Many recent scholars have pointed out that the system was flexible rather than static, mutually beneficial rather than unilaterally exploitative, and mitigating rather than punitive, while admitting that its content and scope varied over time. Although it inherently had a hierarchical nature by which the Chinese emperor imposed tributes upon neighbouring rulers, such a hierarchy was also supported and co-shaped by local rulers themselves to legitimize their crowns.

Not surprisingly, the system was built upon a Sino-centric hierarchy with a universal world image wherein its juridical sphere extended to any human societies under the sphere of Confucian culture. The Confucian principles enshrined in the Chinese classics and the rules of tributes elaborated in the Chinese statutes constituted the backbone of the system. The international legal order in East Asia comprised a set of norms governing inter-polity relations. The treaties concluded in this period take a special position as they left traces of interim terms, which revealed the nature of this transition from the East Asian to the European traditions of international law. Ranging from the First Opium War in 1839–42 to the First Sino-Japanese War in 1894–95, a series of events marked a great transition in the region’s international legal order.

Middle Eastern Organizations/Institutionsįrom the 1830s to the 1890s, the traditional Confucian, international legal order in East Asia-roughly China, Japan, and Korea-faced radical transition in the encounter with Western international law.

International Organizations/Institutions.

Use of force, war, peace and neutrality.

Statehood, jurisdiction of states, organs of states.

Sources, foundations and principles of international law.

Relationship between international and domestic law.

International law and international relations.

International instruments and materials.

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