This open access book explores the history of risk management in medieval and early modern European maritime business, focusing particularly on 'General Average' – a mechanism by which extraordinary expenses regarding ship or cargo, incurred during a voyage to save the venture, are shared between all participants to protect equity. This volume traces the history of this risk management tool from its origins in the pre-Roman Mediterranean through to its use in the shipping sector today. Contributions range from the Islamic Mediterranean to the Low Countries, and taken together, provide a wide-ranging analysis of social, cultural, and political aspects of pre-modern maritime commerce in Europe.

This book offers a study of so-called ‘Maritime Averages’, a variety of risk management instruments used in maritime trade, in the Low Countries, showing how Averages played a major role in the institutional development of the Low Countries.

This book explores the private law implementation of the new international and EU regulatory framework targeting decarbonisation in the shipping industry. Compared with other sectors, the shipping industry has traditionally been labelled a 'slow mover' concerning the sustainability agenda. However, new regulatory measures on carbon reduction both internationally and in the EU require fundamentally new developments in the industry. This book focuses on the goal of carbon reduction from a private law perspective and considers how the new regulatory framework can be implemented in the shipping industry. This book studies existing contractual provisions in charterparties and bills of lading alongside new contractual model clauses designed to facilitate carbon reduction. It considers how the new clauses should be interpreted, whether they will transform traditional shipping contracts into more collaborative contracts, and how they will interact with other clauses in the contract and with other contracts in the supply chain. The contractual analysis is considered in context, reflecting on enforcement issues, such as Port State Control (PSC), the Poseidon Principles, and climate change litigation. The book also analyses the related topic of shipping contracts for carbon storage as a necessary means of meeting carbon reduction targets. The book is intended to pave the way for understanding how core shipping contracts can work in this new context and the extent to which the new types of clauses will profoundly transform contracts. It presents contributions by experienced and younger academics and practitioners from Asian, European and Scandinavian legal systems.

This book introduces non-specialist readers to the history of how human societies have sought to control, use and exploit our oceans, seas and shorelines over time in different geographical and cultural contexts. The Unruly Ocean examines the development of the modern international legal regime – the law of the sea, maritime law, marine environmental and pollution law, fisheries regulation, and underwater cultural heritage law – and considers how effective these laws have been in addressing the many challenges facing marine and coastal environments ranging from piracy and war to oil spills and the extraction of marine resources. It concludes by discussing the socio-ecological crises facing the world’s oceans, seas and shorelines, and explores current ideas for reimagining a legal regime that restores the health of our oceanic realm and offers a more holistic, transboundary, rights-based approach to ocean governance. This book will be of value to law and non-law undergraduate and postgraduate students, as well as research scholars and other educated audiences interested in a legal history of the world’s oceans, seas and shorelines.

Insurance is a legal, an actuarial and a financial product, and it is one out of many risk management strategies. It follows that its history can only be studied in the broader context of the development of such strategies, applying an interdisciplinary approach. The theme of the present volume is maritime risk management. After an overview over the history of insurance, the contributions to the present volume examine different maritime risk management strategies by adopting a variety of methodological approaches. Some contributions focus on normative provisions, others contrast practice with legal scholarship, or focus on the emergence of insurance companies as opposed to individual insurers. Again, other contributions give insights in marine insurance practice in specific cities or analyse insurance practice through the lens of specific insurance litigation. As to the time frame, the different contributions span from antiquity to the nineteenth century.

The maritime legal framework, of General Average (GA), remains an enigmatic and overlooked process within the history of seaborne trade. An ancient rule that predates Roman Law, it continues to be operational today, in a largely unchanged state, mandating the redistribution of unexpected costs that arise during a maritime expedition amongst shipowners and merchants. In this detailed examination of Average procedures within the Italian maritime republic of, Genoa, between the years 1590 and 1700, Through the Water and the Storm demonstrates how this rich data can be used to examine the dynamics of Mediterranean seaborne trade. Drawing on quantitative, socio-economic and legal methodologies, this book highlights how Average procedures reshape our understanding of connectivity and interdependence.