ABSTRACT
On 11 December 2008, the United Nations’ General Assembly adopted a new Convention entitled United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Carriage of Goods Wholly or Partly by Sea.1 As the government of the Netherlands had offered to host a signing ceremony in Rotterdam on 23 September 2009, the General Assembly authorized such ceremony and recommended that the Convention be known as the Rotterdam Rules. To date, the Rotterdam Rules have been signed by 25 countries and ratified by three.2 The Rules require 20 ratifications to enter into force.3 In Scandinavia, both Norway and Denmark have in close consultations with each other conducted the preparatory work and issued official reports on the possible implementation of the Rotterdam Rules.4 In Denmark, this work led to the passing in 2013 of legislation implementing the Rules into Danish law.5 Denmark has, however, not yet ratified the Convention and the act implementing the Rules will only be put into force when the Rules enter into force.
