Consulates in extraterritorial jurisdictions

In countries outside of its borders, a foreign power often has extraterritorial rights over its official representation (such as a consulate). If such concessions are obtained, they are often justified as protection of the foreign religion (especially in the case of Christians in a Muslim state) such as the ahdname or capitulations granted by the Ottoman Sultan to commercial Diasporas residing in the Ottoman Empire. The Sultan did not see this agreement as a bilateral agreement between equals, but merely as acknowledging the nation of foreigners living within his territory and offering them privileges similar to those given to non-Ottoman subjects. However, the European states viewed the ahdname as formal and official and therefore had difficulty enforcing the privileges to their satisfaction on many occasions.

A few examples:

In other cases a part of a weaker state is completely handed over (without the formal surrender of "naked" sovereignty) to be administered as a concession, including the indigenous local population:

In the small Italian concession in Tientsin (a treaty port, now Tianjin), the Consul was in charge of the entire local administration. A long list of French consuls-general in Shanghai served as both overseers of the French concession in this Chinese port as well as presidents of the metropolis's Municipal Council. This arrangement lasted from January 1848 until 15 May 1946 (shortly after the 28 February formal restoration of power from France to China).

See main article: Consular court

In places where consuls had extraterritorial powers consular courts would also be established to handle civil and criminal cases against citizens and subjects of that country. The British had the widest system of consular courts run by the Foreign Office. British consular courts could be found in Africa, the Ottoman Empire, Egypt, China, Japan and Siam.

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