LIABILITY IN ANTIQUITY IN THE SERVICE OF INSURANCE – THE CASE OF WINE WITH REFERENCE TO RISK

The question of the origins of wine insurance as a market commodity arose as a result of attempts to understand the development of the insurance policy and the conclusion of insurance contracts in the wine sector. This paper examines the genesis and evolution of risk management mechanisms in the wine trade during the ancient period. Through the analysis of primary sources, the paper demonstrates how wine, owing to its high value and complexity as a commodity, stimulated the development of numerous legal institutions. Applying the historical and comparative method, the paper traces the continuity in the development of protective mechanisms, from the Hammurabi Code’s provisions on compensation for losses in commercial caravans, through the Greek maritime loan, to the Roman fenus nauticum as the first explicit form of risk transfer, and the Lex Rhodia de iactu as the foundation of joint liability in cases of maritime casualty. The authors critically emphasize, however, that the ancient institutions examined cannot be equated with the modern insurance contract, as their legal nature is fundamentally different (contractual risk allocation, solidary liability, loan). These institutions constitute func- tional predecessors of insurance – more precisely, legal mechanisms which each, in their own way, addressed the same underlying need: protection against risk in the wine trade. Finally, the paper demonstrates that these mechanisms developed in response to specific market demands within the wine supply chain, thereby forming an interdisciplinary synthesis that systematically connects fragmented evidence into a coherent theoretical framework, while pointing to the ancient origins of modern risk management principles.

Keywords: wine, fenus nauticum, Roman law, risk allocation, contractual liability, delict.