BRINGING MULTIMODAL TRANSPORT LAW INTO THE NEW CENTURY: IS THE UNIFORM LIABILITY SYSTEM THE WAY FORWARD?

摘要

The quest for harmonizing international multimodal transport laws comes from the realization that the proliferation of diverse rules adversely affects the efficiency of multimodal transport and the promotion of international trade. The long-awaited harmonization has not yet been achieved, however, despite the efforts of several international organizations. Although support has been expressed for reform of the current legal framework on international multimodal transport laws, it has been established earlier in this article that any effort to that end would be futile if it failed to address the shortcomings of the current rules. In other words, a new international legal framework on multimodal transport will have genuine prospects of gaining widespread acceptance only if it provides for rules that are predictable, certain, cost-effective, and acceptable to the international transport community. It has been doubted, though, as explained in this article, whether the network and modified network systems of liability, as implemented in the current multimodal transport rules, meet those objectives because they create factual inquiries over identifying locus of cargo loss and other related legal issues, which in turn increase friction costs incurred by all stakeholders.