Collectanea Maritima: Being A Collection Of Public Instrutments, & C. & C. Tending To Illustrate The History And Practice Of Prize Law

Robinson, Sir Chr[istopher].
Collectanea Maritima; Being a Collection of Public Instruments, &c. &c. Tending to Illustrate the History and Practice of Prize Law. London: W. Wilson, 1801. [viii], viii, 213, [1] pp. Reprinted 2006 by The Lawbook Exchange, Ltd. ISBN-13: 978-1-58477-656-7. ISBN-10: 1-58477-656-0. Cloth. $85.

* Reprint of the only edition. Robinson [1766-1833], a doctor of civil law, an advocate of Doctor's Commons, and the editor of an important series of admiralty reports, argues that prize law is governed by body of principles derived from the "immemorial usage and Customs of the Sea" [iii] that were revealed over time in treaties and other legal documents. He supports his argument through annotated excerpts from the Consolato del Mare and other English and Continental documents from the fourteenth through eighteenth century (in translation). It is an interesting thesis argued with a sophisticated blend of ideas from the civil and common law. From a historical point of view, Robinson's remarks on landmark texts on prize law offer important insights into their English reception at the dawn of the Napoleonic Wars.