The Genesis of Modern Maritime Law

Maritime laws hold a complex position in and amongst other legal systems. International sea trade is, by definition, between nations, who will each have their differing legal systems. The modern maritime legal system lies therefore independent of and between national legal systems.

Establishing a common maritime legal system was essential for shipping to become truly global. This was in large part achieved by the French Ordinances on Commerce in 1673, and on the Marine in 1681. These processes were managed by Jean-Baptiste Colbert, as discussed in Unit 6.

This ordinance was widely respected and often adapted for its comprehensive and logical nature, the clean and just decisions it encouraged, and its accuracy and clarity in all the details of shipping, navigation, insurance, and bottomry. The quality of the system first allowed French and later global maritime trade to flourish.

Throughout history, the maritime legal system has always resulted from the interplay of the systems of the major shipping nations. For most of the modern period, Great Britain was the dominant sea power; it had the largest naval and merchant fleets, the largest physical and financial capacity, and the largest empire with the largest captive markets. However, perhaps because Great Britain used a common law system, there was no single enacted code of maritime law. Therefore the French influence on maritime law was perhaps more significant than its influence on maritime trade over the same period.

There are many well-respected legal judgements made by British judges that are significant in their scope and influence on the international maritime legal system, however British law was not the central code on which the system was based.

The international maritime legal system could only be established as a whole as it grew far enough away from national legal systems. This process accelerated after the Congress of Vienna in 1815, following the Napoleonic Wars, as private, commercial interests became more and more dominant in the establishment of a maritime legal system. This can also be seen as the beginning of the end of mercantilism, and the end of the beginning for more open, laissez-faire economic policy.

The importance of modern maritime law cannot be understated; it provides the bridge that valuable trade can pass along between the two major Western legal traditions of civil law and common law. Its widespread adoption across nations, regardless of the tradition of their domestic legal system, has allowed for a more interconnected trading world, where business can happen across oceans with efficiency and common understanding.