Why maritime law is an ancient law?

Maritime law is an ancient law, and its origin can be traced back to the beginning of human marine transportation activities. China's modern maritime law-making activities began with the revision of laws in the late Qing Dynasty. The first maritime law in New China was the Maritime Law of People's Republic of China (PRC), which was formulated by 1992 and officially implemented in July 1 993.

Maritime law is an ancient legal department, which originated in ancient Europe and gradually evolved into a modern system with the occurrence and development of maritime trade. Maritime law has a very long history. The earliest law containing the rules of ship collision, cargo transportation and water transportation was code of hammurabi in BC18th century. With the development of maritime trade in the Mediterranean region, Rhode Island has become the center of maritime trade in this region, and some customary rules regulating general average and marine insurance in maritime trade have been formed, that is, "Rhodes Maritime Code". The direct evidence about the existence of Rhodes Haifa comes from some historical documents. Paulos, a Roman lawyer, listed the rules of Rhodes maritime law in the second episode of his Perceptions of Paulos: "If the goods are abandoned in order to reduce the ship's load, the losses he suffered because of preserving the same interests should be shared with him." This rule later evolved into today's general average rule. Rhodes maritime law has great authority in the Mediterranean region. It not only adjusted the maritime trade in this region for a long time, but also laid the foundation for all maritime legislation in the future, which is called the bud of maritime law.

After western Europe entered the feudal society, the shipping industry in the Mediterranean was still very developed, especially in the Mediterranean. Especially in the port cities along the Atlantic Ocean and the North Sea, a variety of maritime customary laws were produced during this period, which were compiled by private individuals one after another, forming a unique period of private compilation of maritime customs. Among them, the three major maritime laws in the Middle Ages had the greatest influence on the formulation of maritime laws in later generations:

(1)LEX oler on LEX oler on is a collection of precedents and applicable customary laws of commercial maritime courts along the Atlantic coast of France, mainly involving ships. Captain. Crew. Salvage at sea and the right of the captain to sell the delivered goods. This law had a wide influence in the Atlantic Ocean, which laid the foundation for the development of European maritime law.

(2) Lex consorado "consorado" originally meant "magistrate", so this law is also called "maritime judgment", which brings together maritime cases popular in the Mediterranean coast in the14th century. Habits and theories, rich in content and complete in system, were called the most complete maritime law at that time, which had a far-reaching impact on the later European shipping industry.

(3) Visby's law. Visby Haifa was compiled in Visby, Gotland, Sweden in the15th century, hence its name. It mainly inherits the Orellan Haifa. Amsterdam law. The tradition of Bekofa, a small town in the Hanseatic region of the Baltic Sea, prevails on the Baltic coast and the south bank of the North Sea in Germany. The maritime law of Baltic countries such as Sweden is greatly influenced by it.

The above three maritime laws are considered as the three cornerstones of medieval maritime law, but they also have obvious limitations. For example, the three maritime laws are all regional, and most of them are compiled by the people, and their effectiveness is extremely limited.