SUMMARY
In 1599, Dutch privateer Melchior van den Kerckhoven unlawfully captured the Venetian merchantman Ponte, which resulted in extensive legal proceedings before the Supreme Court of Holland, Zeeland and West-Friesland. The Ponte case soon became the centrepiece for discussions about vicarious liability of shipowners for unlawful acts of their shipmasters, and – more importantly – about limitation of this liability to (the value of) their ship and cargo. Within these discussions, a secondary role was reserved for the case arising from the capture of the French ship Levrette by a Dutch merchantman in 1610. Based on extensive archival research, the present article offers a detailed reconstruction of the facts and proceedings of the Ponte and the Levrette case, and sets out how these cases were employed by Roman-Dutch lawyers to give shape to limited liability of shipowners for unlawful acts of their shipmaster.
Tim Lubbers, The capture of the Ponte: the development of vicarious liability of shipowners and its limitation in Roman-Dutch law, Tijdschrift voor Rechtsgeschiedenis / Revue d’histoire du droit / The Legal History Review 90(1-2), 177-221, https://doi.org/10.1163/15718190-20220012. Online Publication Date 26 May.
First posted 2022-07-04 09:00:33
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