Multimodal Transportation under the Rotterdam Rules: Legal Implications for European Carriage of Goods and the Quest for Uniformity
Författare
Summary, in English
A constantly growing intercontinental trade and modernization of transport infrastructure transformed the traditional patterns of carriage of goods globally. The majority of manufactured goods nowadays are transported in by sea in containers; however, transportation by land precedes and follows the sea carriage. These developments have created the preconditions for the development of multimodal transportation, which implies door-to-door delivery of goods by different modes of transport under a single contract.
The existing transport conventions deal with one specific mode of transport, such as sea, road, rail, air and inland waterways, while an international mandatory convention related to multimodal transportation is lacking. The previous attempts to create an international legal instrument to govern this type of carriage have not been successful. In respond to that a new transport convention was adopted in 2008 - “United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Carriage of Goods Wholly or Partly by Sea” (The Rotterdam Rules). This Convention has introduced the new concept of “maritime plus”, and thus will govern the whole of a contract of carriage, which comprises an international sea leg, including those segments that are to be performed by other transport modes. The controversies surrounding the “maritime plus” regime of the Rotterdam Rules have provided the impetus for the EU to instigate discussions on whether it needs to adopt its own legislation concerning multimodal transport and not just wait for an international solution.
The principal purpose of this thesis is to examine and evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of the “maritime plus” regime under the Rotterdam Rules. The analysis will include a critical review of existing international conventions and their provisions pertaining to multimodal transportation and the “maritime plus” regime of the Rotterdam Rules. A key issue in this thesis is uniformity and harmonization in transport law which will be complemented by examining the regional harmonization in the context of EU law-making and jurisprudence in the field of international transport. The author will also critically examine how the Rotterdam Rules as a Convention can contribute to universal uniformity on carriage of goods, in light of the carriage being “maritime plus” instead of multimodal and also implications for the European carriage of goods.
The existing transport conventions deal with one specific mode of transport, such as sea, road, rail, air and inland waterways, while an international mandatory convention related to multimodal transportation is lacking. The previous attempts to create an international legal instrument to govern this type of carriage have not been successful. In respond to that a new transport convention was adopted in 2008 - “United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Carriage of Goods Wholly or Partly by Sea” (The Rotterdam Rules). This Convention has introduced the new concept of “maritime plus”, and thus will govern the whole of a contract of carriage, which comprises an international sea leg, including those segments that are to be performed by other transport modes. The controversies surrounding the “maritime plus” regime of the Rotterdam Rules have provided the impetus for the EU to instigate discussions on whether it needs to adopt its own legislation concerning multimodal transport and not just wait for an international solution.
The principal purpose of this thesis is to examine and evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of the “maritime plus” regime under the Rotterdam Rules. The analysis will include a critical review of existing international conventions and their provisions pertaining to multimodal transportation and the “maritime plus” regime of the Rotterdam Rules. A key issue in this thesis is uniformity and harmonization in transport law which will be complemented by examining the regional harmonization in the context of EU law-making and jurisprudence in the field of international transport. The author will also critically examine how the Rotterdam Rules as a Convention can contribute to universal uniformity on carriage of goods, in light of the carriage being “maritime plus” instead of multimodal and also implications for the European carriage of goods.
Publiceringsår
2015
Språk
Engelska
Dokumenttyp
Doktorsavhandling
Förlag
Lund University (Media-Tryck)
Ämne
- Law
Status
Published
Forskningsgrupp
- Lund University Centre for Business Law (Swedish abbr: ACLU)
Handledare
- Lars-Göran Malmberg
- Proshanto Mukherjee
Försvarsdatum
17 april 2015
Försvarstid
10:15
Försvarsplats
Pufendorfsalen
Opponent
- Marc Huybrechts (professor)