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TEXT 2. MARITIME LAW AND INTERNATIONAL COMMERCIAL LAW IN HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE
The expression 'maritime law' today refers to a body of rules based on international conventions, treaties, customs and domestic laws dealing with matters arising from maritime adventure, such as shipping, salvage and sea navigation. We use this expression in a much looser sense in this chapter, referring to the rules dealing with maritime trade and commerce in the early history of human society. This is because, historically, 'maritime law' and 'law merchant' always co-existed and in some circumstances were inseparable.
The earliest form of the body of rules and customs which we now call international commercial law was found in the rules and customs governing merchants and maritime matters, which were then broadly called maritime law. In Europe, the earliest maritime law emerged in the lands adjoining the Mediterranean Sea, where seaborne commerce was governed by trade usage or customs. The law regulating and guiding seaborne commerce was thus developed. One of the earliest maritime and commercial codes was the Law of Babylon, 'based on earlier Sumerian laws and codified by Hammurabi about 2200 BC. After the destruction of the Phoenicians by Alexander the Great in 332 BC, Greek maritime law became the most influential set of rules governing maritime matters and international commerce. The Lex Rhodia de jactu was a body of law developed in the island of Rhodes two or three centuries before Christ, and was perhaps the 'first comprehensive maritime code'. This code had a strong influence on the Roman law which dominated international maritime trade and commerce for some time. The ancient Rhodian sea laws also contributed to the existence of Catalonian Consolato del Mare, the Laws of Wisby, the Laws of the Hanse Towns and the Laws of Oleron in the Mediterranean ports. The Laws of Oleron and other codes were applied by the Borough courts of the English ports and seaboard towns in the Middle Ages. As a result of the continuous rise and fall of the great powers in Europe, the Amalphitan Table (a 'new collection of maritime laws') came into existence in the Republic of Amalphi and was accepted 'by all the city republics of Italy. In the thirteenth century, the city states in Italy, such as Venice, Florence and Milan, 'began to develop and to formulate famous systems of maritime and commercial law, which would later spread far from the Mediterranean and be the basis of a large part of the mercantile law of today. Although there were regionally accepted codes or laws for international trade and maritime matters, the rules and customs governing foreign trades in each European state were largely based on local law and customs. As a result, the so-called maritime law varied from city to city and country to country. After the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, seaborne trades and commerce were greatly internationalised, moving from the Mediterranean Sea to the Atlantic, motivated by the discoveries of the new continents. This raised a more urgent demand for the uniformity of maritime and international commercial law. Partly on the basis of these maritime laws a body of rules governing international trade and commerce, which we call international commercial law, has developed.