Definition
In Swedish maritime law, kast is the legal term for jettison — the deliberate throwing overboard of cargo or ship's equipment to lighten a vessel in peril. The term is a direct Swedish rendering of the Latin jactus, which carried the same meaning in the civil law tradition governing maritime commerce. The associated term kast-geld refers to the contribution owed by those whose cargo was saved as a result of the jettison — what modern maritime law calls general average.
Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): A type of traditional cupboard produced by Dutch settlers in New York and New Jersey in the 18th and 19th centuries.
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): Not recorded as an English entry.
The common and legal meanings share no practical connection beyond Scandinavian and Dutch linguistic roots. A researcher encountering kast in an antiques catalog or furniture history is reading about colonial cabinetry; the same word in a historical maritime law text refers to the jettison of cargo at sea and the loss-sharing obligations that follow. Context is the only reliable guide.
Common Confusion
Kast is easily conflated with jactus, its Latin equivalent, and with the broader doctrine of general average (kast-geld), which is the financial consequence of the act. The three concepts are related but distinct: kast is the act of throwing cargo overboard; jactus is the same act described under civil and Roman-law terminology; and kast-geld (or general average) is the system by which the resulting loss is distributed among all parties whose property was preserved by the sacrifice. Historical sources sometimes use these terms interchangeably, which can obscure which legal rule is being applied.
Why It Matters in Research
KAST is a narrow term of art appearing almost exclusively in sources dealing with Scandinavian maritime law, particularly Swedish commercial law of the early modern period. Researchers will encounter it most often when working with comparative maritime law materials, civil law commentaries on jettison and average, or historical treatises that survey non-English legal systems.
The term's principal research value is as a bridge word: finding kast in a source signals that the author is working within or drawing from the Swedish or broader Scandinavian maritime law tradition, which developed alongside but not always in lockstep with English admiralty practice. The doctrinal rules governing who could order jettison, what qualified as a compensable sacrifice, and how contribution was calculated varied across jurisdictions. A source using kast rather than jactus or jettison may be applying Swedish statutory rules rather than English common law or Roman civil law principles.
The compound kast-geld is the more practically significant term for most legal historians, since it points directly to the contribution and average rules that governed merchant shipping disputes. Researchers tracing the development of general average doctrine across European maritime law traditions should treat kast-geld as an entry point into Swedish primary materials and the commentators who synthesized them.
Burrill's citation to Loccen. de Jur. Mar. lib. 2, c. 7, s. 1 — referring to Johannes Loccenius, De Jure Maritimo et Navali (a 17th-century Swedish maritime law treatise) — is the primary authority underlying the historical dictionary entries and the natural starting point for deeper research into this term's legal context.
Historical Dictionary Support
All three source dictionaries agree on the core definition: kast means jettison in Swedish law and is a translation of the Latin jactus. The entries are brief and consistent, reflecting the term's status as a technical borrowing rather than an independently developed legal concept.
Black's (2nd Ed.) adds the compound kast-geld and its meaning — contribution for jettison; average — which the first edition and Burrill omit or treat implicitly. This addition is substantively important because it connects the vocabulary of the act (kast) to the vocabulary of the legal remedy (kast-geld), completing the doctrinal picture.
Burrill is the most scholarly of the three, citing Loccenius directly and flagging jactus with a cross-reference (q.v.), indicating that readers were expected to consult that entry for the broader civil law treatment. None of the dictionaries engage with Swedish statutory sources beyond Loccenius, and none address how Swedish rules on jettison compared procedurally to English admiralty practice or the rules of the Hanseatic League. Researchers needing that comparative depth will need to go beyond these dictionary entries entirely.