The Rotterdam Rules - A transport convention for the future?
(2011) JURM01 20112Department of Law
- Abstract (Swedish)
- Rotterdamreglerna är en FN konvention med namnet: Förenta Nationernas konvention om avtal om internationell transport av gods helt eller delvis till sjöss. Bakom denna långa titel döljer sig det senaste försöket att reformera och harmonisera lagstiftning som reglerar godsbefordran till sjöss. Rotterdamreglerna blev underskrivna av ett antal länder 2009 i Rotterdam och kommer träda ikraft ifall de erhåller ratifikationer etc. från 20 länder. Reglerna kommer i sådant fall att ersätta Haag, Haag-Visby och Hamburg reglerna som för tillfället är gällande rätt för många jurisdiktioner inom detta område, ett område som idag är reglerat inte bara genom dessa konventioner utan även av regional och nationell lagstiftning av varierande slag. Om... (More)
- Rotterdamreglerna är en FN konvention med namnet: Förenta Nationernas konvention om avtal om internationell transport av gods helt eller delvis till sjöss. Bakom denna långa titel döljer sig det senaste försöket att reformera och harmonisera lagstiftning som reglerar godsbefordran till sjöss. Rotterdamreglerna blev underskrivna av ett antal länder 2009 i Rotterdam och kommer träda ikraft ifall de erhåller ratifikationer etc. från 20 länder. Reglerna kommer i sådant fall att ersätta Haag, Haag-Visby och Hamburg reglerna som för tillfället är gällande rätt för många jurisdiktioner inom detta område, ett område som idag är reglerat inte bara genom dessa konventioner utan även av regional och nationell lagstiftning av varierande slag. Om Rotterdamreglerna lyckas kommer denna olikformighet att försvinna och lagen som reglerar detta område kommer återigen att bli enhetlig. Detta examensarbete undersöker bakgrunden till de nya reglerna såväl som deras innehåll samt vilka skillnaderna gentemot de gamla reglerna är.
De tre olika regelsystem som används inom området idag är alla obsoleta. Det mest använda – Haag-Visby-reglerna är baserat på Haag-reglerna, som är nästan nittio år gamla. Mycket har hänt inom sjöfarten under 1900-talet och det finns därför ett stort reformbehov. Olika reformförsök har gjorts tidigare. Det första försöket var Visbyprotokollet från 1960-talet som trots att det rönte viss framgång, ändå bara åtgärdade de mest akuta reformbehoven och nu har blivit omodernt. Visbyprotokollet följdes av SDR-protokollet som åtgärdade vissa frågor rörande ansvarsbegränsningsbelopp. Det andra försöket var Hamburgreglerna som av olika anledningar blev ett misslyckande. Hamburgreglerna blev bara kort tid efter deras skapelse följda av den Multimodala konventionen som var tänkt att reglera multimodal transport, en konvention som tills idag inte har erhållit tillräckligt stöd trots att den skapades på 1980-talet. Eftersom internationell konsensus har visat sig vara svårt att uppnå så har många nationer bestämt sig för att istället anta nationella eller regionala lösningar vilket har förvärrat situationen. Rotterdamreglerna är skapade mot denna bakgrund. Reglerna har därför utformats så att de ska kunna få stöd från stater som av olika anledningar inte har anslutit sig till tidigare reformförsök såväl som från de som har anslutit sig till tidigare försök. Reglerna bygger på de gamla konventionerna men har också introducerat ändringar som består av både ändringar i gamla välkända bestämmelser såväl som introduktion av regler som behandlar helt nya områden. De nya områdena som täcks av reglerna är t.ex. multimodala transporter och elektroniska transportdokument. Några av de viktigaste ändringarna i befintliga regler är t.ex. avlägsnande av gamla redarvänliga undantagsbestämmelser för transportörens transportansvar, mer omfattande reglering av lastägarens skyldigheter, högre ansvarsbegränsningsbelopp och introduktionen av en begränsad avtalsfrihet för s.k. volymkontrakt. (Less) - Abstract
- The Rotterdam Rules is a UN Convention with the name: United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Carriage of Goods Wholly or Partly by Sea. Behind this long title hides the latest attempt to reform and harmonise the law governing carriage of goods by sea. The Rotterdam Rules were signed by a number of countries in 2009 in Rotterdam and will enter into force if they receive acceptance, accession, approval or ratification from 20 countries. The Rules will in such a case replace the Hague, Hague-Visby and Hamburg regimes that are currently governing this area of law, an area which today is governed not only by these three different sets of rules but by different national and regional solutions as well. If the Rotterdam... (More)
- The Rotterdam Rules is a UN Convention with the name: United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Carriage of Goods Wholly or Partly by Sea. Behind this long title hides the latest attempt to reform and harmonise the law governing carriage of goods by sea. The Rotterdam Rules were signed by a number of countries in 2009 in Rotterdam and will enter into force if they receive acceptance, accession, approval or ratification from 20 countries. The Rules will in such a case replace the Hague, Hague-Visby and Hamburg regimes that are currently governing this area of law, an area which today is governed not only by these three different sets of rules but by different national and regional solutions as well. If the Rotterdam Rules become a success this diversification will end and the law will reach the same degree of uniformity that it once had. This thesis explores the background to the new Rules as well as their content and what the differences to the older regimes are.
The three international regimes that regulate the area today are all obsolete. The most widespread – the Hague-Visby Rules is based on the Hague Rules, which is almost ninety years old. A lot has happened in shipping during the course of the 20th century and there is therefore a large need for reform. Attempts to reform this area has been made before. The first attempt was the Visby protocol from the 1960s which although achieving a certain degree of success only addressed the most pressing needs for an update and has now become too old. The Visby protocol was followed by an additional protocol called the SDR protocol which addressed some issues in the Hague-Visby regime that concerned monetary limitation of liability amounts. The second attempt was the Hamburg Rules which for various reasons became a failure. The Hamburg Rules was short after its creation followed by the Multimodal Convention that aimed to govern multimodal transport, a convention which until this day has not received the required ratifications even though it was created in the 1980s. Since consensus around an international solution has not been reached many nations have decided to adopt national or regional solutions which have made the situation of non-uniformity worse. The Rotterdam Rules were created as a result of this background. The Rules are therefore drafted in order to receive support from states that for various reasons have not supported previous reform attempts, as well as from those that have. The Rules build on the old familiar conventions but have also introduced changes both by changing existing rules as well as by covering new areas. The new areas covered by the Rules are for example: multimodal transport and electronic transport documents. Among the most important changes introduced we find; removal of old carrier-friendly exceptions from liability, increased regulation of the shipper’s obligations, higher limitation of liability amounts and the introduction of a limited freedom of contract for so called volume contracts. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/2292311
- author
- Adamsson, Joakim LU
- supervisor
- organization
- course
- JURM01 20112
- year
- 2011
- type
- H3 - Professional qualifications (4 Years - )
- subject
- keywords
- sjörätt, maritime law, hamburg rules, hague-visby rules, hague rules, rotterdam rules, transporträtt, rotterdamreglerna, transport law
- language
- English
- id
- 2292311
- date added to LUP
- 2012-03-14 10:14:50
- date last changed
- 2012-03-14 10:14:50
@misc{2292311,
abstract = {{The Rotterdam Rules is a UN Convention with the name: United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Carriage of Goods Wholly or Partly by Sea. Behind this long title hides the latest attempt to reform and harmonise the law governing carriage of goods by sea. The Rotterdam Rules were signed by a number of countries in 2009 in Rotterdam and will enter into force if they receive acceptance, accession, approval or ratification from 20 countries. The Rules will in such a case replace the Hague, Hague-Visby and Hamburg regimes that are currently governing this area of law, an area which today is governed not only by these three different sets of rules but by different national and regional solutions as well. If the Rotterdam Rules become a success this diversification will end and the law will reach the same degree of uniformity that it once had. This thesis explores the background to the new Rules as well as their content and what the differences to the older regimes are.
The three international regimes that regulate the area today are all obsolete. The most widespread – the Hague-Visby Rules is based on the Hague Rules, which is almost ninety years old. A lot has happened in shipping during the course of the 20th century and there is therefore a large need for reform. Attempts to reform this area has been made before. The first attempt was the Visby protocol from the 1960s which although achieving a certain degree of success only addressed the most pressing needs for an update and has now become too old. The Visby protocol was followed by an additional protocol called the SDR protocol which addressed some issues in the Hague-Visby regime that concerned monetary limitation of liability amounts. The second attempt was the Hamburg Rules which for various reasons became a failure. The Hamburg Rules was short after its creation followed by the Multimodal Convention that aimed to govern multimodal transport, a convention which until this day has not received the required ratifications even though it was created in the 1980s. Since consensus around an international solution has not been reached many nations have decided to adopt national or regional solutions which have made the situation of non-uniformity worse. The Rotterdam Rules were created as a result of this background. The Rules are therefore drafted in order to receive support from states that for various reasons have not supported previous reform attempts, as well as from those that have. The Rules build on the old familiar conventions but have also introduced changes both by changing existing rules as well as by covering new areas. The new areas covered by the Rules are for example: multimodal transport and electronic transport documents. Among the most important changes introduced we find; removal of old carrier-friendly exceptions from liability, increased regulation of the shipper’s obligations, higher limitation of liability amounts and the introduction of a limited freedom of contract for so called volume contracts.}},
author = {{Adamsson, Joakim}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{The Rotterdam Rules - A transport convention for the future?}},
year = {{2011}},
}