Not far away from Shanghai's Waibaidu Bridge (aka Garden Bridge) to the north of the Bund is the building that once served as the former British Supreme Court in Shanghai. The court had British lawyers, British judges and followed British law.

The court was the result of the gunboat diplomacy that saw foreign powers impose trade treaties and extract other concessions from the Chinese government from the mid-19th century until the end of World War II.

One such concession was that Chinese courts were forbidden from trying foreigners. As such, major foreign powers with presences in China such as the British, Japanese and Americans had their own courts in the city.

Gunboat Justice, a new book written by Douglas Clark (pictured below), is a history about this long-forgotten extraterritoriality.

The three-volume history looks at British and American extraterritoriality in China, Japan and Korea.

It brings this period to life through fascinating portraits of the characters in these courts, and the issues they faced that encompassed war, riots, rebellion, corruption, murder, infidelity and even a failed hanging.

Clark is a practicing lawyer who has lived in China, Japan and South Korea for over 25 years. When he started writing the book, he was already 18 years into his law career. He spent four years trawling dusty archives around the world.

The major resources he had were the records of the British Supreme Court, which are now preserved at the National Archives in London.

The other major source was the North China Herald, a British newspaper that was published in Shanghai. Every case brought to the court was covered by the paper in detail, including quotes from the courtroom. Clark also interviewed family members of the former judges to flesh out their characters.

The book is illustrated throughout with original cartoons and drawings from magazines dating as far back to 1872. The Global Times recently spoke with Clark about his new book.

The three volumes of Gunboat Justice Photos: Courtesy of Graham Earnshaw

GT: Why did you write this book?

Clark: Chinese and Japanese history and law are my passions. One thing I found interesting was very little has been written about extraterritoriality in Chinese in China.

Some academics have probably stayed away from this topic. I thought someone must have written about it and then I went in to research it and no one has. Not a proper history. This is perfect because I am a lawyer. This is the exact subject I want to write about.

I wrote it for three groups of people. One group is Westerners who have great interest in China, Japan and eastern Asia. The other group of people I wrote for was lawyers. The third group of people I had in mind was Japanese and Chinese readers.

GT: Why are you interested in this history, and why do you think it is important to write about it?

Clark: If we don't remember our history we will make the same mistakes again or we just won't understand how our system came about.

I think I didn't understand why Shanghai was so special for example and now I realize extraterritoriality was very important in allowing foreigners to live here very comfortably. They didn't have to worry about Chinese law and Chinese courts, which is a bad thing in the long run, but it made Shanghai.

Why was Shanghai so much more developed than other cities in China? It was partly because of this. It created a system of rule of law which maybe the rest of China didn't have for a long time.

The Shanghainese people are probably more open to foreign ideas just generally, and I think the legal system makes the difference.

Before I wrote the book, whenever I read Chinese writings about the "century of humiliation" and how bad the foreigners were, I thought it was just propaganda.

When I wrote the book, I realized there was so much more. My book gives lots more examples of really bad things foreigners did to Chinese.

GT: You have practiced in Shanghai for 11 years. Did this experience help in the writing of your book?

Clark: Absolutely. I went to many locations. I talk about in Volume 3 a case where two British policemen allegedly threw a Chinese beggar into the river and killed him.

They are prosecuted in the court and found not guilty. I went out to the river to look at the site to get a feel of what happened. Why would you do this? How could you pick up somebody and throw them into the river?

Other times, I walk down the street where things happen just to get a feeling. I also went to many cities, including Beijing, Tianjin and Yokohama.

GT: The language you use in the book is concise and simple. Did you do this on purpose?

Clark: I did that on purpose because I want it to be accessible to anybody who reads it. When I started, I found it difficult because as a lawyer we use more complicated wordings.

I was really struggling when I was writing. How do I make it simple? I went back and looked at John Grisham's books to see how he does it.