IN THE COURTS OF THE NATIONS - DataSpace - Princeton ...

Foreign subjects and protégés were not the only ones who attempted to avoid the
jurisdiction of consular courts. Some Moroccan subjects, when faced with the opportunity to be
judged in a consular court, chose instead to bring their disputes before a qāḍī or a Makhzan
official. Melal Bonina, a Moroccan Jew, was the plaintiff in one such case. In 1899 Bonina sued
Louis Constant Pouteau (or Poutot) for allegedly attacking her, both physically and verbally, and
for throwing her out of his house. 138 Pouteau was a French subject living in Tangier. The
treaties regulating jurisdiction of cases involving foreigners clearly stipulated that any cases
against French subjects such as Pouteau could only be tried in French consular courts.
Nonetheless, Bonina initially took her case to a Moroccan court—although the case was
eventually decided in a French consular court. 139 While Bonina might have been unaware that
the French consulate had sole jurisdiction in this case, given the prevalence of foreigners in
Tangier at the time it seems unlikely that she was completely ignorant of the rules governing
jurisdiction. 140 A more likely explanation for Bonina’s actions is that she felt she would get a
more favorable hearing in a local court. Bonina would have almost certainly been more familiar
with the Islamic legal system than Pouteau. Perhaps of equal concern was the likelihood that a
French consular court would favor French subjects, since consuls were specifically charged with
protecting the interests of their state’s subjects and protégés. 141
138
MAE Nantes, Tanger F 3, 6 March 1899.
139
The dossier does not specify whether Bonina brought her case to a qāḍī or to the governor of the city. Since
jurisdiction over criminal affairs was shared between these two judicial authorities, it is not possible to guess to
which court she appealed.
140
The population statistics are highly unreliable; however, the Annuaire du Maroc for the year 1905 estimated that
the total population of the city was 44,000, of which 9,115 were Europeans and 10,000 were Jews (see Albert
Cousin and Daniel Saurin, Annuaire du Maroc (Paris: Comité du Maroc, 1905), 408).
141
See, for instance, Kenbib, Les protégés, 54-5. There are too many cases which demonstrate the consul’s support
for his subjects and protégés to cite them all; see, for example, the case of Abraham Corcos vs. Mesod Shedini
(discussed above). For an example of a French subject who did not feel his consul was sufficiently defending his
interests in court, see MAE Nantes, Tanger A 138, Rey vs. Benchimol and Ghassal, esp. Rey to Méchain, 30 August
1837 and 21 October 1837.
327