CIT Comments: Legal environments for the rail
transport
Part 2: Political and legal environment of Multimodality
Dr Erik Evtimov, Deputy Secretary General CIT
Bern, 5 September 2013
2013-06-26
Comité international des transports
ferroviaires (CIT): www.cit-rail.org
 200 railway undertakings and
shipping companies
 Association under Swiss law,
located in Bern
 Tasks:
1. Implementation of COTIF
and EU law for practical use
2. Standardisation of
contractual relationships
3. Representation of the
interests of members to
authorities and other
associations
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Intermodal solutions:
 The idea of integrated multimodal solutions
 Modal + modal = multimodal (intermodality, comodality, etc)
 Multimodal contracts for different modes of transport
 United Nations Convention on International Multimodal Transport of
Goods (Geneva, 1980)
 Rules for Multimodal transport documents (UNCTAD/ICC Proposals)
 CMR 1956
 COTIF 1999
 Rotterdam Rules 2009
 The necessity: global logistic chains for multimodal services door-to-door
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International railway law: COTIF main
agreement and the annexes
Vilnius Protocol 1999
COTIF
Convention concerning
International Carriage by Rail
_______________________
Protocol on privileges et
immunities of OTIF
Appendix A
Appendix B
Appendix C
Appendix D
Appendix E
Appendix F
Appendix G
CIV
CIM
RID
CUV
CUI
APTU
ATMF
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Contract of carriage for rail-sea traffic under
COTIF/CIM rules
 COTIF/CIM – rail+ agreement
 Application to the sea carriage of goods
 Legal bases
 Art. 1 § 4 CIM: „When international carriage being the subject of a single contract
of carriage includes carriage by sea as a supplement to carriage by rail, these
Uniform Rules shall apply if the carriage by sea is performed on services included
in the list of services provided for in Article 24 § 1 of the Convention.”
 Art. 24 § 1 COTIF: „The maritime services referred in Article 1 of the CIM Uniform
Rules, on which carriage is performed in addition to carriage by rail subject to a
single contract of carriage, shall be included in two lists:
a) the CIV list of maritime services,
b) the CIM list of maritime services.”
 Procedure, Art. 24 § 3 COTIF
 COTIF member states shall notify the maritime lines and the shipping company
 Two member states are necessary (in the praxis is notification of one member
enough)
 OTIF Lists CIV and CIM of the maritime lines
 Differences with the OTIF Lists on the Art. 1 § 6 CIM (accession to COTIF with CIV
and/or CIM lines)
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Special COTIF/CIM liability rules for rail-sea traffic
 Article 23 CIM – basis of the rail-sea liability
 Article 38 § 1 CIM – additional exemptions from the general liability in the
rail-sea traffic




Fire
Saving or attempting to save life or property at sea
Loading the goods on the deck
Perils, dangers and accidents of the sea or other navigable waters
 CIM general compensation rules for total or partial loss, damage and
exceeding of the transit period are applicable – Articles 30, 32 and 33 CIM
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Single Contract of carriage: the CIM consignment note
 Consignment note = only a proof of the
contract of carriage (Art. 6 § 2 CIM)
 However, consignment note is obligatory for
custom purposes (Art. 6 § 7 CIM)
 International associations of carriers (CIT)
have the task to establish uniform model
consignment notes (Art. 6 § 8 CIM)
 Except if otherwise agreed, the completion
of the consignment note shall be in the
responsibility of the consignor (Art. 8 CIM)
 Electronic consignment note: functional
equivalence with the paper one (Art. 6 § 9
CIM)
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Example: Black sea region
Odesa
Kavkaz
Constanza
Varna
Poti
Bat’umi
Samsun
Derince
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Contract of carriage of goods under SMGS
agreement




Railway and the consignor/consignee
Application on defined railway lines
Between railway stations and not ports!
Formal contract of carriage










Take over of the goods
SMGS consignment note is condition sine qua non
Obligation to carry
Obligation for publishing of tariffs (prices)
Single carrier
Successive carrier/s
No expressis verbis of substitute carrier/s
But is not prohibit ex lege
No contractual carrier
Non for multimodal solutions
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Legal necessity:
 Rotterdam Rules: broader scope of application maritime+
-
shift from tackle-to-tackle
to door-to-door (multimodal transportation)
more options for different jurisdictions (ports of loading/discharge)
 CMR - Article 2 mode-on-mode concept road+
 additional carriage to the road transport by other mode of transport
 during the sea or rail part of the carriage the goods stay on the road vehicle
 COTIF/CIM - Article 1 § 3, Article 1 § 4 rail+ concept
 Contractual solutions:
-
Bridging the different conventions on contractual base
Common base are the trade contracts and contractual freedom
Mutual recognition of transport documentation
Network liability (Art. 26 RR)
Using international law principles – lex specialis; lex generalis; lex posterior
Interlinking the different sector organisations and secretariats
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Multimodal solutions for global trade
1% global trade by green transportation by rail is not enough:
We have to cooperate!
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