Secret Move by Kiangsu Government to Reduce' Court to Lowest Place in Chinese Judicial System: Sweeping Violation of Rendition Agreement An order which, in effect, abolishes the jurisdiction of the Provisional Court, flouts the Rendition Agreement, and places the Shanghai Municipal Police in the position of process-servers for the Kiangsu Provincial Court at Soochow and the Supreme Court at Nanking, has issued by the Kiangsu Provineial Government and the Ministry of Justice, Briefly, it sweepingly alters the rules and procedure of the Provisional Court to bring it into line with Chinese rules of Judicial organization, which means, roughly, that every civil case will have to pass through four courts and three trials. Tt is understood that a similar procedure will shortly be ordered for criminal eases.
On November 27, the president of the Provisional Court, Dr. Ho SI tseng, and the judges held a meeting at which, according to the Chinese papers, a decision to enforce this anier from the Government was reached, As no foreign official had been informed of this order and it had not been communiented to the Consular Body by November 29, it is unknown how it will be regarded officially. In the light of the Rendition Agreement, of which it is a flagrant breach, it is unlikely that the Consular Body will so much consider it seriously. decisions will be Ginal. This deprives' the Provisional Court of final Judgment in any case involving Chinese, especially if the order is extended to include criminal eases as well as civil, The spirit of the Re ment gave the Provisional Court, with ite court of appeal, powers of final decision, and a mandate which deprives it of these powers deprives it of everything which makes it a petent to exercise juris the International Settle. ment.
It is understood that the order does not at present refer to mixed civil or criminal cases or to cases involving the peace and good anier of the Settlement or breach of the Land Regulations and By-
Laws.
Should the order go into effect it will mean, roughly speaking, that the court of civil appeal in the Provisional Court is abolished, oF will only exist to transmit cases involving $1,000 or more on to Nan King. The Provisional Court be tunable to give any final decision, The Shanghai Municipal Police as the judicial police of the Provisional Court will be put in the position of executing the orders of the Pro" visional Court, the Provincinl Court at Soochow, and the Supreme Court at Nanking.
A Complicated System Some Instances of Violation According to the rules of Chinese judicial organization, four courts, exist for civil cases. A court of first instance takes cognizance civil cases involving sums under $1,000. A court of second instance, or district court, takes cognizance of appeals from' the court, of first instance and has original. jurisdic. tion over civil eases involving sum cover $1,000. The third court is the provincial court, which takes cognize ance of appeals from tie court of second instance, and cases where the judgment of appeals from the court of first instance are appealed to a still higher court than the court of second instance. In these appeals, the judgment of the provineial court is final. The fourth court is the Supreme Court, now at} Nanking, which takes cognizance of appeals from the provincial court and the court of second instance, decision being final ju cases in which the judgment of the court of second instance have been appealed through the provincial court.
The Government order which proposes to establish this procedure the Provisional Court, adapts it as follows: The court of first instance fs to be the Provisional Court. The court of second instance is to be formed in the Provisional Court; at present it is non-existent. "Appeals from this court will go to Soochow, tthe provincial court, as also appeals from the court of first instance which have passed throuch the court of second instance. The pro-Vineial court at Soochow will have the final decision in all civil cases which have passed through the present Provisional Court. This court will Lo similar to the present spent court, with a bench of three judges. The other two courts will have only one judge.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.