Starting out - Admiralty Law studies

[netwrkranger]

The Law of Nations - Emmerich de Vattel

I have to give props to LB Bork for getting me hooked on the book above.

[netwrkranger]

The American Admiralty. Its Jurisdiction and Practice with Practical Forms and Directions. - Erastus C. Benedict (1850)

I have to give props to "The Informer" for getting me hooked on that one.

[netwrkranger]

The Black Book of the Admiralty. Vol I - Sir Tavers Twiss
The Black Book of the Admiralty. Vol II - Sir Tavers Twiss

Props to psholtz and George Gordon on these two above.

[netwrkranger]

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_of_Nations

Public international law concerns the structure and conduct of states and intergovernmental organizations. To a lesser degree, international law also may affect multinational corporations and individuals, an impact increasingly evolving beyond domestic legal interpretation and enforcement. Public international law has increased in use and importance vastly over the twentieth century, due all to the increase in global trade, armed conflict, environmental deterioration on a worldwide scale, awareness of human rights violations, rapid and vast increases in international transportation and a boom in global communications.

Public international law is sometimes called the "law of nations". It should not be confused with "private international law", which is concerned with the resolution of conflict of laws. In its most general sense, international law "consists of rules and principles of general application dealing with the conduct of states and of intergovernmental organizations and with their relations inter se, as well as with some of their relations with persons, whether natural or juridical."[1]

[netwrkranger]

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Private_international_law

Conflict of laws (or private international law) is that branch of international law and intranational interstate law that regulates all lawsuits involving a "foreign" law element where different judgments will result depending on which jurisdiction's laws are applied as the lex causae.

In civil law systems, private international law is a branch of the internal legal system dealing with the determination of which state law is applicable to situations crossing over the borders of one particular state and involving a "foreign element" (élément d'extranéité), (collisions of law, conflict of laws). Lato sensu (at large) it also includes international civil procedure and international commercial arbitration (collisions of jurisdiction, conflict of jurisdictions), as well as citizenship law (which strictly speaking is part of public law).

There are two major streams of legal thought on the nature of conflict of laws. One group of researchers regard Conflict of Laws as a part of international law, claiming that its norms are uniform, universal and obligatory for all states. This stream of legal thought in Conflict of Laws is called "universalism". Other researchers maintain the view that each State creates its own unique norms of Conflict of Laws pursuing its own policy. This theory is called "particularism" in Conflict of Laws.

Private international law is divided on two major areas:

* Private international law "sensu stricto" comprising conflict of laws rules which determine the law of which country (state) is applicable to specific relations.
* Private international law "sensu lato" which comprises private international law "sensu stricto" (conflict of laws rules) and material legal norms which have direct extraterritorial character and are imperatively applied (material norms of law crossing the borders of State) - usually regulations on real property, consumer law, currency control regulations, insurance and banking regulations.

In common law systems, conflict of laws, firstly, is concerned with determining whether the proposed forum has jurisdiction to adjudicate and is the appropriate venue for dealing with the dispute, and, secondly, with determining which of the competing state's laws are to be applied to resolve the dispute. It also deals with the enforcement of foreign judgments.

[netwrkranger]

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Admiralty_law

Admiralty law (also referred to as maritime law) is a distinct body of law which governs maritime questions and offenses. It is a body of private international law governing the relationships between private entities which operate vessels on the oceans. It is distinguished from the Law of the Sea, which is a body of public international law dealing with navigational rights, mineral rights, jurisdiction over coastal waters and international law governing relationships between nations.

[netwrkranger]

Codex Hammurabi - Babylonian Law

Codex Theodosianus - Byzantine Law

Corpus Juris Civilis

Rhodian Sea Law

Rolls of Oleron - Eleanor of Aquitaine

Islamic law also made major contributions to international admiralty law, departing from the previous Roman and Byzantine maritime laws in several ways. These included Muslim sailors being "paid a fixed wage “in advance” with an understanding that they would owe money in the event of desertion or malfeasance, in keeping with Islamic conventions" in which contracts should specify “a known fee for a known duration”, in contrast to Roman and Byzantine sailors who were "stakeholders in a maritime venture, in as much as captain and crew, with few exceptions, were paid proportional divisions of a sea venture’s profit, with shares allotted by rank, only after a voyage’s successful conclusion." Muslim jurists also distinguished between "coastal navigation, or cabotage," and voyages on the “high seas”, and they also made shippers "liable for freight in most cases except the seizure of both a ship and its cargo." Islamic law also "departed from Justinian’s Digest and the Nomos Rhodion Nautikos in condemning slave jettison", and the Islamic Qirad was also a precursor to the European commenda limited partnership. The “Islamic influence on the development of an international law of the sea” can thus be discerned alongside that of the Roman influence.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Admiralty_law

Hanseatic League

Lex Mercatoria

City of London - City of London Corporation

[netwrkranger]

From Benedict on Admiralty

" The countries that earliest reduced the law of the sea to a system, an adopted codes of maritime regulations, having been countries in which the Roman or civil law prevailed, the principles of that great system of jurisprudence, were incorporated with, and gave character to the maritime law, and so much were pure reason, abstract right and practical justice mingled in that system, and so important was it that the general maritime law should be uniform and universal, that in England, where the common law was the law of the land, the civil law was held to be the law of the admiralty, and the course of proceedings in admiralty, closely resembled the civil law practice.

6. A court thus proceeding according to the course of the civil law, and without a jury, in England, was looked upon with jealousy by the judges of the courts of common law, who considered themselves the proper judicial guardians of English subjects."

[netwrkranger]

HID (Cody)
Here is some big props to YOU for never having used any of the above to achieve any degree of success in court.

Cody, if all you have to contribute is your less than fabulous sarcasm, then don't contribute to the thread at all.

Regards,
netwrkranger

[Sapiens]

Thanks for the thread.