A critical look at the United Nations Convention on International Multimodal Transport of Goods (Geneva, 24th May 1980)

The United Nations Convention on International Multimodal Transport of Goods of 24th May 1980 is an appropriate answer to the legal and political problems raised by through carriage and containerisation.; Traditionally, when goods were transferred from one mode to another they were also transferred to a new legal regime. There was no coherent legal regime governing carrier liability for goods moving in multimodal transport. The Convention creates a new liability system and confer international legal sanction on the responsibilities and immunities flowing from the multimodal transport contract.; The Convention compromises between the needs of developing countries--who called for provisions on regulation and control of multimodal operations at the domestic level--and the demands of developed countries--who wanted the convention to deal primarily with private law matters and pointed to the danger of conflicts with modal conventions.; The Convention is not yet in force but its provisions are the basis of current through carriage contracts.