The 1917 promulgation of a new Ottoman family law is recognized as a landmark moment in the history of Islamic law by scholars of women and gender in the Middle East. Yet the significance of the 1917 law in the struggle over religious jurisdiction, political power, and Ottoman sovereignty has been overlooked in the scholarship on both Ottoman legal reform and World War 1. Drawing on Ottoman Turkish, German, French, and English sources linking internal interpretations of the law and external reactions to its passage, we reinterpret adoption of the family law as a key moment in the geopolitics of World War 1. We demonstrate that passage of the law was a critical turning point in the wartime process of abrogating the capitulations and eliminating the last vestiges of legal extraterritoriality in the Ottoman Empire. The law is situated in its wartime political context and the geopolitical milieu of larger Europe to demonstrate that, although short-lived, the 1917 family law was a centerpiece of the wartime struggle to define extraterritorial rights of the Ottoman Empire, the Great Powers, and their protégés within the empire.

The chief aim of this article is to unearth, explicate, and contextualize the various techniques on which Mahmut Esat, Turkey's agent before the Permanent Court of International Justice in the Lotus case, drew in order to narrate a fresh understanding of Turkish ‘nationhood’ during a period of intense vulnerability for the newly established Republic. The argument advanced by Turkey in this case – that it need not demonstrate the existence of a specific jurisdictional exception in international law in order to proceed with its prosecution of the French captain of the Lotus, a French vessel – has often been dismissed as an example of cynical apologetics. Nevertheless, a close reading of Turkey's pleadings reveals that it was inclined to oscillate between a variety of universalistic and particularistic approaches, Esat litigating the Lotus with an eye to exploiting the schism that lies at the heart of the concept of ‘civilization’ so as to submit Turkey to the normative authority of the international legal system while bolstering its positive power as an independent sovereign state. More specifically, it was by merging two modes of reasoning – the one prizing systematicity, the other prioritizing sovereignty – that Esat sought to construct a new, robustly reconciliatory identity for the ‘Turkish nation’, one that would enable it to embrace its commitment to international order by securing its place in ‘la civilisation contemporaine’ while amplifying the ambit of its autonomy as ‘un état civilisé’.

Capitulations — Effects of — Whether Constituting Termination of War.

Capitulations — Legal Effects of Capitulation on Civil Population — Interpretation — Powers of Military Commander — Capitulation Clauses contrary to Public International Law — Collaboration with the Enemy — Article 52 of the Hague Regulations.

Capitulations — Capitulation of Rijsoord, May 15, 1940 — Legal Effects on Civilian Population — Resistance Contrary to Proclamation — Necessity for Ratification — Reprisals against Innocent Civilian Population.

Capitulations — Capitulation of Rijsoord, May 15, 1940, between German and Dutch Forces — Legal Effects on Civilian Population — Resistance Contrary to Proclamation — Necessity for Ratification — Applicability of Hague Regulations in Occupied Territory despite Resistance Movement.

Capitulations — Consular Courts in Egypt — Judgments of — Exequatur.

Capitulations — Jurisdiction of Mixed Courts of Egypt — Montreux Convention of 1936.

Treaties — Conclusion of — Absence of Ratification — Effect of.

Treaties — Operation of — Treaties Signed but not Ratified — Effect of — Montreux Convention of 1937 — Effect of Treaties upon Individuals.

Occupation of Foreign Territory in Time of Peace — British Army in Egypt — Action against Commanding Officer in respect of Act Committed by a Soldier.

Capitulations — Mixed Tribunals in Egypt — Competence of — Action against Army of Occupation.

Jurisdiction — Exemptions from — Foreign Armed Forces — British Army in Egypt — Jurisdictional Immunity — Immunity of Sovereign States — Distinction between Acts done by Officials of State in Public or Private Capacity.

Capitulations — Capitulations in Ethiopia — Consular Courts — Action between a Greek National and a Native — Voluntary Submission by a Native Litigant.

Capitulations — Cross-action — Capitulations in Ethiopia — Action by Foreigner against Greek National in the Consular Court.

Capitulations — Morocco — Abrogation of Capitulations Accepted by Holland — Claim of Ex-Protégé to Access to French Courts — Distinction between the Right to Protection and Personal Status.

Act of State — Power to Proclaim Martial Law — Right to Question before Courts.

Capitulations — Whether Affecting the Right to Proclaim Martial Law — British Protectorate over Egypt.

British Protectorate in Egypt — Recognition by Foreign Powers — Power of British Commander-in-Chief to Declare Martial Law — Act of State — Capitulations.

Capitulations — Denunciation during the War by the Ottoman Government — Effect of the Treaty of Lausanne

Capitulations — Capitulatory Régime in Territory under Enemy Occupation — Turkish Territory Occupied by Italy.

Occupation of Enemy Territory — Judicial Authority — Existing Courts Presided over by Judges Nationals of the Occupying Power — Capitulatory Régime in Occupied Territory.

Occupation of Enemy Territory — Status of Occupied Territory — Capitulatory Régime — Italian Occupation of Turkish Territory.

Capitulations — Jurisdiction of Mixed Courts in Egypt — Declaration of British Protectorate over Egypt — Effect on National Status of Ottoman Subjects in Egypt.

Protectorates — Effect of Declaration of British Protectorate over Egypt — Abolition of Turkish Suzerainty — Effect on National Status of Ottoman Subjects in Egypt — Jurisdiction of Mixed Courts.

Capitulations — Subjects of States under a Non-Recognised Government — Subjects of Soviet Russia in Egypt.

Recognition of Acts of Foreign States and Governments — Unrecognised Governments — Non-Recognition of Soviet Government — Russian Consulates of Old Régime in Egypt — Jurisdiction in Matters of Personal Status of Russians — Consular Certificates.