Oléron (anc. Uliarus), an island lying 2 to 10 miles off the west coast of France, and forming part of the department of Charente-Inférieure. It is 19 miles long by about 5 broad, and is unusually fertile. Pop. 17,720, mostly Protestants. On Oléron are the port of Le Château, and the small towns of St Pierre d'Oléron and St Georges d'Oléron.
The Laws or Judgments of Oléron were a code of maritime law compiled at the instance of Eleanor of Guienne before she married Henry II. of England, modelled on the Book of the Consulate of the Sea (a maritime code regulating commerce in the Levant), but drawn from the decisions of the maritime court of Oléron, in the duchy of Guienne. It was intended for the use of mariners in the Atlantic waters, was introduced into England in the end of the 12th century and into Flanders in the 13th. The usages and decisions upon which it was based were those observed in the wine and oil trade between Guienne and the ports of England, Normandy, and Flanders. An English translation was published as Rutter of the Sea, by T. Petyt in 1536. See INTERNATIONAL LAW.