong to Britain, the creation of the 'treaty port' system and the attendant rise of Britain's 'informal' Chinese Empire, have been studied extensively.' For their comments and suggestions, the author thanks P. G. McHugh, Michael Lobban, Diane Kirkby, the two anonymous reviewers and numerous participants at the 'Legal History and Empires; Perspectives from the Colonized' Conference, University of the West Indies, Cave Hill, 11-13 July 2018. Thanks also to the conference organisers for the opportunity to present an early draft of this article, and to the sponsors of the author's PhD study, the National University of Singapore and the Cambridge Trust, for funding the author's trip to Barbados. See, for example, Christopher Munn, Anglo-China: Chinese People and British Rule in Hong Kong, 1841-1880 (Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2001); Robert Bickers, 'The

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Short-term subscription options include 24 hours, 48 hours, or 1 week to HeinOnline.

Purchase Access

Contact us for annual subscription options:

Contact Us

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

Log In

profiles profiles most