Jus naufragii

The jus naufragii (right of shipwreck), sometimes lex naufragii (law of shipwreck), was a

. 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.

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.

to justify the seizure of a wrecked ship with the support of the king.

Italy

In 827,

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 ship carrying Ibn Jubayr was wrecked off the coast of Messina, 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

had signed a similar treaty with the Balearic Muslims.

In the early thirteenth century,

.

Northern Europe

In northern Europe the custom survived much longer, despite legislation designed to forbid it. In the territory of the

In the thirteenth century

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

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 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 (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

Notes

1. Guihomar IV of Léon
   in the 1160s.