CHAPTER XI. The Admiralty and Maritime Jurisdiction of France and other portions of Continental Europe. 172. The marine ordinances of France have always been held in deservedly high estimation. Her wisest statesmen and monarchs have all along, through many centuries, given the most profound attention to the subject of maritime law; and, under the administration of Courts of Admiralty, filled by the ablest judges, a system of maritime law has there been built up more perfectly than in any other country; and commentators and jurisconsults of most various learning, and most profound and practical reflection, have been, at the same time, the cause and the effect of this constant attention to the best interests of maritime commerce. The jurisdiction of the French Admiralty has always been of the widest and most salutary character. (a) 1 § 173. The judges of the Admiralty shall take cognizance, preferably to all others, and between all persons of whatever quality or condition, even though privileged, French and strangers, as well in demanding as defending, of all that concerns the construction, tackle and furniture, arming, victualling, and man. ning, sale and adjudication of ships. We declare them competent judges of all actions, proceeding from charter parties, freighting, bills of lading, freight, engaging and wages of seamen, and victuals furnished to them by order of the master during the manning of ships, together with policies of insurance and obligations of bottomry, and on the return of a voyage, and generally of all contracts concerning the commerce of the sea, notwithstanding all submissions to the contrary.(b) (a) Ord. de la Marine, tit. 2, arts. I to 11. 112 to 151. 315 to 501 Merville, Com. 13 to 25. 1 Valin, Cleirac, Les Us' et Coutumes de la Mer, Jurisdiction de la Marine, (b) This and the following three sections are a translation of the jurisdictional articles of the Ordonnance de la Marine, tit. 2, arts. 1 to 11. 174. They shall likewise take cognizance of prizes taken at sea, wrecks, shipwrecks, and stranded ships, of ejecting and contributing average, and damages happened to ships and their lading, and also of inventories and deliverances of assets left in ships by persons dying at sea. They shall likewise take cognizance of the dues for licenses, thirds, tenths, sea marks, anchorage and others belonging to the Admiral, and of those which shall be levied or pretended by the lords of manors, or other particular persons near the sea, upon the fisheries or fish, and upon goods or ships going out or coming into port. The cognizance of fishing in the sea and salt water, and the mouths of rivers, shall likewise belong to them, and likewise that of parks and fisheries; and they shall also take cognizance of nets and threads, and of the buying and selling of fish upon the shore, or in the boats, ports, or harbors. 175. They shall likewise take cognizance of damages done by ships to the fisheries, either upon the coasts or in navigable rivers, and of those that the ships shall receive, and likewise of the ways appointed for hauling up ships coming from the sea, if there be no regulation, title, or possession to the contrary. They shall also take cognizance of the damages done to the keys, banks, moles, palisadoes, and other works cast up, against the violence of the sea, and shall take care that the depth of the ports and roads be preserved and kept clean. They shall take up the bodies of drowned persons, and shall draw up a verbal process of the condition of the corpses found at sea and on the sand, or in the ports, as likewise of the drowning of mariners sailing in navigable rivers. 176. They shall assist at the musters and reviews of the inhabitants of the parishes subject to the sea watch, and shall take cognizance of all differences arising upon that account, and likewise of crimes committed by them that are upon the guard of the coasts, while they are under arms. They shall also take cognizance of piracies and robberies, and desertions of seamen, and generally of all crimes and offences committed upon the sea or the coasts, and in the ports and harbors.(a) 177. These various codes and systems cannot but have been familiar to the framers of the Constitution, and for the purpose of this treatise, it is not necessary to inquire further into the jurisdiction of the Admirals, or of the Admiralty Courts of the various commercial nations of the world. They will be found to differ considerably in the mere Admiralty law-the maritime regulations of the municipal code. There will be found, also, a great uniformity in their adoption of those principles and rules which constitute the general maritime law. Those which have been referred to, show the same difference in municipal regulation, and the same uniformity in general principles, which would appear on a more extended examination. A brief list of them is here given, for the double purpose of showing the universality of maritime codification in commercial nations, and of directing the student to the numerous and cognate sources of the maritime laws. 178. Some of them are actual legislative enactments, others the ordinances of monarchs, and others are mere compilations, made up of extracts from well known ancient codes and ordinances. Others again, are mere essays and treatises on maritime subjects—which, in consequence of their practical wisdom, have, by long use and authority, came to be considered the highest evidence of marine law,-and others, are the voluntary regulations which persons, interested in shipping, have adopted for their own convenience; and which, in like manner, have ripened into law. They are to be found in the great work of Pardessus, in which he has collected the maritime laws of all commercial nations, and preceded each by a historical notice, valuable for the combined results of thorough historical and antiquarian research, careful and ingenious criticism, and liberal (a) Ord. de la Marine, tit. 2, arts. 1 to 11. In the third part of the Us' et Coutumes de la Mer, Cleirac, in his learned and curious treatise, La Jurisdiction de la Marine ou de l'Admirautie, has extracted and collected the text of the royal ordinances of the Admiralty of France, from the earliest periods. Cleirac, 316. and generous views of the true end and proper extent of the maritime law. (a) 179. The Maritime Law of the Rhodians.(b)-This is the most ancient code of maritime law. It was promulgated about 900 years before the Christian era, and about seventy years after the time of Solomon. These laws being founded upon natural justice, entered largely into the maritime legislation of all the commercial nations of antiquity of whose laws we have any knowledge. They were generally received in the Mediterranean, and Greece and Rome acknowledged their authority. In the time of Julius Cæsar and of Augustus, the distinguished jurisconsults, O'Libius, Labeo, and Labinus, adopted them, especially in cases of jettison; and the Emperors Claudius, Vespasian, Trajan, Adrian and Antonius, confirmed those laws, and directed that all cases of maritime commerce should be decided according to them.(c) 180. The Maritime Laws of the Kingdom of Jerusalem.— These laws date back to the existence of the Christian Kingdom of Jerusalem, established after the capture of the Holy City by Godfrey de Bouillon, in the first Crusade.(d) 181. The Rooles or Judgments of Oleron-Commonly called the Laws of Oleron, take their name from the Island of Oleron. The English and the French have long disputed the honor of having produced these laws, and their real origin is undoubtedly obscured by a remote antiquity; and, by common consent, they are admitted to be the foundation of all the European maritime codes. The earliest French edition to which Pardessus refers, published in 1485, bears for a title, "Jugemens de la Mer des Maisters, des Mariniers, des Marchants, et de tout leur estre❞—a literal translation of which is the the title of (a) Pardessus Loix. Maritimes, passim. (b) Sea Laws, 76, 78. 1 Pard. Loix. Mar. 231. (c) Encyc. de Jurisp. Art. Rhodien. 1 Boulay Paty. tit. prel. § 1 to 6. 2 Brow. Civ. and Ad. Law, 38. 3 Kent's Comm. 1 to 21. (d) 1 Pard. 275. the earliest English edition, published in the reign of Henry VIII.—“ Judgment of the Sea of Masters, of Mariners, and Merchants, and all their doings.(a) 182. Les Jugemens de Damme ou Lois de Westcapelle.These are mainly a translation of the Laws of Oleron, made for Dam, a city of Austrian-Flanders, situated a short distance from the sea, near to Bruges.(b) Coutumes d'Amsterdam, Enchuysen and Stavern. These also, were substantially translated from the Laws of Oleron, and they were entitled," Ordonnance que les patrons et les negocians observent entre eux sur le droit Maritime."(c) Maritime laws of the Low Countries.(d) 183. Laws of Wisbuy.-Wisbuy, in the island of Gothland, was the great maritime and commercial entrepot of the North of Europe, more than five hundred years ago, and her maritime code was then known as "Dat hogeste und dat oldeste water rechte van Wisby." The ancient and supreme water-law of Wisby. "The Gothland water-law established by the merchants and masters."(e) 184. Le Consulat de la Mer. Il Consulato del Mare. — The Consulate of the Sea.-Grotius says, that the Consulate was made up of the various enactments of the Greek Emperors of Germany, of the kingdoms of France, of Spain, of Syria, of Cyprus, of Majorca, and of the republics of Venice and Genoa. In an Italian edition, printed at Venice in 1539, it has this title, according to Pardessus, "Libro de consulato nuovamente Cleirac, 1, 7. Malyne's Pet. Ad. Dec. (a) Prynne, 107. Sea Laws, 116, 120. Append. 1 Pardessus Loix. Mar. 283, 323. Anc. Sea Laws. 1 Boucher Consulat, chap. 18 to 27. (b) 1 Pard. Loix. Mar. 371. (c) 1 Pardessus Loix. Mar. 405. (d) 4 Pard. Loix. Mar. 1, 19, 185. (e) 2 Brow. Civ. and Ad. 39. 1 Pard. Loix. Mar. 424, 463. Cleirac, 136, 139, 463, 524. Malyne's Pet. Ad. Dec. Append. Laws. 1 Boucher Cons. chap. 21 to 27. Sea Laws, 174. Miege Anc. Sea |