The Triple Intervention: A Forgotten Memory in the Discourse of the Nineteenth Century's International Law

• Author: Bijun Xu
• Position: Post-doctoral Researcher at Tsinghua University, China. LL.B. (Tsinghua), LL.M. (UMich), Ph.D. (HKU)
• Pages: 375-376

The Triple Intervention 375

XI JEAIL 2 (2018)

Bijun Xu

∗

The 19th century’s international law distinguished civilized from non-civilized States

resulting in any country desiring equal treatment was required to obtain recognition

from those already deemed civilized. Japan was able to join the civilized world by

presenting a civilized image of itself in the First Sino-Japanese War, which was depicted

by Western legal scholars as a clash between barbarism and civilization. Neither

Japanese nor Western scholars of international law, however, have touched on the issue

of the Triple Intervention. This incident serves as a case study for re-evaluating the

operation of Western countries’ international legal standards. The argument is, that

these countries cloak their motives in legal language for self-aggrandizement, thereby

demonstrating the ahistorical nature of the West’s rhetoric of civilization. Further, this

incident taught Japan the lesson that international law is concerned not with morality

but with power.

Keywords

The Triple Intervention, 19th century

’

s International Law, Discourse of

Civilization, Japan, First Sino-Japanese War

The Triple Intervention:

A Forgotten Memory

in the Discourse of the

Nineteenth Century

’

s

International Law

∗ Post-doctoral Researcher at Tsinghua University, China. LL.B. (Tsinghua), LL.M. (UMich), Ph.D. (HKU). ORCID:

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0104-8749. This article is revised and updated version of Chapter VII of the author’s doctoral

dissertation submitted to the graduate committee of the University of Hong Kong. This work was supported by China

Postdoctoral Science Foundation. The author may be contacted at: xubijun@mail.tsinghua.edu.cn /Address: School of

Public Policy and Management, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084 P.R. China.

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.14330/jeail.2018.11.2.06