«Mixed» cases involving the Russian and Chinese subjects in Mongolia in the second half of the 19^th - the early 20^th century: the issues of investigation and legal proceedings

The specific features of the investigation and legal proceedings on “mixed” cases in Mongolia remains one of the understudied issues of the history of Russian-Mongolian-Chinese relations, Russia's diplomatic and consular service, as well as the history of Russia, Mongolia and China in the second half of the 19^th - the early 20^th centuries. This article presents the results of the interdisciplinary study of this problem, based on a wide range of published and unpublished sources, including those from the Archive of Foreign Policy of the Russian Empire and the Archive of Orientalists of the Institute of Oriental Manuscripts (RAS). The research is aimed at the comprehensive analysis of the legal basis of the law enforcement and judicial activities of Russian consulates and local Mongolian and Manchurian (from 1915 -Chinese) authorities, the most common types of offenses and suits, the features of the institutions involved in the resolution of civil and criminal cases, the investigative and judicial procedures in different regions of Mongolia, as well as the main difficulties in the work on “mixed” processes. Practices of investigation and litigation are examined in the context of international and inter-civilizational interactions in the region. The research demonstrates that the most serious problems in investigative and judicial activities included Russian government's uncertainty about the strategy toward Mongolia until the early 1910-s, the lack of a legal framework for the implementation of consular jurisdiction in the East and special instructions related to the region, and a whole number of organizational and cultural issues. The delay in opening consulates in Western Mongolia left numerous Russian traders without reliable protection from arbitrary actions of the local officials. Among other difficulties, there are the opposition of the Qing authorities, their permissive interpretation of the Russian-Chinese treaties as well as their poor investigative work, severity of punishments imposed and corruption that made the local population fear any court procedures and adversely affected the reputation of the “mixed” commissions. Nevertheless, the region-specific system of resolving “mixed” cases based on the cooperation of the local administration and Russian official representatives, the border authorities and heads of the Russian trade communities, despite its weaknesses, can be called functional for the local conditions. The complex mechanism relying on Russia's treaties and agreements with China and Mongolia, the local traditional norms and principles as well as the system of precedents and informal agreements between Russian, Manchu, Chinese and Mongolian officials and between the certain groups of the population, was preserved some time after the Russian Revolution of 1917 and contributed to the regulation of international interactions in Mongolia, even in the face of the large-scale historical transformations.

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