The ''jus naufragii'' (right of shipwreck), sometimes ''lex naufragii'' (law of shipwreck), was a
medieval custom (never actually a law) which allowed the inhabitants or lord of a territory to
seize
Seize may refer to:
*Seisin, legal possession
*Seizing, a class of knots used to semi-permanently bind together two ropes
*Seize (band), a British electronic band
*The jamming of machine parts against each other, usually due to insufficient lubri ...
all that washed ashore from the wreck of a ship along its coast. This applied, originally, to all the cargo of the ship, the wreckage itself, and even any passengers who came ashore, who were thus converted into
slave
Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...
s. This latter custom disappeared before the ''jus naufragii'' came to the attention of lawmakers.
Right, God, and abolition
The theoretical basis for the law, in Christian countries, was that
God must be punishing the doomed ship for the vice of the crew. The ship and its cargo had thus been taken from their rightful owners by an act of God and were fair game. Despite this, consistent attempts to abolish the practice are recorded over the course of more than a millennium.
Roman and
Byzantine law made no room for the custom. The ''
Codex
The codex (plural codices ) was the historical ancestor of the modern book. Instead of being composed of sheets of paper, it used sheets of vellum, papyrus, or other materials. The term ''codex'' is often used for ancient manuscript books, with ...
'' and the ''
Digesta'' of
Justinian I include sections respectively titled ''De naufragiis'' and ''De incendio, ruina, naufragio rate, nave expugnata''. They refer to a law of the emperor
Antoninus Pius outlawing exercise of the ''jus naufragii''. Around 500 the ''
Breviarium Alaricianum'' of the
Visigoths, probably following Roman law, forbade the custom.
Theodoric the Great also legislated against it, but apparently to no long-term avail.
Despite the appeal to Providence for its justification,
canon law anathematised those who exercised the ''jus''. The
Lateran Council of 1179 and the
Council of Nantes (1127) both outlawed it. In 1124
Pope Clement II issued a
bull condemning it and on 24 February 1509
Julius II issued a bull prohibiting the collection of ''bona naufragantia''.
The ''jus'' did not completely lack support, however.
Charles I of Sicily used it,
Philip III of France legislated regulations to cover it, and in the same kingdom
Henry II seems to have tolerated it. In his reign, according to ''De republica'' by
Jean Bodin, the ''jus'' was cited by
Anne de Montmorency
Anne, Duke of Montmorency, Honorary Knight of the Garter (15 March 1493, Chantilly, Oise12 November 1567, Paris) was a French soldier, statesman and diplomat. He became Marshal of France and Constable of France and served five kings.
Early lif ...
to justify the seizure of a wrecked ship with the support of the king.
Italy
In 827,
Sicard of Benevento and
Andrew II of Naples signed a treaty, the ''
Pactum Sicardi'', whereby the ''lex naufragii'' was abolished in the domain of Benevento. The
Papacy
The pope ( la, papa, from el, πάππας, translit=pappas, 'father'), also known as supreme pontiff ( or ), Roman pontiff () or sovereign pontiff, is the bishop of Rome (or historically the patriarch of Rome), head of the worldwide Cathol ...
and the north Italian ''
comuni'' soon followed the southern example and fought to have the property rights (and right to liberty) of sailors and merchants recognised universally.
When in 1184 a
Genoese
Genoese may refer to:
* a person from Genoa
* Genoese dialect, a dialect of the Ligurian language
* Republic of Genoa (–1805), a former state in Liguria
See also
* Genovese, a surname
* Genovesi, a surname
*
*
*
*
* Genova (disambiguati ...
ship carrying
Ibn Jubayr was wrecked off the coast of
Messina
Messina (, also , ) is a harbour city and the capital of the Italian Metropolitan City of Messina. It is the third largest city on the island of Sicily, and the 13th largest city in Italy, with a population of more than 219,000 inhabitants in ...
, it was only by the intervention of
William II of Sicily that the passengers were spared robbery and enslavement.
In June 1181 the Genoese ambassador
Rodoano de Mauro signed a treaty with
Abu Ibrahim Ishaq Ibn Muhammad Ibn Ali
Abu or ABU may refer to:
Places
* Abu (volcano), a volcano on the island of Honshū in Japan
* Abu, Yamaguchi, a town in Japan
* Ahmadu Bello University, a university located in Zaria, Nigeria
* Atlantic Baptist University, a Christian universit ...
of the
Balearics that included a protection of the rights of Genoese merchants from the exercise of the ''jus''. This treaty was renewed for twenty years in August 1188 by
Niccolò Leccanozze Niccolò is an Italian male given name, derived from the Greek Nikolaos meaning "Victor of people" or "People's champion".
There are several male variations of the name: Nicolò, Niccolò, Nicolas, and Nicola. The female equivalent is Nicole. The fe ...
and Ishaq's successor. Meanwhile, on 1 June 1184,
Pisa
Pisa ( , or ) is a city and ''comune'' in Tuscany, central Italy, straddling the Arno just before it empties into the Ligurian Sea. It is the capital city of the Province of Pisa. Although Pisa is known worldwide for its leaning tower, the cit ...
and
Lucca had signed a similar treaty with the Balearic Muslims.
In the early thirteenth century,
Frederick I outlawed the ''jus'' in the
Kingdom of Sicily
The Kingdom of Sicily ( la, Regnum Siciliae; it, Regno di Sicilia; scn, Regnu di Sicilia) was a state that existed in the south of the Italian Peninsula and for a time the region of Ifriqiya from its founding by Roger II of Sicily in 1130 un ...
, and by 1270 the custom had gone completely out of fashion in the Mediterranean when
Charles I, a Frenchman by upbringing, invoked the ''jus naufragii'' in Sicily, against the
Eighth Crusaders.
Northern Europe
In northern Europe the custom survived much longer, despite legislation designed to forbid it.
In the territory of the
Bishop of Utrecht
List of bishops and archbishops of the diocese and archdioceses of Utrecht.
Medieval diocese from 695 to 1580
Founders of the Utrecht diocese
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the right was exercised on the river until its abrogation in 1163. The ''de facto'' independent
Viscounty of Léon
The Viscounty or County of Léon () was a feudal state in extreme western Brittany in the High Middle Ages. Though nominally a vassal of the sovereign duke of Brittany, Léon was functionally independent of any external controls until the viscounts ...
sustained itself on the proceeds of "the most valuable of precious stones", a rock which generated 100,000 ''
solidi'' per annum in revenue due to shipwrecks.
[The quotation was a favourite of Guihomar IV of Léon in the 1160s.]
In the thirteenth century
Edward I
Edward I (17/18 June 1239 – 7 July 1307), also known as Edward Longshanks and the Hammer of the Scots, was King of England and Lord of Ireland from 1272 to 1307. Concurrently, he ruled the duchies of Aquitaine and Gascony as a vassal o ...
in
England and
Louis IX in
France sought to ban the ''jus''. In the fourteenth century the law became the target of several
Holy Roman Emperors:
Henry VII in 1310,
Louis IV in 1336, and
Charles IV in 1366. In the fifteenth century the
Hanseatic League
The Hanseatic League (; gml, Hanse, , ; german: label=Modern German, Deutsche Hanse) was a medieval commercial and defensive confederation of merchant guilds and market towns in Central and Northern Europe. Growing from a few North German to ...
began funding salvage missions and offering rewards to salvors.
Attempts were also made in France to abolish the practice by means of treaties where legislation could not take effect. France and the
Duchy of Brittany signed one in 1231 and France and
Venice
Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 ...
in 1268. Most French
maritime law
Admiralty law or maritime law is a body of law that governs nautical issues and private maritime disputes. Admiralty law consists of both domestic law on maritime activities, and private international law governing the relationships between priva ...
s also included articles restricting the practice of ''lex naufragii'', such as the
Rolls of Oléron of
Eleanor of Aquitaine (c. 1160), the ''
Constitutio criminalis'' of
Charles V (the later ''Carolina'' of 1532), an
ordinance
Ordinance may refer to:
Law
* Ordinance (Belgium), a law adopted by the Brussels Parliament or the Common Community Commission
* Ordinance (India), a temporary law promulgated by the President of India on recommendation of the Union Cabinet
* ...
of
Francis I Francis I or Francis the First may refer to:
* Francesco I Gonzaga (1366–1407)
* Francis I, Duke of Brittany (1414–1450), reigned 1442–1450
* Francis I of France (1494–1547), King of France, reigned 1515–1547
* Francis I, Duke of Saxe ...
of 1543 and
Charles IX of 1568.
Early modern Europe
Several early modern treaties established a time frame during which the owner of the goods wrecked could claim them, typically a year and a day. England and the
Netherlands signed a treaty of alliance 17 September 1625 at
Southampton that included a clause allowing the owners of wreckage to reclaim it within a year, and France and the Netherlands signed 27 April 1662 demanding the restitution of shipwrecked goods on the payment of a ''droit de sauvement'', a salvor's fee. A commercial treaty signed at
Nijmegen
Nijmegen (;; Spanish and it, Nimega. Nijmeegs: ''Nimwèège'' ) is the largest city in the Dutch province of Gelderland and tenth largest of the Netherlands as a whole, located on the Waal river close to the German border. It is about 6 ...
on 10 August 1678 had an article to the same effect.
On 12 December 1663 the Netherlands abolished what remained of the old ''jus''—the ''recht van de tiend penning'', or right of the tenth penny. The French
Ordonnance de la Marine
In French politics, an ''ordonnance'' (, "order") is a statutory instrument issued by the Council of Ministers in an area of law normally reserved for primary legislation enacted by the French Parliament. They function as temporary statutes pen ...
(1681) abolished the ''jus'' entirely and put castaways under royal protection. The
Turkish capitulations of 1535 and 1740 contain clauses banning the ''jus naufragii''.
References
*Everard, J. A. (2000). ''Brittany and the Angevins: Province and Empire, 1158–1203''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. .
*Lopez, Robert S. and Raymond, Irving W. (1951). ''Medieval Trade in the Mediterranean World''. New York: Columbia University Press. LCC 54-11542.
*Samarrai, Alauddin (1980). "Medieval Commerce and Diplomacy: Islam and Europe, A.D. 850–1300". ''Canadian Journal of History/Annales canadiennes d'histoire'', 15:1 (April), pp. 1–21.
*Verzijl, J. H. W. (1972). ''International Law in Historical Perspective. Vol. IV: Stateless Domain''. Martinus Nijhoff Publishers. .
Notes
{{reflist
Shipwreck law
Nautical terminology
Latin legal terminology