The Rotterdam Rules and Maritime Performing Parties in the United States
This article provides an overview of the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Carriage of Goods Wholly or Partly by Sea (the Rotterdam Rules) and the application of it to maritime parties. Recognition of the central role of the performing parties, or the carriers' agents and sub-contractors that actually perform the obligation to carry the goods, is one of the key innovations of the new Convention. The article discusses the Rules both in general terms and on three very specific issues: negotiated limits under volume contracts, sovereign immunity, and liability for delay. The new Convention is an evolutionary change in the law, rationalizing some of the arbitrary and unpredictable aspects of current law and modernizing the law to reflect developments in the industry. The author suggests that the Rotterdam Rules' impact on maritime performing parties is likely to be strongly beneficial in the United States and concludes by discussing the bigger picture and the overall benefits to the entire maritime industry in terms of increased productivity and efficiency.