The Convention regarding the Abolition of the Capitulations in Egypt was signed at Montreux on 8 May 1937 by the King of Egypt, of the one part, and the United States, Belgium, the United Kingdom, Denmark, the Spanish Republic, France, Greece, Italy, Norway, the Netherlands, Portugal and Sweden, of the other. It is not the 1936 Montreux Convention regarding the Regime of the Straits. The authentic texts are English and French, in a single copy deposited in the archives of the Royal Egyptian Government. It was registered in the League of Nations Treaty Series, volume 182.

The preamble records that the Capitulations regime hitherto in force in Egypt is no longer in harmony with the new situation to which that country has attained through the progress of its institutions, and that it should therefore be brought to an end. After abolition by common agreement, relations among the parties are to rest on respect for the independence and sovereignty of States and on ordinary international law. The Convention follows the Anglo-Egyptian Treaty of 1936, which opened the negotiations; it does not replace that treaty.

Article 1: the High Contracting Parties agree, each in so far as he is concerned, to the complete abolition in all respects of Capitulations in Egypt. Article 2: subject to the principles of international law, foreigners shall be subject to Egyptian legislation in criminal, civil, commercial, administrative, fiscal and other matters. The legislation to which foreigners will be subject will not be inconsistent with the principles generally adopted in modern legislation and will not, particularly in fiscal matters, entail discrimination against foreigners or against companies incorporated under Egyptian law in which foreigners are substantially interested. The non-discrimination paragraph, so far as it is not a recognised rule of international law, applies only during the transition period. No fiscal playbook is transcribed.

Article 3 maintains the Mixed Court of Appeal and the existing Mixed Tribunals until 14 October 1949. From 15 October 1937 they are governed by an Egyptian law establishing the Règlement d'organisation judiciaire, the text of which is annexed; for that annex, French alone is authentic. At the end of the period, pending cases pass, at the stage they have reached, to the National Tribunals, without fees. The interval to 14 October 1949 is called the transition period. The mixed-court staffing table and nationality quotas are not transcribed.

Article 8: subject to Article 9, no civil or commercial action, no action in matters of personal status and no criminal cause shall be instituted before any Consular Court in Egypt after 15 October 1937. Article 9 allows parties that still possess such courts to retain them, if they notify at deposit of ratification, for jurisdiction in personal status where the applicable law is that party's national law; no Consular Court is to be maintained after 14 October 1949. No consular-court handbook is transcribed.

Disputes on interpretation or application that cannot be settled diplomatically shall, on the application of one of the parties, be submitted to the Permanent Court of International Justice, or to the tribunal provided in an arbitration treaty still in force with the King of Egypt. The Convention is to be ratified, instruments deposited as soon as possible at Cairo, and the Royal Egyptian Government is to register it with the Secretariat of the League of Nations. It comes into force on 15 October 1937 if three instruments of ratification have been deposited; for the other signatories, from the date of their own deposits. A protocol and a declaration by the Royal Egyptian Government accompany the instrument.

Cover: the Hôtel Montreux Palace on Lake Geneva, the setting of the Montreux conferences; we do not claim the signing room. Wikimedia Commons, free licence.

Sources consulted: Montreux Convention Regarding the Abolition of the Capitulations in Egypt; Convention regarding the Abolition of the Capitulations in Egypt, Protocol and Declaration by the Royal Egyptian Government.