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LAW MERCHANT

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Originally appearing in Volume V16, Page 300 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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See also:

LAW See also:MERCHANT or LEX MERCATORIA, originally a See also:body of rules and principles See also:relating to merchants and See also:mercantile transactions, laid down by merchants themselves for the purpose of regulating their dealings. It was composed of such usages and customs as were See also:common to merchants and traders in all parts of See also:Europe, varied slightly in different localities by See also:special peculiarities. The law merchant owed its origin to the fact that the See also:civil law was not sufficiently responsive to the growing demands of See also:commerce, as well as to the fact that See also:trade in pre-See also:medieval times was practically in the hands of those who might be termed See also:cosmopolitan merchants, who wanted a prompt and effective See also:jurisdiction. It was administered for the most See also:part in special courts, such as those of the See also:gilds in See also:Italy, or the See also:fair courts of See also:Germany and See also:France, or as in See also:England, in courts of the See also:staple or piepowder (see also See also:SEA See also:LAWS). The See also:history of the law merchant in England is divided into three stages: the first See also:prior to the See also:time of See also:Coke, when it was a special See also:kind of law—as distinct from the common law—administered in special courts for a special class of the community (i.e. the mercantile); the second See also:stage was one of transition, the law merchant being administered in the common law courts, but as a body of customs, to be proved as a fact in each individual See also:case of doubt; the third stage, which has continued to the See also:present See also:day, See also:dates from the See also:presidency over the See also:king's See also:bench of See also:Lord See also:Mansfield (q.v.), under whom it was moulded into the mercantile law of to-day. To the law merchant See also:modern See also:English law owes the fundamental principles in the law of See also:partnership, negotiable See also:instruments and trade marks. See G. Malynes, Consuetude vel lex mercatoria (See also:London, 1622); W. See also:Mitchell, The See also:Early History of the Law Merchant (See also:Cambridge, 1904) ; J. W. See also:Smith, Mercantile Law (ed. See also:Hart and Simey, 1905).

End of Article: LAW MERCHANT

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