Law & Sea
For our distant ancestors sea was not only a vast space of water, dangerous and mysterious, but it was also cultural and important trade link between kingdoms and nations, commercial cities and small towns. Sea trade in its turn, to prosper and grow, had to develop a set of commonly understood and clear rules, which formed the lex maritima - "the law for merchants on sea." The need for such rules was imposed by extremely dangerous nature of seaborne trade itself, which, being highly profitable, was, on the other hand, almost until the middle of the twentieth century a matter of chance or fate. And even in those cases when sea passage was safely finished and vessel called to destination port, in many cases her cargo was damaged, destroyed or jettisoned. It is thought, that in ancient times the people of Rhodes built up a strong commercial fleet and first made attempts to convert trade usages and customs into the rules, the so-called lex Rhodia de iactu, which was later adopted by Romans.
Principal idea of lex Rhodia de iactu answers the crucial question which since then is being repeatedly approached by commercial lawyers and courts - the question of risk apportionment between the parties to common adventure. Lex Rhodia provided that when good are jettisoned to lighten ship in distress, the loss is shared among all whose goods are saved since it was incurred for the common benefit. And if the benefit was common, so should be the loss. This same principle years later has become known in England as a general average.
Medieval Times
Later in the Middle Ages, the risks associated with marine adventure have begun to form an independent set of rules specific to seaborne trade. At the ground of this set was a principle that maritime trade is not a uniform activity but a series of individual undertakings, each with its own individual risks. Such principle allowed for proportional allocation of risks between all participants to each adventure, when the law hardly distinguished between the types of participation. Here, same as in times of Rhodian and then Roman superiority at sea, an assumption of risks and distribution of profit between those involved were the main problems in the formation of law.
Geographic Aspect
Shipping, being originally located mainly between Mediterranean ports, beginning from the twelfth century - the golden age of the Hanseatic League - and later from the second half of the sixteenth century, gradually shifted its focus to the North Sea trades and, especially, waters surrounding British Isles.
The increase of shipping, and the improvement of navigation, are objects that have frequently engaged the attention of the Legislature; and various provisions have been made from time to time, by which it was endeavoured to confine, as much as possible, the trade to and from this country.John Reeves
'Invisible Export' of the City of London
Together with quick expansion of seaborne trade, commercial necessity brought in existence an army of legal clerks and lawyers, the only part of population literate enough to handle all-time expanding legislature and sophisticated disputes flowing from intricacies of maritime adventure. Since then Shipping law has become a major 'invisible export' of the City of London. In spite of gradual decline of tonnage under the British flag in the second half of the last century the attractions of English shipping law remain to be such as to bring into the UK a substantial volume of litigation and arbitration in which neither party is English and where the subject matter of their dispute has no connection with the UK. Between the other things the main attraction of English legal system for those involved in shipping business is its high degree of predictability built upon the concrete examples of case law, i.e. the doctrine of judicial precedent or stare decisis, rather than hypothetical models of the modern Civil Law tradition based on principles of codified law.
New Era of Old Problems
Nowadays, huge engines and not sails move great metal ship hulls with unthinkable even for the nineteenth century speed, carrying thousands tons of merchant commodities for thousands of miles distance. Legal aspects of modern shipping are so complicated that it will take quite a time to enumerate only important branches of law involved. Human factor related accidents and disasters give live to all-time increasing number of instructions, regulations and laws. However, sea is same dangerous and almost same mysterious as it was thousand years ago, with crews and their ships exposed to the elements of same force and disruptiveness. Question of risk apportionment is as yet between the main issues of shipping law, albeit in incomparably more complex disputes then those under Rhodian and Roman law. Last but not least, some ghosts of the past like piracy and hijacking have re-emerged from the dark of the centuries in its new and even more terrible and inhumane form.