International zone
An international zone is any area not fully subject to the border control policies of the state in which it is located. There are several types of international zones ranging from special economic zones and sterile zones at ports of entry exempt from customs rules to concessions over which administration is ceded to one or more foreign states. International zones may also maintain distinct visa policies from the rest of the surrounding state.
Special economic zones
A special economic zone is an area in which the business and trade laws are different from the rest of the jurisdiction within which it is located. SEZs are generally established to increase foreign direct investment or facilitate export-oriented manufacturing. Depending on its purpose, an SEZ typically has less strict border control policies with regard to customs. An export processing zone will typically allow for goods manufactured for export to be exempt from excise tax and for capital goods and raw materials to be exempt from customs duties upon import, while a bonded logistics park will typically exempt a designated area from all or most customs regulations. The most extreme category of SEZ is a freeport, in which goods stored or transhipped are treated as never having entered the host jurisdiction.Uniquely, Svalbard is an entirely visa-free zone under the terms of the Svalbard Treaty, which recognises the sovereignty of Norway over the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard but subjects it to certain stipulations and consequently not all Norwegian law applies, including border controls. The treaty regulates the demilitarisation of the archipelago. The signatories were given equal rights to engage in commercial activities on the islands., Norway and Russia are making use of this right. Similarly, simplified visa policies are in force for Iran's special economic zones of Kish and Qeshm islands, and for Iraqi Kurdistan.
Concessions
A concession is a territory within a state over which another state has been granted jurisdiction. During the Age of Imperialism, concessions were frequently granted to colonial or imperial powers. Notably, the United Nations' headquarters in New York City and offices in Geneva, Vienna, and Nairobi are administered as international concessions by the United Nations, while still subject to most local and national laws. As the United Nations requires delegates from all member states to be permitted to attend meetings at its headquarters, host countries maintain special visa arrangements such as the C-2 visa which enables otherwise inadmissible foreign officials to enter the United States, provided they remain within the vicinity of the UN headquarters.The Tangier International Zone was a 373 square kilometre concession administered by several countries in the Moroccan city of Tangier and its environs between 1923 and 1956. Much like the Shanghai International Settlement, the government and administration of the zone was in the hands of a number of foreign powers. The Zone had its own appointed International Legislative Assembly, which was subject to supervision by a Committee of Control consisting of the Consuls of Belgium, France, Britain, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, and Spain. Executive power was vested in an Administrator, and judicial power resided in a Mixed Court of five judges, respectively appointed by the Belgian, British, Spanish, French, and Italian governments. As a result of the creation of the Mixed Court, the various European powers withdrew the consular courts that previously exercised jurisdiction there. The Zone had a reputation for tolerance, diversity of culture, religion, and bohemianism. It became a tourist hotspot for literary giants and gay men from Western countries. Many of the latter were able to live an openly "out" life in the Zone. In July 1952 the protecting powers met at Rabat to discuss the Zone's future, agreeing to abolish it. Tangier joined with the rest of Morocco following the restoration of full sovereignty in 1956.
The Tomb of Suleyman Shah, grandfather of the founder of the Ottoman Empire Osman I, has been located in northern Syria since the Empire's collapse. The 1921 Treaty of Ankara established the area surrounding the tomb as a Turkish concession. The tomb was moved in 1973 as the site was to be flooded by the creation of Euphrates Lake, and in 2015 it was relocated unilaterally by Turkey in response to the Syrian civil war. The Syrian government denounced the move as incompatible with the 1921 treaty; Turkey plans to move the tomb back to the second site.
Asia
The island port of Dejima was a Portuguese and, later, Dutch concession near the Japanese city of Nagasaki. Established to house Portuguese traders during the Nanban trade, it was later ceded to Dutch administration between 1641 and 1854. Under the Sakoku policy in force during the Edo period, it was Japan's only point of interaction with the outside world. Border controls limited passage of foreign merchants from Dejima to Nagasaki and of Japanese from Nagasaki to Dejima. Similarly, the island of Macau was ceded by China during the Ming dynasty to the Portuguese, who administered it as a trading hub between 1557 and 1999. In the aftermath of the Opium Wars, the Ming Dynasty's successor Qing Dynasty ceded the island of Hong Kong and the surrounding area to the British under the Treaty of Nanjing, resulting in the area being administered as a British trading hub until 1997.During the late Qing years, significant portions of Chinese territory, primarily along the coast, were surrendered as concessions to occupying powers including many European powers as well as Japan and the United States. Each concession had its own police force, and different legal jurisdictions with their own separate laws. Thus, an activity might be legal in one concession but illegal in another. Many of the concessions also maintained their own military garrison and standing army. Military and police forces of the Chinese government were sometimes present. Some police forces allowed Chinese, others did not. In these concessions, the citizens of each foreign power were given the right to freely inhabit, trade, proselytize, and travel. They developed their own sub-cultures, isolated and distinct from the intrinsic Chinese culture, and colonial administrations attempted to give their concessions "homeland" qualities. Churches, public houses, and various other western commercial institutions sprang up in the concessions. In the case of Japan, its own traditions and language naturally flourished. Some of these concessions eventually had more advanced architecture of each originating culture than most cities back in the countries of the foreign powers origin. Chinese were originally forbidden from most of the concessions, but to improve commercial activity and services, by the 1860s most concessions permitted Chinese, but treated them like second-class citizens as they were not citizens of the foreign state administering the concession. They eventually became the majority of the residents inside the concessions. Non-Chinese in the concessions were generally subject to consular law, and some of these laws applied to the Chinese residents. Notable Concessions include the Shanghai International Settlement administered by the United Kingdom and the United States, the French Concession in Shanghai, the Kwantung Leased Territory, and the Beijing Legation Quarter.
The foreign concessions in China continued to exist during the mainland period of the Republic of China. In major cities like Shanghai and Tianjin, due to the existence of numerous jurisdictions, criminals could commit a crime in one jurisdiction and then easily escape to another. This became a major problem during the Republican period, with the rise of post–Imperial Warlord era and the collapse of central authority in the 1920s and the 1930s. Crime often flourished, especially organised crime by different warlord groups.
The majority of concessions in Asia were treaty ports, port cities in China and Japan that were opened to foreign trade mainly by the unequal treaties forced upon them by Western powers, as well as cities in Korea opened up similarly by the Japanese Empire prior to its annexation of the Korean peninsula. The treaty port system in China lasted approximately one hundred years beginning with the 1841 Opium War. The system effectively ended when Japan took control of most of the ports in the late 1930s, The Russians relinquished their treaty rights in the wake of the Russian revolution in 1917, and the Germans were expelled in 1914. The three main treaty powers, the British, the Americans, and the French continued to hold their concessions and extraterritorial jurisdictions until the Second World War. This ended when the Japanese stormed into their concessions in late 1941. They formally relinquished their treaty rights in a new "equal treaties" agreement with Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalist Government in exile in Chongqing in 1943. The international communities that were residues of the treaty port era ended in the late 1940s when the communists took over and nearly all foreigners left.
Within the concessions in China, the occupying foreign powers administered distinct legal systems. The two main courts judging extraterritorial cases were the Shanghai Mixed Court and the British Supreme Court for China. Similar courts were established for treaty countries, e.g. the United States Court for China. These had jurisdiction over the concession areas, which formally remained under Qing sovereignty. Initially, Chinese people who committed crimes in, say, the British zone, were remanded to Chinese authorities.