Crime issues in the Settlement
Hawks Pott, Shanghai historian of the 1920s, writes:
The exercise of jurisdiction over the Chinese residents raised many questions. How were Chinese offenders to be dealt with? Should the Chinese set up a court in the settlements? The solution was found by the establishment in 1864 of what is known as the "Mixed Court," presided over by a deputy of the Shanghai Magistrate. Police cases were to be heard by the deputy alone. In criminal cases against Chinese, in which a foreigner was interested, a delegate from a consulate was to sit as assessor with the deputy. In civil cases, where it was between Chinese, the deputy was to sit alone; where it was a suit of foreigners against Chinese, a consular assessor was to sit with the deputy. Appeals were to be heard by the Taotai sitting with a Consul as assessor.
In later years there was further modification. The consular assessor became a party to the judgment in every case in police cases because of the interest of the foreign community, and in suits between Chinese, on the ground that "the Chinese official, with his traditional methods of enforcing judgments, must not be admitted to an unfettered jurisdiction within the area reserved for foreign trade and residence." These changes, as we shall see later, came to be regarded by the Chinese as an infringement of their sovereign rights.