The 1912 decree made legal jurisdiction depend on citizenship status rather than residence

Evidence

The I903 decree had simply divided West Africa into urban areas, which automatically came under the jurisdiction of French law, and rural areas, under that of customary law. This provision violated France’s promise to respect custom, because it arbitrarily imposed the formality and expensive procedure of French law upon non-French individuals who happened to be residing in cities. The 1912 decree began from the very different principle that all African sujets, no matter where they lived, belonged under the jurisdiction of native courts. Only Africans who had been naturalized by decree and had become French citoyens would continue to have access to French courts (articles r and 2). — Alice L. Conklin, A Mission to Civilize_ The Republican…, 416

Categorization

• DEFINE: Clarifies the subject/citoyen distinction — the legal core of colonial French republicanism in West Africa.