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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 19 July 2019
This paper relies on archival research to rediscover Chen Tiqiang's study of public international law at Tsinghua University and Oxford University with James Brierly. Particular attention is directed to Brierly's profound influence on Chen's approach to researching the doctrine of recognition and his remarkable performance at his oral examination before Humphrey Waldock and Robert Y. Jennings. In addition to providing an abbreviated overview of the international legal community's overwhelmingly favourable reactions to the publication of Chen's dissertation in 1951, it argues that Chen's experience and accomplishments provide some evidence that China's teaching and scholarship of international law attained an unprecedented milestone in the late 1930s and 1940s.
Associate Professorial Fellow, Fudan University Law School. The author wishes to thank the following: David Konig of Washington University; Cheng Bin of University College London; Mindy Chen-Wishart of Oxford University; Sir Elihu Lauterpacht of Cambridge University; Moritz Bälz of Johann Wolfgang Goethe University Frankfurt am Main; Gregory Lewkowicz of Université Libre de Brussels; Anabel Farrell, Michelle Conway of Oxford University Archives; Andrew Mussell, Lindsay McCormack of Lincoln College, Oxford; Yu Qianqian, Jin Fujun of Tsinghua University; Kresimir Vukovic, Wu Zhicheng of Oxford University; anonymous reviewers for valuable comments and suggestions.
1. Yale University, “Catalogue of Yale University 1905–6” at 588. Wang Chung Hui was awarded the highest law degree, Doctor of Civil Law, at Yale in 1905 with the honour of magna cum laude.
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4. League of Nations, (1920–1946) 155 League of Nations Official Journal, Special Supplement 111.
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7. Annuaire de l'Institut de Droit International, (1948) 42 Annuaire de l'Institut de Droit International 313–14.
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9. See Li, CHEN, “Professor James Leslie Brierly and His First Chinese Pupil Li Shengwu at Oxford University Faculty of Law (1927–1930)” (2018) 20 Journal of the History of International Law 373Google Scholar.
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11. University of Oxford Archives, Chen Ti-Chiang's Matriculation Form (unpublished manuscript, on file with author).
12. The Second Historical Archives of China, Chen Ti-Chiang's Academic Transcript (unpublished manuscript, on file with author).
13. Ibid.
14. Tsinghua University Archives, In the matter of hiring Chen Tiqiang and Shi Yangcheng as Department of Political Science Administrative Institute Research Assistant etc. (23 October 1939) (unpublished manuscript, on file with author).
15. Tsinghua University Archives, Letter from Chen Tiqiang to Mei Yiqi, President of Tsinghua University, dated “20 April” (unpublished manuscript, on file with author). This letter was dated only 20 April without mention of a specific year. Considering the context, it was most likely written in 1942, shortly after his leaving the university as a researcher.
16. CHEN Tiqiang, Zhongguo Waijio Xingzheng (1943).
17. CHEN Tiqiang, Yingguo Xingzhengfa Lun (1945).
18. Tsinghua University Archives, supra note 15.
19. University of Columbia, “Columbia University Catalogue, For the Session 1941–42 and 1942–43” at 50.
20. Ibid.
21. Martin WEIL, “Eminent Political Scientist: Quincy Wright Dies” The Washington Post (19 October 1970) at B10.
22. Zhen, LIU, Liu Xue Jiao Yu: Zhongguo Liu Xue Jiao Yu Shi Liao 4 (1980) 2127–8Google Scholar. In 1944, the Council invited China's Ministry of Education to help organize the examination and the selection of Chinese scholars. Apart from the British Council Scholarship, China's Ministry of Education also administered a few other scholarship schemes in 1944. That year, 195 scholarships were available for studies commencing in the academic year of 1945. The Ministry had decided to hold a competitive examination to select the best qualified candidates to receive these scholarships in 1944.
23. Ibid., at 2137. University of Oxford Archives, “British Council Scholars List, British Council, 1944–7” (unpublished manuscript, on file with author).
24. Later in the British Council file his subject of study was listed as administrative law.
25. Liu, supra note 22 at 2137.
26. HE Bingdi, Du Shi Yue Shi Liu Shi Nian (2009) at 174–7. It appears that Chen was strongly interested in coming under the wing of Professor Hersch Lauterpacht at the outset, but it was inevitable that the winner of the scholarship for the international law category was given priority. Indeed, the British Council arranged for Hwang to attend the University of Cambridge and he was accepted as a research student under the supervision of the legendary Professor Lauterpacht, then holder of the prestigious Whewell Professorship of International Law.
27. FIRTH, C.H., Modern History in Oxford, 1841–1918 (Oxford: B. Blackwell, 1920) at 10Google Scholar.
28. University of Oxford Archives, “British Council, 1937–44”.
29. Lincoln College Archives, Chen Ti-Chiang's Entry in Lincoln College Matriculation Register (unpublished manuscript, on file with author).
30. Ibid.
31. University of Oxford Archives, Chen Ti-Chiang's Application for Admission as a Probationer-student for the Degree of Bachelor of Letters, or as a Student for the Degree of Bachelor of Science, or as an Advanced Student, or for transference to or from the status of Advanced Student (1 November 1945) (unpublished manuscript, on file with author).
32. Ibid.
33. Ibid.
34. Ibid.
35. University of Oxford, “Oxford University Calendar 1946” at 87.
36. University of Oxford Archives, supra note 31.
37. University of Oxford, “The Examination Statutes” (1945) at 284: “A graduate of another University who has been approved for admission by the Board of the appropriate Faculty.”
38. University of Oxford Archives, supra note 31.
39. University of Oxford Degree Conferral Office, Chen Ti-Chiang's Student Index Card.
40. University of Oxford Archives, “Recommendation of the Applications Committee of the Board of the Faculty of Law” (1 December 1945) (unpublished manuscript, on file with author).
41. University of Oxford, supra note 35 at 288.
42. “An Oxford Tribute to Chiang Kai-Shek: Profound Admiration” The Times (4 January 1939) at 9.
43. University of Oxford, supra note 35 at 286.
44. University of Oxford Archives, “Chen Tiqiang's Application for admission as a Probationer-student for the Degree of Bachelor of Letters or … as an Advanced Student or transference to or from the status of Advanced Student” (30 June 1946) (unpublished manuscript, on file with author).
45. Ibid.
46. Ibid.
47. Ibid.
48. University of Oxford, “Recommendation of the Applications Committee of the Board of the Faculty of Law” (15 June 1945) (unpublished manuscript, on file with author).
49. “University News” The Times (14 June 1947) at 3.
50. CHENG Bin, “General Principles of Law in the Jurisprudence of International Courts and Tribunals”, PhD dissertation, University of London, 1950.
51. British Library of Political and Economic Science, “A Reader's Guide to the British Library of Political and Economic Science” (1934) at 36.
52. Ibid.
53. A note on Chen Tiqiang by Cheng Bin dated 23 April 2014 (unpublished manuscript, on file with author).
54. Ibid.
55. Ibid.
56. Ibid: “When he came, at lunch time, we often went out together for a quick bite either at the little café by the LSE or one nearby, mostly discussing some of the problems we were working on.”
57. Chiang, CHEN Ti, Recognition in International Law: With Special Reference to Practice in Great Britain and The United States (New York: Praeger, 1951) at xiiiGoogle Scholar.
58. CHEN Ti Chiang, “Recognition in International Law: With Special Reference to Practice in Great Britain and the United States”, DPhil, University of Oxford, 1949.
59. Ibid.
60. Chen, supra note 57 at 3.
61. Ibid.
62. Ibid.
63. Ibid.
64. Ibid.
65. Ibid., at 4.
66. Ibid.
67. Ibid.
68. Ibid., at 5.
69. Ibid.
70. Ibid.
71. Ibid., at 6.
72. Ibid.
73. Ibid., at 8.
74. Ibid.
75. Ibid., at 7.
76. Ibid.
77. Ibid., at 6.
78. Ibid., at 8.
79. Ibid.
80. Ibid.
81. LAUTERPACHT, Hersch, “Brierly's Contribution to International Law” (1956) 32 British Year Book of International Law 1Google Scholar.
82. Ibid., at 2.
83. Chen, supra note 57 at 18.
84. Ibid., at 21. See also ibid., at 19–20, where Brierly's, James L.The Law of Nations, 2nd ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1942)Google Scholar was cited repeatedly.
85. Lauterpacht, supra note 81 at 4.
86. Chen, supra note 57 at 27. At ftn 80, referencing Brierly's Law of Nations at 35.
87. Ibid.
88. University of Oxford Archives, Chen Ti Chiang's application to the Board of the Faculty of Law (26 April 1948) (unpublished manuscript, on file with author).
89. University of Oxford, “The Examination Statutes” (1945) at 293. The Board of the Faculty of Law's regulations permitted the supervisor of a research student to be appointed as an examiner of that student. It appears that Brierly had preferred to abstain from conducting Chen's viva.
90. F.D. BERMAN, “Jennings, Sir Robert Yewdall (1913–2004)”, online: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography <https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/93917>.
91. “Waldock, Sir (Claud) Humphrey Meredith (1904–1981)”, online: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography <https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/31793>.
92. Ibid.
93. “University News” The Times (14 June 1947) at 3.
94. University of Oxford, “Oxford University Gazette” (30 June 1948) at 1015. It bears notice that Waldock, who had succeeded Brierly, was then a member of this college, which might explain why Chen's oral examination was arranged to take place there instead of at the customary examination schools.
95. University of Oxford Archives, Board of the Faculty of Law, Degree of Doctor of Philosophy, Chen Ti Chiang's Examiners’ Report (10 July 1948) (unpublished manuscript, on file with author).
96. Ibid.
97. Ibid.
98. Ibid.
99. Ibid.
100. Ibid.
101. Cheng, supra note 53.
102. Ibid.
103. KEETON, George W. and SCHWARZENBERGER, Georg, Making International Law Work (London: Stevens & Sons, 1946)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
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105. BECKETT, W.E., The North Atlantic Treaty, the Brussels Treaty and the Charter of the United Nations (London: Stevens & Sons, 1950)Google Scholar.
106. GOODRICH, Leland Matthew and HAMBRO, Edvard, Charter of the United Nations: Commentary and Documents (Medford, MA: World Peace Foundation, 1949)Google Scholar.
107. Cheng, supra note 53.
108. Chen, supra note 57 at xi.
109. Ibid.
110. Ibid.
111. Ibid.
112. Ibid, at xii.
113. Ibid.
114. Ibid.
115. Ibid.
116. The reviewer only signed himself as E.
117. E., “Review of Book: The International Law of Recognition: With Special Reference to Practice in Great Britain and the United States by Ti-Chiang Chen, edited by L.C. Green” (1951) 28 British Year Book of International Law at 420–3Google Scholar.
118. Ibid., at iii.
119. “Sir Eric Beckett”, The Times (29 August 1966) at 10.
120. “University News”, The Times (4 November 1921) at 17.
121. Gerald FITZMAURICE, “Sir Eric Beckett” The Times (14 September 1966) at 12.
122. Ibid.
123. E., “Review of Book: Recognition in International Law, By H. Lauterpacht” (1947) 24 British Yearbook of International Law 510Google Scholar.
124. E., supra note 117 at 420.
125. Ibid., at 422.
126. Ibid.
127. Ibid., at 423.
128. Ibid.
129. Ibid., at 420–1.
130. Ibid.
131. Ibid.
132. Ibid.
133. Ibid. Sir Eric Beckett had opined that, “[in] its broad approach and tenor, [one] does not find the position of Professor Chen so different from that of Professor Lauterpacht”. However, the intricacies of his reviews of the respective works would reveal his ostensibly more favourable reception of Chen's work.
134. E., supra note 123 at 510.
135. Ibid.
136. E., supra note 117 at 423.
137. JENNINGS, R.Y., “Book Reviews” (1951) 28 International Affairs 208Google Scholar.
138. Ibid.
139. Ibid.
140. “Book Reviews: The International Law of Recognition: Ti-Chiang Chen, edited by L.C. Green” (1952) 1 International and Comparative Law Quarterly 591Google Scholar.
141. Ibid., at 592.
142. WRIGHT, Quincy, “Reviewed Work: The International Law of Recognition: With Special Reference to Practice in Great Britain and the United States by Ti-Chiang Chen” (1952) 280 Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 168Google Scholar.
143. Ibid.
144. Ibid.
145. Ibid., at 169.
146. Ibid.
147. Ibid.
148. WEHBERG, Hans, “The International Law of Recognition: With Special Reference to Practice in Great Britain and the United States by Ti-Chiang Chen” (1953) 52 Die Friedens-Warte 307Google Scholar.
149. Ibid.
150. Ibid.
151. Ibid.
152. SCHLOCHAUER, Hans-Jürgen, “The International Law of Recognition by Ti-Chiang Chen, edited by L.C. Green” (1953) 4 Archiv des Völkerrechts 116Google Scholar.
153. Ibid.
154. KISS, Alexandre-Charles, “The International Law of Recognition: With Special Reference to Practice in Great Britain and the United States (Published under the auspices of the London Institute of World Affairs) by Ti-Chiang Chen” (1952) 2 Revue Française de Science Politique 836Google Scholar.
155. KUNZ, Josef Laurenz, Die Anerkennung von Staaten und Regierungen im Völkerrecht (Stuttgart: W. Kohlhammer, 1928)Google Scholar.
156. KUNZ, Josef Laurenz, “The International Law of Recognition by Ti-Chiang Chen, edited by L.C. Green” (1952) 65 Harvard Law Review at 713–14Google Scholar.
157. Ibid., at 713.
158. Ibid., at 714.
159. Ibid., at 716.
160. Ibid., at 714.
161. Ibid.
162. Ibid, at 716.
163. “Recognition in International Law: A Functional Reappraisal Source” (1967) 34 University of Chicago Law Review 857 at 857Google Scholar: “The most significant of the recent academic examinations of this subject have been Chen, The International Law of Recognition (1951); Lauterpacht, Recognition in International Law (1947); Patel, Recognition in the Law of Nations (1959); and kelsen, ‘Recognition in International Law: Theoretical Observations’ (1941) 35 AM. J. INT'L L. 605.”
164. CRAWFORD, James, “Introduction to the Paperback Edition” in LAUTERPACHT, Hersch, Recognition in International Law (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013), at xxiGoogle Scholar. See also CRAWFORD, James, The Creation of States in International Law, 2nd ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006)Google Scholar, in which he frequently referred to Chen's work when substantiating or discussing his points.
165. This includes state practice. See James CRAWFORD, “Introduction to the Paperback Edition” in Lauterpacht, ibid., at xlvii: “Modern state practice also supports the declaratory view in the form of treaties and direct statements. The perspective appears to have been accepted (at least tacitly) by the International Court of Justice in two cases.”
166. Ibid., at xlvi–vii.
167. GILL, Terry, ed., Yearbook of International Humanitarian Law (The Hague: T.M.C Asser Press, 2015) at 4Google Scholar.
168. GRANT, Thomas D., The Recognition of States: Law and Practice in Debate and Evolution (London: Praeger, 1999) at 38Google Scholar.
169. University of London Archives, Wang Chi-Liang Student Index Card (unpublished manuscript, on file with author).
170. Chen, supra note 9.
171. Wang received his BA degree from Fudan in 1926, and an LLB degree in 1930 from Soochow University.
172. Queen's College, University of Cambridge Archives, A note on Hsien-hsiang Wang (unpublished manuscript, on file with author).
173. Tsinghua University Archives, Chen Tiqiang's CV file (unpublished manuscript, on file with the author).
174. FANG Huijian, and ZHANG Sijing, Qing Hua Da Xue Zhi (Volume 1, 2001) at 536. According to the Tsinghua salary scale for 1948, an associate professor was remunerated between ￥350–500, and a full professor between ￥460–640.
175. University of Oxford Degree Conferral Office, Chen Ti Chiang Student Index Card. He officially applied for the degree at the beginning of the new academic year, leave was granted on 23 October 1948, and subsequently the Doctor of Philosophy was conferred upon him in absentia on 20 January 1949.
176. The National Archives, “Board of Trade: Commercial and Statistical Department and Successors: Outwards Passenger Lists. BT27. Records of the Commercial, Companies, Labour, Railways and Statistics Departments. Records of the Board of Trade and of successor and related bodies” (unpublished manuscript, on file with the author).
177. University of Cambridge Archives, Hwang King Hung's Academic Record (unpublished manuscript, on file with the author). Hwang completed his studies with Lauterpacht, and his degree was awarded on 11 December 1948.
