The law of contracts

All commercial activity in this country comes under what is known as "Admiralty Jurisdiction".  We have all heard of Common Law, or "the law of the land", but how many of us have heard of Statute law, "the law of the SEA".

Admiralty or commerce law was set up hundreds of years ago to protect and allow trade between different countries.  As time progressed, the law moved from the shipping lanes onto the dry land as there were many benefits to both the controllers and the controlled.  It existed along side common law (which the British/Dutch Empires spread to all corners of the globe) but has slowly begun to replace it.

Everything is now about contracts.  Two examples:

You are born, your parents Register you to the state.  This gives the state the power to take you into care should your parents not look after you.  It is a contract.

You buy a car and you register it.... effectively signing it over to the state.  You then set up a contract to pay the state £X every year for the use of their roads and their car.  If you don't pay your road tax, this allows the state to take your car and crush it.

The thing is, when you start to understand this, you see the power this information gives YOU.

The next time you buy a service off a company....... say a Clinical Waste contractor, and they feck you about with made up regulations....... well perhaps you should explore their breach of your mutual contract.  The civil courts take a very DIM view of contract breach.

Just a random thought for the day