Translations and Transitions: Legal Practice in 19th Century Japan, China, and the Ottoman Empire

Judicial decision-making is bound to the legislative framework, to self-produced norms; it is linked to institutional logics, procedures, and dynamics of the legal discourse, to socializations, as well as to traditions and socio-political factors. In the nineteenth century, all of these factors underwent an immense transformation. Industrialization, the growing technization, and the change of social relations brought substantial challenges to the judicial field. Standardization and professionalization of the judicial practice became major aims of the reforms. The project “Translations and Transitions” approaches these changes by investigating the perspectives of those who were perceived as “outsiders”: Japan, China, and the Ottoman Empire. The emergence of modern legal practice represents a highly entangled process. Although Western modernity served as a template for countries outside of Europe, at the same time, the “translation of modernity” was anything but homogeneous (S. Eisenstadt 2000). Japan, China, and the Ottoman Empire were three countries faced with this challenge under rather similar conditions and with rather similar aims. Pressed by the so-called unequal treaties, their ambition was no less than to replace the entire legal universe with a legal order corresponding to Western standards. In a process that took place over the course of many decades, every aspect and dimension of the law was reconsidered: the normative and institutional framework of law, its epistemologies, and even its language. What did it mean to establish a legal practice on such shaky ground? How did practitioners reinterpret the Western legal ideas, and how did they contribute to the shaping of what law should become in the new social order? While reconfiguration of the legal practice was the primary aim of the reforms in all three countries, it nevertheless proved to be quite problematic. Western councilors were invited, commentaries and judgements were translated, law schools were founded, and judges were sent to Europe in order to become more familiar with the courts’ practices. Although the measures taken to study the West resembled one another, the way the respective countries dealt with the insights was quite different, especially regarding the judicial practices. While significant research has been conducted on each of the three transformation processes over the last several decades, there has been no attempt to initiate an exchange between the three national legal histories up till now. The research project “Translations and Transitions” aims to fill this gap. In a group consisting of early-stage researchers, each specializing on one of the three countries, the project examines the variations of the transformations that took place in the nineteenth century. This will be accomplished not by means of a large-scale comparison but rather by bringing together different case studies inquiring into the complex interplay between the newly created normative framework, the changing professional identities and understandings of law, and the practices that shaped legal decision-making. Through the constant interaction and exchange between the group members, it becomes possible to sharpen the view of the respective cases. On this basis, the project will be able to identify and assess the characteristics of legal practices that were shaped by “translating the West” (D. Howland 2001).

In the 19th century, judicial decision-making underwent significant changes due to industrialization, technological advances, and shifts in social relations. Reforms aimed to standardize and professionalize legal practice. The project 'Translations and Transitions' examines these changes by focusing on Japan, China, and the Ottoman Empire, which sought to adopt Western legal standards under the pressure of unequal treaties. This process involved rethinking every aspect of law, including its framework, principles, and language. Despite similar goals and methods, each country uniquely adapted Western legal ideas. 'Translations and Transitions' explores how these countries reinterpreted Western legal concepts and shaped new legal practices. The project brings together early-stage researchers to study the complex transformations in each country, fostering a deeper understanding of how legal practices evolved through the 'translation of the West'.