Definition
A French maritime law term meaning freight — that is, the compensation paid to a shipowner or carrier for the transport of goods by sea. Functionally identical to the term *fret* in French legal usage. Nolis appears in the context of the French Ordonnance de la Marine and related maritime regulatory texts governing the carriage of goods.
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Why It Matters in Research
Nolis is a narrow term of historical French maritime law with no independent life in Anglo-American legal practice. Researchers are most likely to encounter it when working with primary French maritime sources, comparative maritime law treatises, or materials touching on the Ordonnance de la Marine (1681), the foundational French statute that shaped Atlantic maritime commerce and influenced admiralty law across jurisdictions with French legal heritage — including Louisiana.
The term's principal research value is as a cross-reference anchor. When reading historical sources on French maritime law or its derivatives, recognizing that *nolis* and *fret* are synonymous prevents mistaking them for distinct legal concepts with separate doctrinal weight. They are not. Both denote freight in the contractual and compensatory sense.
Researchers should not expect to find *nolis* in English-language admiralty reporters or common law treatises. Its appearance in Black's and Burrill's is essentially a courtesy entry for readers encountering French maritime sources, not evidence of absorption into Anglo-American doctrine.
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Historical Dictionary Support
All three source dictionaries agree precisely: *nolis* is French maritime law terminology for freight, equivalent to *fret*, and traceable to the Ordonnance de la Marine. Black's first and second editions diverge only in the cited title reference — the first edition cites *Ord. Mar. liv. 3, tit. 3*, while the second edition cites *liv. 8, tit. 38* — a discrepancy that may reflect different editions or sections of the Ordonnance rather than substantive disagreement. Burrill adds the useful note that *nolis* derives from the Latin *naulum*, the classical term for ship-hire or passage money, which places the word in the broader tradition of maritime freight terminology running from Roman commercial law through medieval sea codes into early modern French codification.
None of the sources elaborates on the doctrinal content of the freight relationship itself — terms of payment, lien rights, or conditions of forfeiture — because those details live under *fret* and in the maritime law entries more broadly. Nolis is defined entirely by reference to its synonym.
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Jurisdictional Note
Nolis is French law terminology with no independent status in common law jurisdictions. In Louisiana, where French maritime and civil law traditions intersect with American admiralty practice, researchers may encounter the term in older materials, but modern Louisiana practice uses standard English-language admiralty vocabulary.
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