Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-jr42d Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-25T01:09:53.640Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Inauthentic Sovereignty: Law and Legal Institutions in Manchukuo

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 July 2010

Thomas David DuBois
Get access

Abstract

Although Manchukuo is easily dismissed as a puppet of Japan, at the time of its founding, it was one of many examples of a partially sovereign state. Specific compromises of Manchukuo's sovereignty shaped the formation of its domestic institutions, such as the legal sphere, in tangible ways. Manchukuo handed over to Japan the power to staff and ideologically mold its judiciary, while the tutelary attitude that Japan took toward the state was concretely manifested in aspects of Manchukuo penal and civil law, and a surprisingly contentious path to the abrogation of Japanese extraterritoriality. With the outbreak of war, Manchukuo effectively surrendered its national sovereignty to the needs of the Japanese empire, sacrificing its jurisdictional integrity as well. While not denying the deliberate attempt made by Japan to misrepresent the independence of Manchukuo, this article also seeks to understand more precisely how Manchukuo's architects assumed certain limits to state sovereignty, and how this understanding systematically crippled the new state's legal institutions.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Asian Studies , Volume 69 , Issue 3 , August 2010 , pp. 749 - 770
Copyright
Copyright © The Association for Asian Studies, Inc. 2010

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

List of References

Ahmad, Abu Talib. 1995. “The Impact of the Japanese Occupation on the Malay-Muslim Population.” In Malaya and Singapore during the Japanese Occupation, ed. Kratoska, Paul H., 1–36. Singapore: Singapore University Press.Google Scholar
Yi, Aixinjueluo Pu. 2007. Wode qian ban sheng 我的前半生 [My early life]. Beijing: Qunzhong chubanshe.Google Scholar
Anghie, Anthony. 2002. “Colonialism and the Birth of International Institutions: Sovereignty, Economy and the Mandate System of the League of Nations.” N.Y.U. Journal of International Law and Politics 34 (3): 513–633.Google Scholar
Benton, Lauren. 2008. “From International Law to Imperial Constitutions: The Problem of Quasi-Sovereignty, 1870–1900.” Law and History Review 26 (3): 595–620.Google Scholar
Botsman, Dani. 2005. Punishment and Power in the Making of Modern Japan. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
British Consular Reports (BCR). 1994. In Japan and Dependencies: Political and Economic Reports, 1906–1960. Research advisor, R. L. Jarman. Vols. 13–15. London: Archive Editions.Google Scholar
Chao-ju, Chen. 2006. “The Gender Politics of ‘Public Order and Good Customs:’ Gender, Culture and the Law in Colonial Taiwan.” Paper presented at workshop on “Gender and Law in the Japanese Imperium, 1868–1952,” May 19–20, Chicago.Google Scholar
Chen, Edward I-te. 1984. “The Attempt to Integrate the Empire: Legal Perspectives.” In The Japanese Colonial Empire, 1895–1945, ed. Myers, Ramon H. and Peattie, Mark R., 240–74. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Tatsuo, Chikusa. 1943a. Manshū shinzoku sōzoku hō no yōkō 満洲親族相續法の要綱 [Overview of family inheritance law in Manchuria]. Nihon rippō soshō 26. Tokyo: Nihon hōri kenkyūkai.Google Scholar
Tatsuo, Chikusa. 1964–67. Manshū kazoku seido no kanshū 満洲家族制度の慣習 [Customs of the Manchurian family system]. Tokyo: Ichiryusha.Google Scholar
Chou, Wan-yao. 1996. “The Kominka Movement in Taiwan and Korea: Comparisons and Interpretations.” In The Japanese Wartime Empire, 1931–1945, ed. Duus, Peter, Myers, Ramon H. and Peattie, Mark R.40–70. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Duara, Prasenjit. 2003. Sovereignty and Authenticity: Manchukuo and the East Asian Modern. Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield.Google Scholar
Duara, Prasenjit. 2006. “The New Imperialism and the Post-Colonial Developmental State: Manchukuo in Comparative Perspective.” Japan Focus, January 30. http://www.japanfocus.org/products/details/1715 [accessed May 2, 2010].Google Scholar
DuBois, Thomas David. 2006. “Local Religion and the Imperial Imaginary: The Development of Japanese Ethnography in Occupied Manchuria.” American Historical Review 111 (1): 52–75.Google Scholar
DuBois, Thomas David. 2008. “Rule of Law in a Brave New Empire: Legal Rhetoric and Practice in Manchukuo.” Law and History Review 23 (2): 285–318.Google Scholar
Dudden, Alexis. 2005. Japan's Colonization of Korea: Discourse and Power. Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press.Google Scholar
Esenbel, Selçuk. 2004. “Japan’s Global Claim to Asia and the World of Islam: Transnational Nationalism and World Power, 1900–1945.” American Historical Review 109 (4): 1140–70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Esselstrom, Erik W. 2005. “Rethinking the Colonial Conquest of Manchuria: The Japanese Consular Police in Jiandao, 1909–1937.” Modern Asian Studies 39 (1): 39–75.Google Scholar
Jue, Fang, and Yunpeng, Yao. 1993. “Ri-Wei Fushun difang fayuan he Fushun jianyu” 日伪抚顺地方法院和抚顺监狱 [Fushun local courts and prisons in Japanese Manchuria]. In Zhimin zhengquan 殖民政权 [Political power under colonization], ed. Bang, Sun et al. , 478–85. Changchun: Jilin renmin chubanshe.Google Scholar
Yu, Guo. 1993. “Wei lifa yuanzhang Zhao Xinbo” 伪立法院长赵欣伯 [Zhao Xinbo, head of the pretender legislature]. In Wei Man renwu [Personages of the pretender Manchukuo], ed. Bang, Sun et al. , 468–81. Changchun: Jilin renmin chubanshe.Google Scholar
Henderson, Dan Fenno. 1970. “Japanese Influences on Communist Legal Language.” In Contemporary Chinese Law: Research Problems and Perspectives, ed. Cohen, Jerome Alan, 158–87. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Yasuyuki, Hikita. 2000. “Kyū ‘Manshū’ ni okeru kigyō katsudō no sōgōteki kenkyū” 旧「満州」における企業活動の總合的研究 [Japanese investment in Manchuria and the establishment of Zaibatsu subsidiaries]. In 1997–1999 nendo kagaku kenkyūhi hojyokin kiban kenkyū 1997–1999 年度 科学研究費補助金基盤研究 [Grant-based research period, 1997–1999], ed. Kunio, Suzuki. 3 (2000): 91–128.Google Scholar
Hōritsu Shimbun 法律新聞 (HS) [Legal news].Google Scholar
Katz, Paul R. 2005. When the Valleys Turned Blood Red: The Ta-pa-ni Incident in Colonial Taiwan. Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press.Google Scholar
Keizai tōsei hōrei mokuroku 経済統制法令目録 [Index of economic integration laws]. 1942. Hōsō zakki 9 (3): 441–54.Google Scholar
Kolsky, Elizabeth. 2005. “Codification and the Rule of Colonial Difference: Criminal Procedure in British India.” Law and History Review 23 (3): 631–84.Google Scholar
The Manchoukuo Year Book. 1943. Xinjing: Manchoukuo Year Book Co.Google Scholar
Shigemi, Matsubara. 1937. “Chigai hōken no teppai to minji shihō seido no gaiyō” 治外法権の撤廃と民事司法制度の概要 [Overview of the civil judiciary and abrogation of extraterritoriality]. Hōsō zasshi 4 (12): 183–211.Google Scholar
Taichirō, Mitani. 1992. “Manshūkoku kokka taisei to Nihon no kokunai seiji” 満州国国家体制と日本の国内政治 [The national form of Manchukuo and domestic politics in Japan]. In Iwanami kōza kindai Nihon to shokuminchi 岩波講座近代日本と植民地 [Iwanami lectures in modern Japan and colonialism], vol. 2, Teikoku tōchi no kōzō 帝国統治の構造 [Lectures on imperial rule], 179–213. Tokyo: Iwanami shōten.Google Scholar
Mitchell, Richard H. 1973. “Japan’s Peace Preservation Law of 1925: Its Origins and Significance.” Monumenta Nipponica 28 (3): 317–45.Google Scholar
Mitter, Rana. 2000. The Manchurian Myth: Nationalism, Resistance and Collaboration in Modern China. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press.Google Scholar
“Mōko shihō seido no jittai chōsa—kō'an hoku shō shinbajiko uyokuki oyobi chinbajikoki” 蒙古司法制度の実態調査—興安北省新巴爾虎右翼旗並陳巴爾虎旗 [Investigation into the state of the Mongol judicial system—Xing'an North Province Xinba'erhu Right Banner and Chenba'erhu Banner]. 1935. Hōsō zasshi 2 (2): 195–217.Google Scholar
Tomio, Mutō, Jinshu, Jiang, and Tatsurō, Sugawara. 1934. “Sifabu faxuexiao ruxue shiyan weiyuan zhi ganxiang” 司法部法學校入學試驗委員之感想 [Reflections from the Judicial Law College Entrance Examination Committee]. Hōsō zasshi 1 (1): 112–30.Google Scholar
Oblas, Peter. 1994. “Natural Law and Legitimization of Japan's Empire in Manchuria: Thomas Baty and Japan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs.” Diplomacy and Statecraft 15 (1):35–55.Google Scholar
Jitsuo, Ōno. 1943. “Manshūkoku shihō seido no sobyō” 満洲國司法制度の素描 [An outline of the judicial system of Manchukuo]. Waseda hōgaku 早稲田法学 [Waseda Law Review] 21 (1): 1–44.Google Scholar
Zhang, Qin. 2005. “Civil Justice in Early Twentieth-Century Northeast China: Fengtian Province, 1900–1928.” PhD diss., McGill University.Google Scholar
Rudolph, Susanne Hoeber, and Rudolph, Lloyd I.. 2001. “Living with Difference in India: Legal Pluralism and Legal Universalism in Historical Context.” In Religion and Personal Law in Secular India: A Call to Judgment, ed. Larson, Gerald James, 36–65. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
Scott, F. R. 1944. “The End of Dominion Status.” American Journal of International Law 38 (1): 34–49.Google Scholar
“Sifabu faxuexiao sheli yuanwei” 司法部法學校設立原委 [Details concerning the foundation of the Judicial law College]. 1934. Hōsō zasshi 1 (1): 103–11.Google Scholar
Shōichi, Soejima. 1995. “Manshūkoku' tōchi to chigai hōken teppai” 「満洲国」統治と治外法權撤廃 [Governance and the abolition of extraterritoriality in “Manchukuo”]. In Manshūkoku no kenkyū 満州国の硏究 [Research on Manchukuo], ed. Yūzo, Yamamoto, 131–55. Tokyo: Ryokuin.Google Scholar
Tatsurō, Sugawara, Sadao, Nomura, and Yasutoshi, Watanabe. 1938. “Man-Nichi shihō jimu kyōjyo hō gedatsu” 満日司法事務共助法解脱 [Explanation of the Manchukuo-Japan Judicial Services Aid Law]. Hōsō zasshi 5 (8): 1–29.Google Scholar
kenkyūjo, Tō-A. 1931. Kaikyō to minzoku undō no shomondai 回教と民族運動の諸問題 [Some problems of Islam and nationalist movements]. Tokyo: Tō-A kenkyujō.Google Scholar
Guoyu, Wang. 1993. “Wei jiancha yuanzhang Luo Zhenyu” 伪检察院长罗振玉 [Luo Zhenyu, head of the pretender procuracy]. In Wei Man renwu [Personages of the pretender Manchukuo], ed. Bang, Sun et al. , 445–53. Changchun: Jilin renmin chubanshe.Google Scholar
Tay-Sheng, Wang. 2000. Legal Reform in Taiwan under Japanese Colonial Rule, 1895–1945: The Reception of Western Law. Seattle: University of Washington Press.Google Scholar
Zhaoxun, Wang. 1935. “Riben shicha zhi ganxiang” 日本視察之感想 [Impressions on observation of Japan]. Hōsō zasshi 2 (2): 132.Google Scholar
Waseda hōgaku 早稲田法学 [Waseda law review]. 1943. 21巻1号, February 10, 1–10.Google Scholar
Wasserstrom, Jeffrey N. 2005. Review of Prasenjit Duara, Sovereignty and Authenticity: Manchukuo and the East Asian Modern. H-Asia, May 2. http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=10500 [accessed May 2, 2010].Google Scholar
Woodhead, H. G. W. 1929. Extraterritoriality in China: The Case against Abolition. Tianjin: Tientsin Times.Google Scholar
Hsin-Che, Wu. 2004. “Riben zhiminzhuyi xia de Manzhouguo fazhi 1932–1945” 日本殖民主义下的满洲国法制 1932–1945 [The Legal System of Manchukuo under Japanese colonialism, 1932–1945]. MA thesis, National Chengchi University.Google Scholar
Weixin, Xu. 1935. “Riben sifa shicha zhi jingguo yu ganxiang” 日本司法視察之經過與感想 [Schedule and impressions of an investigation of the judiciary in Japan]. Hōsō zasshi 2 (2): 111–19.Google Scholar
Xiaoqun, Xu. 1997. “The Fate of Judicial Independence in Republican China, 1912–1937.” China Quarterly, no. 149: 1–28.Google Scholar
Young, Louise. 1998. Japan's Total Empire: Manchuria and the Culture of Wartime Imperialism. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Runsheng, Zhang. 1995. Wei Manzhouguo shi xinbian 伪满洲国史新编 [Newly compiled history of the Pretender Manchu State]. Beijing: Renmin chubanshe.Google Scholar