Admiralty Law

Admiralty law and maritime law is a distinguished group of law which governs maritime questions and offenses. A body of both domestic law governing maritime activities, private international law governing the relationships between private entities which operate vessels on the oceans. It deals with issues including maritime trade, marine navigation, marine salvage, shipping, and sailors, and the transport of passengers and goods by sea. Admiralty law also includes a number of business activities, despite the fact that the earth or occur entirely on the ground, which is the sea in the letter.

Featuring admiralty law from the Law of the Sea, a body of public international law which deals with navigational rights, mineral rights, jurisdiction over coastal waters and international law governing relations between States.

Although each jurisdiction is usually legal and legislation governing the age of maritime issues, admiralty law and is characterized by a large amount of international law has developed in recent decades, including many multilateral treaties.

Maritime transport and one of the first commercial channels, and developed to solve disputes involving maritime trade in recorded history rules early. And it includes the first historical records of these laws Chares Act (Nomos Rhodion Nautikos), who survived any initial writing sample, but who alluded to in other legal texts (Romanian legal codes Byzantine), and later the customs and traditions of the Hanseatic League. In southern Italy were others Ordinamenta consuetudo Maris (1063) in Trani and Alomalvah laws applicable as of early date.

Bracton He also noted that the Admiralty law was also used as an alternative to Act in Norman England, who was wanted by the voluntary submission to it by entering an appeal seeking a court ruling.

Islamic law also made significant contributions to the international law of admiralty, from the former naval laws of Romania and Byzantine in several ways. These included Muslim sailors are paid fixed wages "in advance" with the understanding that they owe money on the run or irregularities, in keeping with Islamic conventions Contracts should specify "fee-known known for." (By contrast, the Roman was and sailors Byzantine "stakeholders in the maritime project, as far as the captain and crew, with few exceptions, were paid proportional divisions of the profits Sea project, with the shares allocated by rank, only after the successful conclusion of the trip.") Muslim jurists also distinguished between "coastal navigation, or cabotage", trips on the "high seas", and made shippers "are responsible for shipping in most cases only grab both the ship and its cargo." Islamic law "departed from Justinian's Digest and the Nomos Rhodion Nautikos in condemning the abandonment of the slave," was the Islamic ticks in preparation for the European commenda limited partnership. And "Islamic influence on the development of international law of the sea" and therefore can be distinguished along with that of the Roman influence.

And admiralty law introduced in England by the French Queen Eleanor of Bordeaux while she was acting as regent for her son King Richard the Lionheart. She had been established earlier in admiralty law in Ouliron Island (where it was published, while Rolls of Ouliron) in land her (although it is often referred to in the law books Admiralty as "Eleanor regions goin '), after he learned about so while the eastern Mediterranean on a crusade with her first husband, King Louis VII of France. In England, the courts of admiralty private address all admiralty issues. These courts do not use the common law of England, but of the civil courts to a large extent on the Justinian Code of Justinian is based.

The Courts of Admiralty prominent feature in the introduction to the American Revolution. For example, the phrase in the Declaration of Independence "for depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of trial by jury" refers to the practice of Parliament to give the jurisdiction of admiralty courts to enforce the law of the seal in the American colonies. Because the Stamp Act was unpopular, it is unlikely that the condemnation of violations of the colonizer jury colonial. However, because the Admiralty courts did not do it (as is the case today) grant from the trial before the jury, and the colonizer accused of violating the Stamp Act can be convicted even easier by the Crown.

Admiralty law became part of the United States, where the law has been introduced gradually through Admiralty cases arise after the adoption of the US Constitution in 1789. Many American lawyers who were prominent in the American Revolution was the Admiralty and Maritime lawyers in their own lives. These include the Alexander Hamilton in New York and John Adams in the state of Massachusetts.

In 1787 wrote John Adams, who was then ambassador to France, to James Madison proposes that the Constitution of the United States, then under consideration by the US adjusted, to include "trial by jury in all matters fact prosecuted under the laws of the land as admiralty law is opposed not Nations laws, which are not subject to admiralty law. " The result was that the Seventh Amendment to the US Constitution. Alexander Hamilton and John Adams were both lawyers Admiralty Adams and John Hancock represented in Admiralty issue in colonial Boston involving the seizure of one of the ships Hancock violations of the customs system. In an era of more modern, and the Supreme Court of Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes admiralty lawyer before ascending to the bench.

It is rooted in the doctrine of maintenance therapy in Article VI of rolls of Ouliron issued in about 1160 m and a commitment to "cure" requires the owner of the ship to provide medical care, free of charge, to a sailor injured in ship service, until they reached the sailor "medical treatment Aqsa." The concept of "maximum medical treatment" is broader than the concept of "maximum medical improvement of." This includes the commitment to "cure" a sailor commitment to provide him with medicines and medical devices that will improve its ability to work, even if not "improve" the actual condition. It can include long-term therapies that allow him to continue to work well. Common examples include artificial limbs and wheelchairs, and pain medications.

Obligation to "maintenance" requires the owner of the ship to provide the sailor with his basic living expenses while he is convalescing. Once a sailor is able to work, it is expected to maintain the same. As a result, the sea could lose its right to maintain, while the obligation to provide continuous treatment.

The sailor, who is required to file a lawsuit against the owner of the ship to recover maintenance and cure and can also recover his attorney's fees. Against Vaughan. Atkinson 0.369 US 527 (1962). If a breach of its obligation to the owner of the ship to provide maintenance treatment is the deliberate and brutal, the owner of the ship may be vulnerable to punitive damages. See Atlantic sounding against Townsend company 0.557 US 404 (2009) (J Thomas).

Shipowners owes a duty of reasonable care to the passengers (an overview of this theory in the law, we see neglect). As a result, passengers who get on board the ships may file a lawsuit as if they had been injured as a result of the neglect of the beach from a third party. Passenger carries the burden of proving that the vessel owner was negligent. While the statute of limitations is generally three years, and claims against cruise lines usually must be filed within one year due to the restrictions contained in the passenger ticket. Notice requirements in the ticket may require a formal notice to be filed within six months of infection. Most of the tickets have liner passengers to the United States also has clauses providing for the lawsuit to bring in either Miami or Seattle.

Banks that loan money to buy ships, vendors who offer comes with necessities such as fuel, stores, and sailors who are owed wages, and many others have the privilege against the ship to ensure payment. To enforce the lien, it is necessary to arrest the ship or taking it. You must sue to enforce the lien against a US ship in the Federal Court and can not be in state court, except in accordance with the principle of reverse Erie, where the state courts can apply the federal law.

Upon loss of property at sea and rescued the other hand, you are entitled to claim for a savior to save the property salved Award. There is no "life-saving". All sailors and duty to save the lives of others at risk without waiting for reward. As a result, the law only save to save the property application.

There are two types of saving: Saving the contract and save the pure, sometimes referred to as "saving merit." In the decade to save the property owner and savior of a contract to save before the start of the rescue operations and the amount you pay for a savior it is determined by the contract. The so-called contract is most common in the "open model rescue Lloyds held a" save.

In pure rescue, there is no contract between the owner of the goods and savior. The relationship is one implied by law. And the savior of property under fresh bailout must bring his claim in court Rescue, which will save based on "merit" of Service Award and the value of the property salvaged.

The claims are divided into pure saving "high demand" and "low-order" rescue. In the high-bailout arrangement, and the savior reveals himself and his crew to the risk of loss of or damage to its equipment to rescue the damaged ship. Examples of high-order to save and rise to the sunken ship in heavy weather, boarding a ship that is on fire, the lifting of a ship or boat, which has already sunk, or withdraw the ship, which is in the waves far from the beach. Reduced demand Rescue happen where it is exposed to the risk of the savior of small personal or non-existent. Examples include low-order rescue pull another vessel in the quiet sea, providing a container with fuel, or withdraw the ship off the sand bar. Rescuers save for high-performance access to save much more than those who perform low in order to save Award.

Each low-order and order to save the amount of the award is based on the first rescue saved property value. If the save anything, or if it was done further damage, there will be a prize. Other factors to be considered are the savior of skills, and the danger that had been salvaged his property, and the value of property that has been willingly to make a save, and how much time and money expended in the rescue operation etc.

There are pure saving or merit award rarely exceeds 50 percent of the property salved value. The exception to this rule is in the case of saving the treasure. Because sunken treasure in general have lost hundreds of years ago, while the original owner to continue (or the insurance company, if the insured vessel) have an interest in, the savior or finder generally get the majority of the property value. While the sunken ships of the main Spanish (like the Nuestra Senora de Atocha in the Florida Keys) are the most commonly thought of saving treasure type, and other types of vessels including the German submarines from World War II that can hold historical artifacts value, civil American ships (USS Maple Leaf in the St. Johns River, the CSS Virginia in the Chesapeake Bay), commercial and sunken ships (SS Central American warships off Cape Hatteras) each subject awards were treasure salvage. Because of improvements in side-sonar scanning, and many of the ships that were missing in the past are now being located and treasure salvage effort now less dangerous than it was in the past, although it is still highly speculative and expensive.

Before the mid-1970s, most of the international conventions on maritime trade and commerce grew up in a sea of ​​private lawyers known as the International Maritime COMITE Foundation (CMI or CMI). Founded in 1897, the International Maritime Committee responsible for drafting several international conventions, including the Hague Regulations were (International Convention on the bills of lading), and amendments Visby (Amendment of the Hague Rules), and the Convention on the rescue and many others. While CMI continues to act in an advisory capacity, and many of its functions were taken over by the International Maritime Organization, which was established by the United Nations in 1958 but did not become truly effective until about 1974.

The International Maritime Organization has prepared a number of international conventions on maritime safety, including the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS), the Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping (STCW), and the International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea (collision or COLREGS) systems, regulations marine pollution (MARPOL), international aviation and maritime search and rescue agreement (IAMSAR) and others. Definition of United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea treaty on protecting the marine environment and marine border.

Once approved, the imposition of international conventions to which each of the signatory states, either by the local Coast Guard, or through the courts.