ABSTRACT
The law relating to international rail carriage is to be found in the Convention on International Carriage by Rail (COTIF). Harmonisation in respect of international rail carriage was achieved as far back as 1890 with the Convention internationale sur le transport de marchandises par chemin de fer. This Convention created an Administrative Union served by the Central Office for the International Carriage by Rail formed in 1893. Periodic amendments were made to the Convention at various revision conferences. At the eighth revision conference held in 1980, however, substantial reforms regarding the institutional provisions found in the original convention were undertaken leading to the creation of the Inter-governmental Organisation for the International Carriage by Rail (OTIF).1 The aim of OTIF is to promote, improve and facilitate, in all respects international traffic by rail.2 Part of its remit is to establish systems of uniform law including contract of international carriage of goods, dangerous goods and passengers by rail. The Uniform Rules Concerning the Contract for the International Carriage of Goods by Rail (CIM)3 were attached as appendix B to COTIF 1980. COTIF 19804 underwent periodic revisions. However, in the mid 1990s the OTIF undertook a major programme to revise COTIF and Vilnius Protocol 19995 presented a new version of COTIF 1999.6 The reason for this new version was to better reflect the developments in rail carriage brought about by privatisation and the changing market structures in rail transportation. As with COTIF 1980 the new version of the CIM Rules are attached as Appendix B to COTIF 1999.7 The Vilnius Protocol came into force on 1 July 2006. The UK is a party to this Protocol and has implemented it.8 All
1 The secretariat services for OTIF have been provided by the Secretary General since 2006. Previously it was served by a permanent secretariat, the Central Office for Carriage by Rail (Office Central des transports Internationaux (OCTI)), located at Berne.
