Maritime law

Maritime law, body of law, based on custom, court decisions, and statutes, seeking to regulate all aspects of shipping and ocean commerce, such as insurance, salvage, and contracts for carriage of goods by sea. It is international to the extent that firm general principles exist, but these have no legal force except as they are incorporated by individual countries into their own legal systems; they are often modified in the process. Many derive from decisions of medieval maritime courts. In the United States, maritime law is administered by the federal district courts.