Definition
In French maritime law, *jet* is the term for jettison — the deliberate throwing overboard of cargo, tackle, or other goods from a vessel in distress, done to lighten the ship and preserve the remainder of the cargo and crew. The term appears in historical legal sources primarily as a French-law entry pointing the reader to the fuller treatment under *jettison*, where the substantive rules governing liability, contribution, and general average are developed.
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Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): To spray or shoot out of a container; to travel by jet aircraft; to move rapidly; to project or jut outward.
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): Listed as an archaic variant of "get," attributed to Chaucer and marked as obsolete.
The legal meaning of *jet* has no meaningful connection to either common usage. The modern reader encountering this term in a historical maritime source should not import any sense of aircraft, propulsion, or rapid movement. The word is a French maritime term of art, fully absorbed into English legal sources only as a redirect to *jettison*.
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Common Confusion
Researchers may encounter *jet* in historical admiralty and insurance sources and misread it as a typographical variant or abbreviation rather than a recognized term of art. It is not. Equally, the related French terms *jeter* (to throw) and *jet à la mer* (throwing into the sea) appear in some French-language maritime codes and treatises and are conceptually identical to *jet* in the legal sense — they are not distinct doctrines. The operative English-law concept throughout is *jettison*, and any substantive research should proceed under that heading.
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Why It Matters in Research
*Jet* appears in Black's Law Dictionary (both the first and second editions), Bouvier's, and Burrill's as a standalone entry, but in each case it functions purely as a cross-reference to *jettison*. Researchers working in the Law Mind corpus should treat it accordingly: the entry signals that the surrounding text — whether a French ordinance, a maritime treatise, or an insurance contract — is invoking the jettison doctrine, not introducing a separate concept.
The references embedded in the historical dictionaries point to two sources that researchers in French maritime law may need to locate: *Ordonnance de la Marine* (Louis XIV, 1681), Book 3, Title 8, which codified the rules for *jet* and general average contribution under French law; and Emerigon's *Traité des Assurances et des Contrats à la Grosse* (ch. 12, § 40), a foundational French insurance treatise widely cited in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century admiralty cases in both civil and common law jurisdictions. Emerigon was regularly consulted by American and English courts working through maritime insurance disputes, and his treatment of *jet* shaped the doctrine as received in English-language sources.
Corpus researchers should be aware that the jettison doctrine connects directly to general average — the principle that losses incurred for the common safety of a voyage are shared proportionally among all cargo interests. Sources discussing *jet* are therefore also implicitly sources on general average, and the two bodies of material should be searched together.
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Historical Dictionary Support
All four source dictionaries agree precisely: *jet* is French maritime law for jettison, and all cite the same two authorities (the Ordonnance de la Marine and Emerigon). There is no divergence among the sources, and none provides substantive elaboration beyond the cross-reference. This unanimity reflects the term's limited function in English-language legal dictionaries — it is present for completeness and for readers encountering French-language sources, not because it carries independent doctrinal weight in common law. What the historical dictionaries do not address is the doctrine's downstream significance in American admiralty law, where jettison and general average rules were absorbed and developed through federal maritime jurisdiction.
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Jurisdictional Note
As a French maritime law term, *jet* is most directly relevant to sources originating in civil law jurisdictions or in the French maritime tradition. In American law, the underlying doctrine — jettison and general average — is governed by federal admiralty jurisdiction, and the relevant authorities are found in general maritime law rather than in any statutory codification of *jet* specifically.
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Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
Maritime Jurisdiction — Navigable Waters, Maritime Nexus (The Law Mind Military, Veterans & Admiralty Law Encyclopedia)
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