Browsing by Subject "Carrier Liability"

Multimodal transport has become a norm for modern international carriage of goods, but identifying the stage at which losses occur can be challenging. This gives rise to the legal problem at issue that a multimodal carrier’s liability for unlocalised loss is not certain or predictable under the current international transport regulatory framework. This study aims to envisage a suitable solution to unlocalised loss in terms of multimodal carrier liability by addressing two research questions: What forms the legal difficulty of unlocalised loss? What liability regime for unlocalised loss would address the identified legal problems? The research employs legal doctrinal methodology to analyse positive law and fill gaps in international law. The legal problem of unlocalised loss arises from two factors. First, the liability regimes in unimodal transport differ significantly in terms of liability basis and monetary limitations. Second, some unimodal regimes extend their jurisdiction to multimodal transport, potentially covering unlocalised loss, but these expansions are based on different prerequisites, leading to overlaps and gaps. To address unlocalised loss, two approaches are proposed. The first is an overriding multimodal regime or fallback rule, with strict liability and the highest applicable limitation being likely to gain widespread acceptance. The second is a contract-oriented approach, where solutions based on contract construction provide a holistic approach, and those based on freedom of contract ensure certainty and predictability, though both come at a high cost. It is hoped that the analysis provided in this study could contribute to the ongoing discourse on a potential harmonised multimodal regime, by zooming in on the scenario of unlocalised loss.