The structure of carrier’s liability and burden of proof under the United Nations convention on contracts for the international carriage of goods wholly or partly by sea (2009)

ABSTRACT

A new development in the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Carriage of Goods Wholly or Partly by Sea, 2009 (commonly called Rotterdam rules) is the formula it adopted to deal with the basic question of the carrier’s liability. It has set out a new structure of the carrier’s liability and the burden of proof. Still its approach is not totally novel but extracted from the previous maritime conventions. It has preserved the ‘fault-based liability system’ established by the Brussels Convention for the Unification of Certain Rules of Law Relating to Bills of Lading, 1924 (also known as Hague Rules), the Hague Rules amended with 1968 Visby Protocol and the SDR protocol of 1979 (Hague-Visby Rules) and International Convention on the Carriage of Goods by Sea 1978 (Hamburg Rules). This piece of work analyses the new structure of carrier’s liability introduced by this convention.

KEYWORDS:

• Carriage of goods by sea
• carrier’s liability
• burden of proof
• Rotterdam rules

Acknowledgements

My sincere gratitude goes to Professor Erik Rosag of Scandinavian Institute of Maritime Law (University of Oslo) for his constructive comments on the initial draft of this work.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Assefa Aregay Sefara, LLB (HU), LLM (UiO), LLM (CEU), is Lecturer of Laws at Ambo University (School of Law).

Notes

1. Nikaki, Theodora. 2010. “The Carrier’s Duties under the Rotterdam Rules: Better the Devil You Know?” Tulane Maritime Law 35 (1): 1–44.

2. von Ziegler, Alexander. 2010. “Liability of the Carrier for Loss, Damage or Delay.” In The Rotterdam Rules: Commentary to the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Carriage of Goods Wholly or Partly By Sea, edited by Johan Schelin and Stefano Zunarelli, 94. Austin, TX: Kluwer Law International BV.

3. Yuzhou, Si, and Henry Hai Li. 2009. “The New Structure of the Basis of the Carrier’s Liability under the Rotterdam Rules.” Uniform Law Review XIV: 931–944.

4. See art-III of Hague-Visby rules.

5. Delebecque, Phillipe. 2010. “Obligations of the Carrier.” In The Rotterdam Rules: Commentary to the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Carriage of Goods Wholly or Partly By Sea, edited by Johan Schelin and Stefano Zunarelli, 86. Austin, TX: Kluwer Law International BV.

6. Phillipe (2010).

7. Diamond, Anthony. 2009. “The Rotterdam Rules.” Lloyd’s Maritime and Commercial Law Quarterly 2009 (Part 4): 445–536.

8. Yuzhou and Hai Li (2009, 938).

9. Yuzhou and Hai Li (2009, 938).

10. See art-11 of the Rotterdam rules.

11. Compare Delebecque (2010).

12. von Ziegler et al. (2010, 77).

13. von Ziegler et al. (2010, 103).

14. Singh, Lachmi. 2011. The Law of Carriage of Goods by Sea, 47. Sussex: Bloomsbury Professional.

15. von Ziegler (2010, 103).

16. Diamond (2009, 468).

17. Corresponding rule under Hague-Visby rules art-IV(2)(b).

18. von Ziegler (2010, 104).

19. Art-17(5) of the Rotterdam rules.

20. Yuzhou and Hai Li (2009, 938).

21. Falkanager, Thor, Hans Jacob Bull, and Lasse Brautaset. 2011. Scandinavian Maritime Law: The Norwegian Perspective, 3rd ed., 282. Oslo: Universitetsforlaget.

22. Johansson, Svante O. 2010. The Impact of Rotterdam Rules on the General Average, 275. Oslo: Scandinavian Institute of Maritime Law Year Book, Marius no-400.

23. Art-21 of the Rotterdam rules.

24. Agents and servants under this provision includes: ‘any performing party’, ‘master or crew’, ‘employees of the carrier or a performing party’ and ‘any other person falling within the definition in art-1(6)(a).

25. Diamond (2009, 472).

26. von Ziegler et al. (2010, 99).

27. von Ziegler et al. (2010, 100).

28. von Ziegler et al. (2010, 101).

29. von Ziegler et al. (2010, 100).