A survey of the jurisdiction rules in unimodal transport conventions and their impact on international multimodal transport of goods contracts

Abstract

Given the fact that uniform liability rules for international multimodal transport contracts of goods are still lacking, it is important to undertake a holistic study of the rules for resolving issues that may arise relating both to jurisdiction and to dispute resolutions in a contract for the international multimodal transport of goods. This article thus carries out a general survey of jurisdiction rules in the unimodal transport conventions and discusses the possible impacts of those rules on international multimodal transport of goods contracts. It concludes that, unless the parties have clear and unequivocal agreements in their contracts, a set of jurisdiction rules for contracts for the multimodal transport of goods is both necessary and important.