Understanding Admiralty
Developments since 1190
Prof John Levingston
MIG/ MLAANZ Lecture series 23 May 2007
Paper at <www.admiralty.net.au/ajit>
Introduction
• Problems for common law
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Bailment
Admiralty
Finance law
Insurance & marine insurance
• Admiralty alone resists common law
– Torts, contracts, arrangements & understandings
– conflict continues to date
Introduction
• Australian Admiralty
– 1787 letters patent for Vice-Admiralty in NSW
– English Admiralty for 200 years
– A clean slate
• 1986, abolition of appeals to the Privy Council
• Admiralty Act (Cth) 1988
Origin of Admiralty in England
• Preface
– 1780 BC Eastern Mediterranean
– 1066 and all that
• Norman invasion of England
• Carriage of goods by sea commences
Admiralty arrives by sea
• 1190
– Eleanor of Acquitance
– Rules of Oleron
– Richard 1
Admiralty appears
• 5 events (170 years)
– 1190:
– 1224:
– 1336:
– 1340:
– 1361:
Law of Oleron adopted
Office of Admiral created
Black Book of the Admiralty
Creation of the Admiralty Court
Authority of Admiralty confirmed
Common law fights back
• Common law agitates to limit Admiralty
– Limit jurisdiction to the sea
– All contracts in common law alone
– Penalise persons using Admiralty
Common law fights back
• 1389: Jurisdiction of Admiral and Deputies Act
– Admiralty jurisdiction limited to the sea
• …the Admirals and their Deputies shall not meddle henceforth with anything
done within the Realm, but only such things done upon our sea according as
was used in the time of the noble King Edward, Grandfather of out Lord the
King what now is.
– Admiralty disputes this prevents it exercising any jurisdiction except
matters done wholly on the seas and says the statute does not exclude
jurisdiction for contracts
• The Admirals and their Deputies shall not henceforth meddle with any
Contracts, Covenants, etc. of, or concerning any thing done within the
Realm, but only of Contracts, Covenants, etc. of, or concerning things done
upon the Sea
Common law fights back
• 1391: Admiralty Jurisdiction Act
– Admiralty excluded from contracts
• …all manner of contracts, pleas and quarrels, and all other things arising
within the bodies of the counties, as well by land as by water, and also of
wreck of the sea, the Admiral’s Court shall have no manner of cognizance,
power, nor jurisdiction, but the same shall be tried by the laws of the land.
Nevertheless, of the death of a man, and of a mayhem done in great ships
being and hovering in the sea, and in none other places of the same rivers,
the Admiral shall have cognizance; and also to arrest ships in the great
flotes for the great voyages of the King and of the realm; and he shall have
jurisdiction upon the said flotes during the said voyages only. Saving always
to the lords, cities, and boroughs their liberties and franchises.
Common law fights back
Admiralty recovers
• 1485 to 1603: Tudor revival
– Crown patents confer wider jurisdiction
– Henry VIII (1509 -1547)
• Admiralty jurisdiction for
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Shipping contracts
Contracts performed beyond the seas
Contracts made beyond the seas
Contracts made on the rivers of the realm from the first
bridges to the sea
Admiralty recovers
• 1516: Trinity House incorporated
– Proceedings conducted by Admiralty Judge
with assistance of two Elder Bretheren
• Ancient usage
– Collision
– Salvage
Admiralty recovers
• 1524: High Court of Admiralty has records
– Expands jurisdiction
• International commerce
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Negotiable instruments
Insurance
Charter-parties
Bills of lading
Admiralty recovers
• 1536: Offences at Sea Act
– Admiralty jurisdiction expands further
• crimes committed on the seas
– …the reason given is that the civil law of proof by
confession or witnesses is practically impossible under
the circumstances without torture, for witnesses are
unobtainable.
• Gives trial by Jury
Common law fights back
• 1537: Offences at Sea Act
– Common law jurisdiction
• Pirate trials
• Contracts for necessaries
Admiralty recovers
• 1540: Navigation Act
– Navigation matters transferred to Admiralty
Crisis for Admiralty
• 1547: Henry VIII dies
• By 1575
• All contracts made on land in common law
• Except for mariner’s wages claims
– ‘Ordinary contracts’ only
 Voyage, wages, signed by seaman
• Common law also takes
– Mariner’s wage claims ‘special contracts’
– Deeds for payment of wages
– Charter-parties
• Admiralty fees declining
Admiralty seeks solution
• 1575: 1st Conference of Judges
– Articles of agreement
• Common law makes concessions
• Jurisdiction defined
Common law denies agreement
• 1606: Edward Coke became Chief Justice of the
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Court of Common Pleas
Denies 1st Conference agreement on the ground
it had not been ratified
– …and when Coke came to the bench he deliberately set himself
to cripple the court of Admiralty and to capture mercantile law
for the common lawyers. Prohibitions were constantly issued to
the Admiralty and other mercantile courts…
– Coke says common law is supreme, even when the Crown
disagrees
Admiralty seeks solution
• 18/2/1632: Whitehall Agreement
– 2nd Conference of Judges
– The King, Lord Keeper & 23 Lords of the
Council
• Subsigned by:
– All the Judges
– The Attorney-General
• Entered in the Register of Council Causes
• Original kept in the Council Chest
Whitehall Agreement
• 1. If Suit shall be Commenced in the Court of Admiralty
upon Contracts made, or other things personally done
beyond or upon the Seas, no Prohibition is to be
awarded.
Whitehall Agreement
• 2. If Suit be before the Admiral for Freight or Mariners
wages, or for the breach of Charter-parties for Voyages
to be made beyond the Seas, tho' the Charter-parties
happen to be made within the Realm; and though the
Money be payable within the Realm, so as the Penalty
be not demanded, a Prohibition is not to be granted ;
but if Suits be for the Penalty, or if the question be made
whether the Charter-party were made or not, or whether
the Plaintiff did release, or otherwise discharge the same
within the Realm, that is to be tried in the King's Court
at Westminster, and not in the King's Court of Admiralty,
so that first it be denied upon Oath, that Charter-party
was made, or a denial upon Oath tendered.
Whitehall Agreement
• 3. If Suit shall be in the Court of Admiralty for building,
amending, saving, or necessary vitualling of a Ship,
against the Ship itself, and not against any party by
Name, but such as for his interest makes himself a
party, no Prohibition shall be granted, though this be
done within the Realm.
Whitehall Agreement
• 4. Likewise the Admiral may enquire of and redress all
annoyances and obstructions in all navigable Rivers
beneath the firs Bridges that are impediments to
navigation, or passage to or from the Sea, and also try
personal Contracts and Injuries there which concern
Navigation upon the Sea, and no Prohibition is to be
granted in such Causes.
Whitehall Agreement
• 5. If any be imprisoned and upon Habeas Corpus, if any
of these be the cause of imprisonment, and that be so
certified, the party shall be Remanded.
Whitehall Agreement
• Ignored by common law
• Conflict unresolved until the Admiralty Court Act 1840
• Common law used 4 legal devices to limit Admiralty
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in personam jurisdiction
Pleading fiction
Writs of Prohibition
Penalise claimants in Admiralty
Common law devices
• 1. Common law in personam jurisdiction
– ordered transfer of all matters to common law
– at the request of the defendant
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Admiralty response
– develops jurisdiction in rem
– Arrest of ship or cargo
Common law devices
• 2. Pleading fiction
– exercise jurisdiction over matters which were otherwise beyond
the realm
– a plea that the contract was made in the Parish of St Mary le
Bow in the Ward of Cheap, or St Michael Cornhill
– Plea was not traversable
• A problem emerges for common law
– administering a strange and foreign law
– adopts theory of custom
– applies mercantile custom if proved
• Each case had to allege the existence of a mercantile custom and
then establish it by a jury of merchants
Common law devices
• 3. Writs of Prohibition against Admiralty
– Allegation that Admiralty exceeding jurisdiction
– But not for seamen ordinary contracts
– Not after judgment
Common law devices
• 4. Penalise Admiralty claimants
– a monetary penalty of double damages and a fine of
ten pounds was imposed on those who wrongfully
commenced their claim in Admiralty:
• Admiralty Jurisdiction Act 1400
– …shall recover his Double Damages against such Pursuant; and
such Pursuant shall incur the pain of ten pounds to the King for
the pursuit so made, if he be attained.
• This disincentive remained in force for 461 years until
repealed by the Admiralty Court Act 1861 (UK).
Admiralty jurisdiction
Historical jurisdiction
• Prize absolutely to the Crown
• Private litigation
– Collision
– Salvage
– Bottomry bonds
– Seamens wages
Admiralty jurisdiction
• Prize
(originally belonged absolutely to the Crown)
– Inherent jurisdiction of Admiralty
– Exclusive of common law
– Not subject to Writs of Prohibition
Admiralty jurisdiction
• Collision
– Master obliged to exercise reasonable skill and care in
management of the ship
– Owner liable to persons affected by the Master’s negligence or
misconduct
Admiralty jurisdiction
• Salvage
– Peculiar to Admiralty
• Based on Admiralty law, contract, arrangement or understanding
• Not dependent on contract
– Compensation by portion of the goods saved (originally) or
money (later)
• Compensation: no fixed rule, reasonable compensation
• Policy to repress plundering of the helpless and distressed
– For assistance to ship or cargo saved from impending peril or
recovered after actual loss
– ‘Life salvage’ only after 1894
Admiralty jurisdiction
• Salvage –
Common law claims jurisdiction over contracts
– Dependent on contract for salvage
• Written terms
• Contracts for work and labour in and about the saving of a ship
Common law construction of contracts constrained
– Common law unable to remedy contracts unlike Admiralty
• Unfair ?
• Unconscionable ?
Admiralty better suited to maritime
and trade activities
• Common law jurisdiction dependent on
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Bailment
– Contract, consideration and privity
– Tort
• Admiralty not so constrained
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Bailment
Contract, arrangements and understandings
International convention, comity of nations
Negligence and willful default
Admiralty & Common law
• Bailment in Admiralty
– Well known in Admiralty
– Carriage of goods by sea
• Bailment in common law
– Origin in Roman law
– Claimed by common law but not understood
• Confusion
– Contract: written terms
 Requires consideration
 Privity problem
– Tort: breach of duty to safely keep & redeliver
Admiralty & Common law
• Admiralty and Bills of lading
– Contract of carriage pre-dates the bill of lading
– Bill of lading is evidence of the contract
• Admits evidence of pre-carriage and pre-contractual negotiations,
custom and usage
– Carrier’s receipt for the goods
– Document of title
– Privity (common law confusion)
• Is it necessary to have a contract for carriage?
• Could it be a Bailment on terms?
• A Bailment for reward?
Admiralty – the future?
• Common law has been in conflict with Admiralty for over 800 years
– Continues to cause confusion with application of contract doctrines
• Admiralty does not suffer the constraints of common law
• Admiralty is well suited to maritime and international trade
• Admiralty will continue to service the growth of maritime and
international trade activities
• Admiralty should not allow common law doctrines to limit its utility
in maritime and international trade activities
Thank you
• Questions
Paper at <www.admiralty.net.au/ajit>