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Maritime law - is a complete system of law, both public and private, substantive and procedural, national and international, with its own courts and jurisdiction, which goes back to Rhodian law of 800 B.C. and pre-dates both the civil and common laws. Its more modern origins were civilian in nature, as first seen in the Rôles of Oléron of circa 1190 A.D. Maritime law was subsequently greatly influenced and formed by the English Admiralty Court and then later by the common law itself. That maritime law is a complete legal system can be seen from its component parts. For centuries maritime law has had its own law of contract: − contract of sale (of ships), − contract of service (towage), − contract of lease (chartering), − contract of carriage (of goods by sea), − contract of insurance (marine insurance being the precursor of insurance ashore), − contract of agency (ship chandlers), − contract of pledge (bottomry and respondentia), − contract of hire (of masters and seamen), − contract of compensation for sickness and personal injury (maintenance and cure) and − contract of risk distribution (general average). It is and has been a national and an international law (probably the first private international law). It also has had its own public law and public international law. Maritime law is composed of two main parts - national maritime statutes and international maritime conventions, on the one hand, and the general maritime law (lex maritima), on the other. The general maritime law has evolved from various maritime codes, including Rhodian law (circa 800 B.C.), Roman law, the Rôles of Oléron (circa 1190), the Ordonnance de la Marine (1681), all of which were relied on in Doctors' Commons, the English Admiralty Court, and the maritime courts of Europe. This lex maritima, part of the lex mercatoria, or "Law Merchant" as it was usually called in England, was the general law applicable in all countries of Western Europe until the fifteenth century, when the gradual emergence of nation states caused national differences to begin creeping into what had been a virtually pan-European maritime law system. Today's general maritime law consists of the common forms, terms, rules, standards and practices of the maritime shipping industry - standard form bills of lading, charterparties, marine insurance policies and sales contracts are good examples of common forms and the accepted meaning of the terms, as well as the York/Antwerp Rules on general average and the Uniform Customs and Practice for Documentary Credits. Much of this contemporary lex maritima is to be found in the maritime arbitral awards rendered by arbitral tribunals around the world by a host of institutional and ad hoc arbitral bodies. See Tetley , Int'l. M. & A. L., 2003,