Sovereignty and "Civilization" International Law and East Asia in the Nineteenth Century

作者：Lai, Junnan^*

来源：Modern China, 2014, 40(3): 282-314.

DOI：10.1177/0097700414520883

• Meiji Japan
• positivism in international law
• First Sino-Japanese War
• civilization
• late Qing China

In nineteenth-century positivist international law, the language of "civilization," deployed for the purpose of both excluding and including members of international society, was to a great extent vague. "Civilization" in turn became an ideological window dressing for power politics. The lack of a clear standard of "civilization" did not prevent Japan from making full use of this vague language in its struggle for full membership in international society. China, by contrast, was relatively unaware of the essence of international politics at the time, and did not realize the important role of "civilization" in international relations. During and after the First Sino-Japanese War (1894-1895), Japanese intellectual and political elites wielded international law as a weapon to brand China as a "barbarous" nation that violated almost every rule of the law of war and to characterize Japan as a "law-abiding" and "civilized" state. As a result, Japan obtained full membership in international society shortly after the war, whereas China remained a "barbarous" country and was unable to abolish consular jurisdiction in its territory until 1943.

• 出版日期2014-5
• 单位北京大学