BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY

The expansion of global trade over time created a demand for consistency and legal certainty in the regulations governing the transportation of commodities sold abroad. Numerous attempts to standardize the legislation governing the transnational carriage of products by sea have been made since the 19th century. The first attempt to reach a compromise between the interests of cargo owners and ship owners was made in 1882 when the International Law Association’s Comité Maritime International (the CMI) created a model bill of lading that shipping interests could voluntarily adopt. It was called the Liverpool Bill of Lading and it featured compromises that were similar to those in the 1893-enacted Harter Act. The Liverpool Bill of Lading was never finally agreed upon, hence the International Law Association’s efforts were in vain2. As each ship-owning state outlined the modalities of transportation, which were primarily included in their bill of lading, the failure of this endeavour resulted in a wide range of unfair trading practices within the maritime transport sector. To establish universal guidelines for maritime exploration, 3As a result, several maritime conventions—including the Harter Act of 1893, the Hague Rules of 1923, the Hague Visby Rules of 1968, the Hamburg Rules of 1979, and the Rotterdam Rules of 2008—were created to regulate various areas of marine commerce.

Seaborne commerce has a long history. As early as 3000 B.C., the ancient Egyptians began to build ships, and Pharaoh Sahure of the Fifth Dynasty sailed ships to Lebanon to acquire cedar wood. There were several maritime trading civilizations in the Mediterranean Sea, including the Persians, Greeks, and Romans, to name a few. Laws are necessary in case something goes wrong because a marine adventure involves risking a sizable quantity of resources. The island of Rhodes, which is thought to have impacted Roman law and dates back to 900 B.C., is credited with having the first instance of recorded maritime law.4 The marine laws frequently existed independently of the other transportation-related regulations. They were excluded from the civil codes because they were regarded as jus speciale. Instead, distinct marine codes were used to codify the maritime laws.

For instance, the Swedish Civil Code of 1734 depended on the King Carl XI’s Maritime Code of 1667 rather than including maritime law.5 Approximately 90% of trade is now carried out by water, maybe because it is the most economical way to carry big amounts of merchandise.6 Due to its crucial position in a globalized society, it is crucial to have consistent laws and a fair distribution of risk to promote commerce and provide predictability for trading partners. With the exception of acts of God or war, the carrier has traditionally been held strictly accountable for any eventual damages to the goods during carriage. In more recent times, the carrier started negotiating for non-liability agreements, and it progressed to the point where the carriers quickly had very little liability.

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