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Know your BIFA Standard Trading Conditions – Clause 2 (continued)
TRANSPORT BY ROAD The CMR Convention for the International Carriage of Goods by Road, enacted by the Carriage of Goods by Road Act 1965. It is important to note that this convention concerns the contract of carriage and not the vehicles used to perform the contract. Thus the CMR Convention may still apply to local collections and deliveries before and after carriage by the vehicle used for an international journey, if those local journeys form part of the contract of international carriage. If the local carrier has not contracted for international carriage, then that local carrier may have liability only to the extent offered under trading conditions incorporated, unless the CMR consignment note has been taken over or unless the provisions of the CMR Convention are voluntarily adopted. The CMR Convention applies to road carriage to or from a country that is a party to the CMR Convention. Most European countries are party to the CMR Convention. The CMR Convention does not apply to a contract for the carriage of an ISO container when the container is taken off the road vehicle for sea carriage (which usually happens). The CMR Convention does not apply to road carriage between the UK and the Republic of Ireland, nor that between the UK and Jersey. TRANSPORT BY SEA The Hague Visby Rules for Sea Carriage enacted by the Carriage of Goods by Sea Act 1971. This international convention applies compulsorily only when a bill of lading or Last month we started to look at Clause 2 of the BIFA STC when our main focus was on common law, contract law and statute law. In this edition we conclude by looking at the international conventions for the carriage of goods that concern BIFA Members
there are now the Non-International Carriage Rules implemented by the Carriage by Air Acts (Application of Provisions) Order 1967 SI 1967/480 as amended. The Montreal Convention of 1999, the three versions of the Warsaw Convention and the Non-International Carriage Rules can all apply to air carriage to and from the UK. These complexities arise because each regime applies only if both the country of despatch and the country of destination have adopted it, failing which the regime previously common to both countries applies. For example, until 28 June 2004, the UK had adopted (since 1998) the MP4 version of the Warsaw Convention. The term ‘non-international carriage’ is used in the legal sense – not the geographical sense – and the term does apply to air carriage between the UK and its overseas territories such as the Channel Islands, Bermuda, Falkland Islands, Turks and Caicos Islands, etc. Thus the Non- International Carriage Rules apply to such air carriage as well as to air carriage within the UK. The Montreal Convention of 1999 and all versions of the Warsaw Convention apply only to the period during which the cargo is in the charge of the air carrier at an airport or in flight, and not to any carriage by land, sea or river outside an airport, even if so conveyed within the geographical scope of an air waybill. Quantum Corporation Ltd v Plane Trucking Ltd and Another [2002] 2 Lloyd’s Rep 25 – Court of Appeal applies . Continued on page 21
equivalent document is issued by the carrier (not a certificate of shipment or sea waybill). It also applies compulsorily only to the time when the goods are loaded onto a ship until they are discharged from a ship (‘tackle to tackle’). Thus for multimodal carriage by container, they apply compulsorily only to the ‘sea leg’. The Hague Visby Rules apply to international sea carriage when the port of shipment is in the UK. Several other countries have adopted the Hague Visby Rules of 1968 while other countries apply the Hague Rules of 1924 or the Hamburg Rules of 1978, or variants of those rules. All these rules can apply to imports into the UK, depending on the country of shipment. TRANSPORT BY AIR The Montreal Convention 1999 for International Air Carriage. The main UK legislation for this convention is the Carriage by Air Act 1961 as amended and the Carriage by Air Acts (Implementation of the Montreal Convention 1999) Order 2002 SI 2002/263. As of September 2018, there are 133 parties to the convention. Included in this total are 132 of the 191 ICAO member states plus the EU. The states that have ratified the convention represent 131 UN member states plus the Cook Islands. Also still in force are three versions of the Warsaw Convention – Original, Amended and Montreal Protocol No.4 of 1979, identified as ‘MP4’. For ‘non-international carriage’ (see below)
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