The text includes common laws which were meant to apply for European countries involved with trade overseas.
The rules included solutions to likely dilemmas such as jettison, shipwreck and ship collision.
This text was referred to as the ‘Waterrecht’ (water law) and was spread to different northern European towns.
Subsequently, a number of articles originating in Lübeck were added in some Danish manuscripts in the fifteenth century.
The first printed edition of this text was made in Copenhagen by Godfried von Gemen in 1505.