New Paper: China’s Participation in the Second Hague Conference and the Concept of Equal Sovereignty in International Law

Abstract

Despite the Qing Empire’s formal inclusion as a member of the Eurocentric community of states by the turn of the 20th century, its lack of full sovereign status was frequently reasserted in practice. This included proceedings where legal norms were unilaterally applied to it as an object of regulation, provoking a pursuit of agency. In particular, the unprecedented foreign occupation and administration of China after the “Boxer” crisis of 1899-1901 spurred state initiatives in pedagogy, legal reform, and diplomacy. Several such efforts subsequently overlapped at the Second Hague Conference in 1907. There, Qing diplomats for the first time influenced multilateral negotiations, and sought a nascent solidarity with other “weak” states, especially those of Latin America. Joint struggle against great power delegates’ ranking scheme for international judges helped to spark new conversations about the equality of states; major questions about sovereignty and its implications for legal agency, however, remained unresolved.