British Court for Japan

The British Court for Japan (formally Her Britannic Majesty's Court for Japan) was a court established in Yokohama in 1879 to try cases against British subjects in Japan, under the principles of extraterritoriality. The court also heard appeals from British consular courts in Japan. Appeals from the British Court for Japan lay to the British Supreme Court for China and Japan based in the Shanghai International Settlement.

Britain acquired extraterritorial rights in Japan under the Anglo-Japanese Treaty of Amity and Commerce of 1858. British Consular officials sat as judges consular courts in all treaty ports in Japan. Until 1865 appeals from decisions of consular officials were made to the Supreme Court of Hong Kong. From 1865 appeals from decisions could be made to the British Supreme Court for China and Japan in Shanghai. Judges of the Shanghai Supreme Court were also empowered to travel to Japan to try cases on circuit.

In 1871, an attempt was made to establish a branch of the Shanghai Supreme Court in Yokohama by having an acting assistant judge from Shanghai, Nicholas John Hannen, based in Yokohama. Hannen ruled this arrangement to be invalid in 1872. Judges from Shanghai remained in Yokohama but sat as a judge of the Kanagawa Consular Court. In 1877 and 1878 the legality of these arrangements were challenged by the Japanese Government when the acting law secretary, Hiram Shaw Wilkinson, ruled that the import of medicinal opium into Japan was legal. The British Government determined to establish a formal court in Japan.

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