Maritime Plus and the European status quo. The current framework of international transport law, ‘maritime plus’ and the EU

Intro...The use of standardised intermodal containers, which enhances the safety of goods in transit and reduces operating costs, has caused multimodal transport to become a global phenomenon since its introduction in the maritime environment during the previous century. Despite its practical success, however, the proliferation of this type of transport has up until now not been matched by suitable uniform legislation. Political discord and the fact that the use of more than one mode of transport under a single contract complicates the legal situation exponentially probably lie at the root of this deficiency. Although the multimodal contract of carriage contends with some other legal impediments, the most prominent one seems to be that of ambiguity with regard to the applicable law. The reason for the obscurity in this area is that there is no international multimodal transport convention to lay the ground rules on how to approach a multimodal contract.