Thejus naufragii (right of shipwreck), sometimeslex naufragii (law of shipwreck), was amedieval custom (never actually a law) which allowed the inhabitants or lord of a territory toseize all that washed ashore from the wreck of a ship along its coast. This applied, originally, to all the cargo of the ship, the wreckage itself, and even any passengers who came ashore, who were thus converted intoslaves. This latter custom disappeared before thejus naufragii came to the attention of lawmakers.
The theoretical basis for the law, in Christian countries, was thatGod 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.
Roman andByzantine law made no room for the custom. TheCodex and theDigesta ofJustinian I include sections respectively titledDe naufragiis andDe incendio, ruina, naufragio rate, nave expugnata. They refer to a law of the emperorAntoninus Pius outlawing exercise of thejus naufragii. Around 500 theBreviarium Alaricianum of theVisigoths, probably following Roman law, forbade the custom.Theodoric the Great 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 thejus. TheLateran Council of 1179 and theCouncil of Nantes (1127) both outlawed it. In 1124Pope Clement II issued abull condemning it and on 24 February 1509Julius II issued a bull prohibiting the collection ofbona naufragantia.
Thejus did not completely lack support, however.Charles I of Sicily used it,Philip III of France legislated regulations to cover it, and in the same kingdomHenry II seems to have tolerated it. In his reign, according toDe republica byJean Bodin, thejus was cited byAnne de Montmorency to justify the seizure of a wrecked ship with the support of the king.
In 827,Sicard of Benevento andAndrew II of Naples signed a treaty, thePactum Sicardi, whereby thelex naufragii was abolished in the domain of Benevento. ThePapacy and the north Italiancomuni 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 aGenoese ship carryingIbn Jubayr was wrecked off the coast ofMessina, it was only by the intervention ofWilliam II of Sicily that the passengers were spared robbery and enslavement.
In June 1181 the Genoese ambassadorRodoano de Mauro signed a treaty withAbu Ibrahim Ishaq Ibn Muhammad Ibn Ali of theBalearics that included a protection of the rights of Genoese merchants from the exercise of thejus. This treaty was renewed for twenty years in August 1188 byNiccolò Leccanozze and Ishaq's successor. Meanwhile, on 1 June 1184,Pisa andLucca had signed a similar treaty with the Balearic Muslims.
In the early thirteenth century,Frederick I outlawed thejus in theKingdom of Sicily, and by 1270 the custom had gone completely out of fashion in the Mediterranean whenCharles I, a Frenchman by upbringing, invoked thejus naufragii in Sicily, against theEighth Crusaders.
In northern Europe the custom survived much longer, despite legislation designed to forbid it.In the territory of theBishop of Utrecht the right was exercised on the river until its abrogation in 1163. Thede facto independentViscounty of Léon sustained itself on the proceeds of "the most valuable of precious stones", a rock which generated 100,000solidi per annum in revenue due to shipwrecks.[1]
In the thirteenth centuryEdward I inEngland andLouis IX inFrance sought to ban thejus. In the fourteenth century the law became the target of severalHoly Roman Emperors:Henry VII in 1310,Louis IV in 1336, andCharles IV in 1366. In the fifteenth century theHanseatic League 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 theDuchy of Brittany signed one in 1231 and France andVenice in 1268. Most Frenchmaritime laws also included articles restricting the practice oflex naufragii, such as theRolls of Oléron ofEleanor of Aquitaine (c. 1160), theConstitutio criminalis ofCharles V (the laterCarolina of 1532), anordinance ofFrancis I of 1543 andCharles IX of 1568.
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 theNetherlands signed a treaty of alliance 17 September 1625 atSouthampton 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 adroit de sauvement, a salvor's fee. A commercial treaty signed atNijmegen on 10 August 1678 had an article to the same effect.
On 12 December 1663 the Netherlands abolished what remained of the oldjus—therecht van de tiend penning, or right of the tenth penny. The FrenchOrdonnance de la Marine (1681) abolished thejus entirely and put castaways under royal protection. TheTurkish capitulations of 1535 and 1740 contain clauses banning thejus naufragii.