Chapter II, Part 1.
[1] Walker, History of the Law of Nations, p. 64.
[2] For brief discussion of many of the Maritime Codes see E. C. Benedict, The American Admiralty, 4th Edition, Albany, 1910. The so-called Rhodian Sea Laws are thought by Ashburner to date from the seventh or eighth century A. D. Other writers place them later. The earliest manuscript apparently dates from the fifteenth century. It is well established that they have no connection with the ancient sea laws of Rhodes but possibly they were authorized by the Byzantine Caesars and undoubtedly they consist of laws recognized in the Eastern Mediterranean in the middle ages. These laws relate only to civil matters at sea and have no provisions dealing with prize but in their general provisions they may have furnished a basis for the maritime codes of a few centuries later, see Ashburner, The Rhodian Sea Law, Oxford, 1909.
[3] Twiss, Introduction to the "Black Book of the Admiralty", Rolls Series, No. 55, iii, 80.
[4] For discussion of the influence of the Consolato, see Twiss, Consulate of the Sea, Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th Edition, vii, 23. Ashburner takes a less favorable view of the Consolato. He considers it a literary production giving the authors theory of sea law rather than a correct statement of the law as it was. In his opinion more confidence should be placed in the maritime statutes of the towns such as the laws of Amalaric, St. Cuzala, Genoa, St. Ancon, Baracchi, St. Caltaro, etc. than in the Consolato.—Ashburner, op. cit. p. 120.
[5] For discussion of the Laws of Oleron, see Twiss, Sea Laws, Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th Edition, xxiii, 535; Sir John Comyn, A Digest of the Laws of England, 5 Vols., Dublin, 1785, i, 271; also note post p. 42.
[6] Wheaton, History of the Law of Nations, p. 62.
[7] For discussion of origin and early manuscripts see Twiss, Introduction to "The Black Book of the Admiralty", iii, 26 et seq.
[8] For text of prize chapters of the Consolato, see English translation by Dr. Robinson in his Collectanea Maritima, No. v; quoted in Wheaton, History of the Law of Nations, p. 63; Original and translation by Twiss, Black Book of the Admiralty, Rolls Series No. 55, iii, 539; French translation by Pardessus, in his Collection des Lois Maritimes Anterieures aux XVIII Siecle, ii, c 12, noted in Wheaton, op. cit. p. 61, Walker, History of the Law of Nations, p. 116; See also note by Grotius, op. cit. iii, 9.
[9] Twiss, Introduction to Black Book of the Admiralty, iii, 76.