Abstract
The United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Carriage of Goods Wholly or Partly by Sea (hereinafter the ‘Rotterdam Rules’ or the ‘Rules’) would, if adopted, significantly change the liability regime surrounding the international carriage of goods by sea.
The Rules seek to harmonise and modernise the law surrounding the international carriage of goods by sea. For the first time in an international carriage convention, the Rules allow for modern developments such as volume contracts and electronic transport records. They establish detailed rules of liability, with a clearly shifting burden of proof. They modernise the permitted exemptions from liability. Significantly, the Rules may even apply inland. Arguably the most far-reaching development, however, relates to an even more fundamental issue: who will the Rules apply to?