ABSTRACT
Carriage of goods which involves more than one mode of transport, for example, a road and a sea leg, is known as ‘combined’ or ‘multi-modal’ transport. These types of contract are subject to problems in localising in-transit loss or damage so as to identify the appropriate mandatory convention to apply. Localisation is particularly important given the slightly different liability regimes of the conventions and their substantially different package limitation and time bar provisions. For example, under a contract to carry goods from London to Luxembourg by road and sea, where the goods do not accompany the road vehicle on the sea voyage, the Hague-Visby Rules would apply to the sea leg out of the UK, and the CMR (Convention Relative au Contrat de Transport International de Marchandises par Route) would apply to the continental road leg.1
