The key points of the law suit

The long legal proceedings that began in 2007 lasted almost five years. They went through several phases and decisions of the various levels within the American legal system in which the Spanish party refuted the arguments put forward by Odyssey and demonstrated before the court that the discovery of the Black Swan – as Odyssey called the wreck – was in fact an act of plunder on the Spanish frigate Nuestra Señora de las Mercedes, sunk off the coast of the Algarve on 5 October 1804.Salto de línea As the case took place in the United States, the counsel for the defence on behalf of Spain had to be undertaken by an American lawyer. James Goold worked with the law firm Covington and Burling, and had already successfully defended Spain in a Virginia court in a case regarding two other Spanish frigates – the Juno and Galga – in 2000 against Sea Hunt, also an American company.

Artículos de interés

España gana el caso Nuestra Señora de las Mercedes: un éxito jurídico, histórico y cultural

La protección del patrimonio cultural subacuático y el caso "Nuestra Señora de las Mercedes". Síntesis del proceso, por Elisa de Cabo (artículo publicado en la revista Patrimonio Cultural y Derecho, 16).