A shipwreck, lost treasure and lessons for lawyers …

Sometimes complex litigation can mask a powerful human tragedy. The case of Argentum Exploration against SA is just such a tale. Behind arcane argument in the UK courts about whether SA was obliged to pay salvage costs to Argentum for raising lost treasure from sea-bed depths of almost 3km, there lies a forgotten story involving hundreds of lives lost with a tale as dramatic and heart-breaking as the sinking of the Titanic. In her A Matter of Justice column on the Legalbrief site, Carmel Rickard unpacks the story behind the court case.