CHAPTER ONE
GENERAL INTRODUCTION
Transport is one of the world’s largest human activities. It is essential in any economy and plays a major role in the spatial relationships between geographic locations. It builds bridges between continents, between countries within and outside, between politics and business in intra-community relations and finally population of a given region.1 Transport is thus a service that operates on several levels, affecting many aspects of life so that one cannot imagine a better economy or a world without transportation.2 It thus constitutes a real and powerful force for progress.3 In sub-Saharan Africa, especially in West and Central Africa, carriage by road is an essential part of the policy of economic integration of States insofar as it is the primary means of communication and connection of people and property. It is one of the main paths of the sub regional integration and the main instrument of trade between States party to the OHADA Treaty.4 In addition, the OHADA text applicable to contracts of carriage by road is a necessary tool which attracts English-speaking countries to the aforementioned legal space because it contains the essential rules of the common law system.5

The essential purpose of transportation law is to facilitate the movement of people and goods. The means of transportation of these goods are numerous; it could be by air, by sea or by land. It could also be by means of road transport.6 The successful acceptance and application of international uniform rules such as the CMR,7 and the UACCGR8 depends on the outcome which are consistent and predictable within all the member States. Within member states of the Organization for the Harmonization of Business Law in Africa9, road transport constitute between 60 to 90% of the movement of
goods and persons.10 The ease to use the road makes road transport within the OHADA Zone a preferred mode of transport. In effect, the geographical situation has made certain countries
within the OHADA Zone not to have access to the sea.11

1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
Studies carried out in the field of carriage of goods by road have shown that, the OHADA legislature as CMR poses to the road carrier a presumption21 of liability pursuant to Article 16 (1) of UACCGR22. Due to the carrier’s obligation of result, the burden of proof is on the road carrier to provide a cause of exemption. This puts the road carrier at a vulnerable position ofbeing likely to bear the liability if the presumption is not rebutted. It should be recalled that the presumption of responsibility of the carrier does not imply a purely inactive attitude of the
beneficiary.23 In the spirit of the legislature, the courts found in Article 21 of UACCGR negligence arising from the reckless behavior of the carrier by punishing the conscience that he should have had
(not that he has) given factual circumstance:24 thereby invoking bad faith as a ground of liability. The overall research problem addressed in this study is that, the presumption of liability poses a serious problem to the road carrier and emphasis has not been made on whether the liabilities are limited or exclusive. This therefore begs the question whether the road carrier’s liabilities in the carriage of goods by road in Cameroon is limited or exclusive.