Rotterdam Rules

The Rotterdam Rules were adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in December 2008 and opened for signature in Rotterdam on September 23, 2009, with the ambition of replacing Hague-Visby and Hamburg at a stroke. Their distinctive feature is that they are maritime plus: they apply to a door to door contract whenever it includes an international sea leg, which settles most of the multimodal problem without claiming to govern purely inland carriage. They abolish nautical fault, lengthen the period of responsibility, raise the limits, admit electronic transport records, extend the time bar to two years and create the volume contract, within which a sophisticated shipper may negotiate derogating terms. That last point earned them the hostility of part of the shipper and cargo underwriting community, which saw in it the door reopened to exemption clauses. The problem they were meant to solve remains open: fifteen years after opening, they are not in force.

Twenty-five states signed the text, among them the United States, France and the Netherlands, but only five have ratified it so far, where twenty ratifications are required for entry into force. The limits it sets, 875 special drawing rights per package or 3 per kilogram, therefore remain theoretical and the split between three sea carriage regimes goes on.

convention des Nations unies sur le contrat de transport international de marchandises effectué entièrement ou partiellement par mer