COMMERCE COMMERCIAL LAW. 



361 



of them began in the middle ages. The first of 

 these tribunals was probably that established at Pisa, 

 in the eleventh century, and the basis of its decisions 

 was the code of maritime laws with Pisa, confirmed 

 by pope Gregory VII., in 1075, from which the Con- 

 aolato del Mare may have been, in part, borrowed. 

 ' At first, the commercial tribunals were not so much 

 co, .- f s established by government as arbiters of dis- 

 pute .freely chosen by the merchants, and confirmed 

 by the governments. This is evident from the first 

 chapter of the Consolato del Mare, which runs thus : 

 " The good seamen, ship-owners, and seafaring 

 people generally, are accustomed to assemble on 

 Christmas evening of every year, either all or the 

 greater part of them, at a place of their appointment, 

 and when nearly all are convened, they appoint, not 

 by lot, but by vote, two worthy men, experienced in 

 all maritime affairs, for their consuls, and another, of 

 the same occupation, as judge of appeal. To him 

 are made all appeals from the sentence of the con- 

 suls." Under the name of commercial consuls, such 

 committees of arbitration were appointed in all the 

 great commercial cities of Europe ; and, in the course 

 of time, they really became tribunals of justice, and 

 were, in part at least, administered by men of legal 

 learning and experience. Pope Paul III. confirmed 

 the commercial consuls in Rome. Francis II., in 

 1560, granted to the Parisian merchants particular 

 arbiters for the adjustment of commercial disputes, 

 and in 1563 was established the Parisian court of 

 commerce, consisting of a judge and four consuls. 

 The same thing soon followed in all the important 

 commercial towns of France. In London, Henry 

 VII. appointed particular commercial judges. The 

 president of the commercial tribunal for the Hanse 

 towns, established in 1447, bore the name of alder- 

 man. At Nuremberg, in 1621, a similar tribunal 

 was instituted under the name of inspectors of the 

 markets (marktvorsteher.) There was one, also, in 

 Botzen, in 1630. The diets of the empire even called 

 upon the German princes and commercial cities to 

 follow this example, as the decrees of the empire 

 of 1654 and 1668, and the decree of the imperial 

 commission of October 10, 1663, show. In many of 

 these cities, as in Frankfort on the Maine, and hi 

 Leipsic, they were not so much independent authori- 

 ties as delegates from the city councils. When com- 

 mercial courts take cognizance particularly or 

 solely of disputes relating to maritime affairs, they 

 are called courts of admiralty. Such a court was 

 erected in Hamburg in 1623. Among the tribunals 

 more recently established are the French, formed in 

 1808, according to the provisions of the Codede Com- 

 merce ; and the new Hamburg commercial court, of 

 the same kind, which dates from the time when Ham- 

 burg was the chief city of a French department ; this 

 was, in 1816, retained with some modifications. Their 

 internal regulations commonly require that a part 

 of the members, or, at least, the presidents, should 

 be lawyers : the rest are, for the most part, experi- 

 enced merchants, who are better adapted than regu- 

 lar judges to give counsel on commercial affairs, with 

 which they are more acquainted, and which, very 

 often, are not to be reduced to simple principles of 

 law, but arc to be decided according to commercial 

 practice. Their jurisdiction commonly extends over 

 ail commercial disputes, whether occurring during 

 the fairs, or at other times, matters of exchange, insu- 

 rance, freight, bottomry, average, &c., and, further, 

 over bankrupts, the hiring of shops and stores, clerks, 

 and apprentices, the debts of those who receive goods 

 from merchants upon credit; and all natives and 

 foreigners who traffic hi the place, and are found 

 there, all ship-owners, contractors for transporting 

 goods, brokers, factors, &c., are obliged to submit to 

 their decisions. They do as much as possible by 



oral investigation ; and the intention of their institu- 

 tion is, that they shall avoid the long and formal pro- 

 cess of other courts. But when the difficulty and 

 confusion of the matters in dispute occasion the ne- 

 cessity of an investigation in writing, recourse is had 

 thereto. The greater despatch of these courts con- 

 sists principally in this that the defendant is orally 

 summoned, once, or several times, to appear before 

 them, at an early day, and, if he twice fails to come, 

 is brought by force ; the complaint is then made 

 orally, both parties are heard, and sentence is given, 

 if possible, immediately after. But as this can sel- 

 dom be done, and most cases require reference to 

 written documents, a day not far distant is appointed 

 for the answer to the complaint, and for the evidence 

 on both sides, and the time is seldom or never pro- 

 longed. The remedies against a sentence (such as 

 revision, restitution, &c. ; see Hamburg Code of Com- 

 mercial Procedure of Dec. 15, 1815) must be sought 

 from the same judges, and are not easily obtained. 

 Appeals are only allowed in very important cases, 

 and upon the deposit of a large sum as a pledge that 

 the final decision shall be obeyed without delay. 

 The principal features of this process are found hi 

 the Consolato del Mare (see chapters 8 31), and form 

 the basis of most commercial codes. According to 

 the French code, each tribunal consists of a president, 

 several judges (not more than eight, and not less than 

 two, in number), together with several persons, who, 

 hi case of a pressure of business, become assistant 

 judges (vice-judges suppleans), a clerk of the court 

 (greffier), and several inferior officers (huissiers). 

 (Code de Commerce, livre 3, tit. 1, sec. 615 24.) 

 The members of a commercial tribunal are chosen 

 from among the most respectable merchants. Every 

 merchant thirty years of age, who has done business 

 in an honourable manner for five years, can be ap- 

 pointed judge or assistant judge. The president 

 must be forty years old, and have already exercised 

 the office of judge. The election is made by secret 

 ballot. The members elect take an oath before en- 

 tering upon their office, which they hold for two 

 years ; they receive no salary, and cannot be re-elect- 

 ed until a year after the expiration of their term. 

 The rules of the commercial tribunal are to be found 

 under the 25th title of the 2d book of the Civil Code, 

 and are very similar to those of the Consolato del 

 Mare. From the sentence of these tribunals appeal 

 is made to the court of appeal within whose jurisdic- 

 tion they happen to be. See Commercial Law. 



COMMERCIAL LAW (or the law merchant) is 

 that which relates to trade, navigation, maritime con- 

 tracts, such as those of insurance, bottomry, bills 

 of lading, charter-parties, seamen's wages, general 

 average, and also to bills of exchange, buls of credit, 

 factors, and agents. Lord Mansfield describes it as 

 a branch of the public law, and applied to its univer- 

 sal adoption the language of Cicero respecting the 

 great principles of morals and eternal justice nee 

 erit alia lex Romae, alia Athenis. The body of rules 

 constituting this law is substantially the same in the 

 United States and Europe, the rules, treatises, and 

 decisions of one country and one age being, in gene- 

 ral, applicable to the questions arising in any other. 

 The reason is obvious why this law should be com- 

 mon to different nations, for it regulates those con- 

 tracts and transactions in which they come hi con- 

 tact, being a sort of neutral ground between their 

 hostile interests, institutions, customs, and prejudices. 

 National law, which regulates the conduct of differ- 

 ent nations towards each other, is distinguished from 

 maritime law, by which private contracts between 

 individuals are regulated. The first collection of 

 marine laws was that of Rhodes, of which some frag- 

 ments have come down to us in the Digest of Justin* 

 ian, in the title De Lege Rhodia de Jactu ; the col- 



