Some views on the Rotterdam Rules

The Rotterdam Rules have been the subject of negative comments by the Working Party on Intermodal Transport and Logistics of the U.N. Economic and Social Council, the European Shippers’ Council, the Working Group on Sea Transport of FIATA and the European Association for Forwarding Transport Logistic and Customs Services-CLECAT. The documents issued by such entities have been examined by former delegates to the UNCITRAL Working Group of Transport Law, who analysed them and drew up a joint paper in an effort to explain the reasons why the they deemed such criticisms to be unjustified.
It is thought that the knowledge of such criticisms and of their analysis may be of interest to the maritime world at large and therefore the four documents in question and their analysis are posted on this website. They are the following:

The documents:

1		Report of the fifty-first session of the Working Party on Intermodal Transport and Logistics of the U.N. Economic and Social Council - ECE/TRANS/WP.24/123 of 13 May 2009.
2		View of the European Shippers’ Council on the Convention on Contracts for the International Carrying (sic) of Goods Wholly or Partly by Sea also known as the “Rotterdam Rules”, March 2009.
3		Paper of the Working Group on Sea Transport of FIATA being Annex II to FIATA’s document MTI/507 of 26 March 2009.
4		Position Paper of the European Association for Forwarding Transport Logistic and Customs Services-CLECAT dated 11 May 2009.

Their analysis:

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The Rotterdam Rules – An attempt to clarify certain concerns that have emerged, by Francesco Berlingieri, Philippe Delebecque, Tomotaka Fujita, Rafael Illescas, Michael Sturley, Gertjan van der Ziel, Alexander von Ziegler and Stefano Zunarelli.