Admiralty proceedings : a comparative study

Abstract

History of maritime law indicates that modern systems have a common ancestry and a strong tendency towards international unification in the law. There Is, in fact, an unbroken tradition and connection between contemporary maritime law and the customs of the earliest antiquity. Early maritime "law" arose out of necessity as man made use of ships to carry goods and passengers. Shipping activity existed even in prehistoric times in the Persian Gulf and in the Arabian Sea and trade was carried on between the Sumerian and Akkad ian people of the Tigro-Euphrates river basin, southeastern Arabia, and possibly even the Harappan civilisation of the Indus River valley. Of the earliest records of sea laws we have those of ancient Babylon which are included in the famous code of Hammurabi dating perhaps earlier than 2000 B.C. and not later than 1600 B.C. The ancient ci vi I isations of India and Ch Ina had many maritime contacts and there was much seafaring in the Indian Ocean from time immemorial in which the Arabs and the Indians took part. But little is known of the laws and the customs ofthese seafarers, even though considerable trade existed between India and Rome from about 200 B.C.