The “scope provisions” of carriage of goods Conventions are important. They determine the applicability of the Conventions in general, and their mandatory application in particular. Door-to-door transports have increased the importance of the scope provisions. This paper examines the scope provisions of the Draft Convention now under discussion in UNCTAD.

The very basic prerequisite for the application of a set of rules—such as the UNCITRAL/ CMI Draft1 —is that they apply to a factual situation. The Draft Rules apply to loss, damage and delay of the cargo. Therefore, they do not apply to many of the problems relating to, e.g., documentary sales. Modern problems, such as computer problems in connection with transfer of cargo data, value-added services in ports and the just in time logistics are not addressed in detail. The regulatory ambition is not very different from that of the Hague Rules in 1924. However, since then, due to better procedures cargo damage has diminished, and the relative importance of other questions has increased. Even within this limited regulatory ambition, one has to limit the scope of the rules, geographically and in other ways. These limits of the scope are the theme of this paper. There is, however, no agreed difference between limits in the scope of the rules and limits of regulatory ambition. The scope can be mandatory or non-mandatory. The mandatory scope will be discussed first with the exception of special cargoes, which will be addressed separately at the end of the paper.

The mandatory application of the rules may have two different meanings. The expression may either refer to the subset of the scope of the New Rules where they must be applied if one the parties invokes them, even if he or she has waived them, or it may refer to the extent of the obligation of the states parties to implement the New Rules. The first issue is one of private, national law, while the other is one of public international law.

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