Lloyd's Maritime and Commercial Law Quarterly

Professor Francis D Rose

Document

RO-RO TRANSPORT UNDER CMR, Art 2: THE DUTCH SOLUTION

1. Introduction

Every transport lawyer will agree that the application of CMR,1 Art 2, dealing with the liability of the road carrier during the non-road stage of the transport, yields several serious problems. These problems are primarily due to the extended and somewhat mysterious text of the provision as well as to the intricacy of the process appointed to determine the law applicable on the hypothetical contractual relationship between the shipper and the ro-ro carrier under Art 2. CMR, Art 2 concerns “mode on mode” transport (ro-ro transport; piggyback transport; transport superposé), which should be distinguished from the more familiar “mode to mode” transport.2 Both types of carriage belong to the ever increasing field of multimodal transport. Since a formal text of the travaux préparatoires is lacking, one is forced to guess at the intentions of the founding fathers of the CMR while introducing Art 2 at the very last moment at the instigation of the English delegation.3

The text of CMR, Art 2.1 states:

Where the vehicle containing the goods is carried over part of the journey by sea, rail, inland waterways or air, and, except where the provisions of article 14 are applicable, the goods are not unloaded from the vehicle, this Convention shall nevertheless apply to the whole of the carriage. Provided that to the extent that is proved that any loss, damage or delay in delivery of the goods which occurs during the carriage by the other means of transport was not caused by an act or omission of the carrier by road, but by some event which could only have occurred in the course of and by reason of the carriage by that other means of transport, the liability of the carrier by road shall be determined not by this Convention but in the manner in which the liability of the carrier by the other means of transport would have been determined if a contract for the carriage of the goods alone had been made by the sender with the carrier by the other means of transport in accordance

1. Convention on the Contract for the International Carriage of Goods by Road.

2. M A Clarke, International carriage of goods by road: CMR , 4th edn (2003) (hereafter “Clarke”), 29.