The UNCITRAL Project of the Convention on Contracts for the International Carriage of Goods by Sea

The international community has conventions which regulate matters connected with the transport of cargoes by sea. In the second half of the twentieth century an attempt was made to regulate multimodal transport. In 1980, under the auspices of UNCTAD, a Convention on International Multimodal Transport of Goods was adopted. However, it has still not been implemented. It is a move in the direction of the complete regulation of the transport of goods by various means of transport. In 2001 the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) began work on a convention relating to international goods transport. The new convention is intended to replace the La Haye Regulations, the La Haye/Wisby regulations and the Hamburg regulations. The authoress of this paper considers that the application of unified principles to various means of transport might be unsuccessful. The project for the future convention applies to the transport of cargoes wholly or in part by sea. The authoress refers to maritime transport law and shows what changes the future convention is to introduce.