1. This Convention shall come into force on the ninetieth day after five of the countries referred to in article XLII, paragraph 1, have deposited their instruments of ratification or accession.

2. For any country ratifying or acceding to it after five countries have deposited their instruments of ratification or accession, this Convention shall enter into force on the ninetieth day after the said country has deposited its instrument of ratification or accession.

DENUNCIATION

Article XLIV

1. Any Contracting Party may denounce this Convention by so notifying the Secretary-General of the United Nations.

2. Denunciation shall take effect twelve months after the date of receipt by the Secretary-General of the notification of denunciation.

DURATION

Article XLV

If, after the entry into force of this Convention, the number of Contracting Parties is reduced, as a result of denunciations, to less than five the Convention shall cease to be in force from the date on which the last of such denunciations takes effect.

SETTLEMENT OF DISPUTES

Article XLVII

Any dispute between two or more of the Contracting Parties relating to the interpretation or application of this Convention, which the parties are unable to settle by negotiation or other means may, at the request of any one of the Contracting Parties concerned, be referred for settlement to the International Court of Justice.

RESERVATIONS

Article XLVIII

1. Each Contracting Party may, at the time of signing, ratifying, or acceding to this Convention, declare that it does not consider itself bound by article XLVII of the Convention. Other Contracting Parties shall not be bound by article XLVII in respect of any Contracting Party which has entered such a reservation.

2. Any Contracting Party having entered a reservation as provided for in paragraph 1 may at any time withdraw such reservation by notifying the Secretary-General of the United Nations.

3. No other reservation to this Convention shall be permitted.

AMENDMENTS

Article XLIX

1. After this Convention has been in force for three years, any Contracting Party may, by notification to the Secretary-General of the United Nations, request that a conference be convened for the purpose of reviewing the Convention. The Secretary-General shall notify all Contracting Parties of the request and a review conference shall be convened by the Secretary-General if, within a period of four months following the date of notification by the Secretary-General, not less than one-fourth of the Contracting Parties notify him of their concurrence with the request.

2. If a conference is convened in accordance with the preceding paragraph, the Secretary-General shall notify all the Contracting Parties and invite them to submit within a period of three months such proposals as they may wish the Conference to consider. The Secretary-General shall circulate to all Contracting Parties the provisional agenda for the conference together with the texts of such proposals at least three months before the date on which the conference is to meet.

3. The Secretary-General shall invite to any conference convened in accordance with this article all countries referred to in article XLVII, paragraph 1, and countries which have become Contracting Parties under article XLII, paragraph 2.

TERRITORIAL APPLICATION

Article XLVI

1. Any country may, at the time of depositing its instrument of ratification or accession or at any time thereafter, declare by notification addressed to the Secretary-General of the United Nations that this Convention shall extend to all or any of the territories for the international relations of which it is responsible. The Convention shall extend to the territory or territories named in the notification as from the ninetieth day after its receipt by the Secretary-General or, if on that day the Convention has not yet entered into force, at the time of its entry into force.

2. Any country which has made a declaration under the preceding paragraph extending this Convention to any territory for whose international relations it is responsible may denounce the Convention separately in respect of that territory in accordance with the provisions of article XLIV.

The People’s Republic of Bulgaria does not consider itself as bound by article XLVII which envisages obligatory jurisdiction by the International Court of Justice.

On 6 May 1994, this reservation was withdrawn by the Government of Bulgaria.

Czechoslovakia

The Czechoslovak Socialist Republic will not be bound by the provision of article XLVII.

On 26 April 1991, the Government of Czechoslovakia notified the Secretary-General of its decision to withdraw this reservation.

German Democratic Republic

The German Democratic Republic does not consider itself bound by article XLVII of the Convention.

Hungary

The Hungarian People’s Republic does not consider itself bound by article XLVII of the Convention.

In a communication received on 8 December 1989, the Government of Hungary notified the Secretary-General that it had decided to withdraw this reservation.

“1. The Hungarian People’s Republic deems it necessary to call attention to the discriminative character of article 42 of the Convention by which a number of States are debarred from accession to the Convention. The matters regulated by the Convention concern the interests of all states, and therefore, in conformity with the principle of the sovereign equality of States, no State should be prevented from becoming a Party to such a Convention.

2. The Hungarian People’s Republic points out that the provisions of article 46 of the Convention are contrary to the principle of international law recording the self-determination of peoples as well as to United Nations General Assembly resolution 1514 (XV) of 14 December 1960 on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples.”

Ireland

Accession does not imply acceptance of the term “Republic of” used in the first paragraph [of the Protocol of Signature to the Convention].

Morocco

Pursuant to article 48 of the said Convention, the Kingdom of Morocco does not consider itself bound by the provisions of article 47 of the Convention, under which any dispute between two or more Parties relating to the interpretation or application of the present Convention which is not settled by negotiation or other means may, at the request of any one of the Contracting Parties concerned, be referred for settlement to the International Court of Justice.

The Kingdom of Morocco declares that in order for a dispute between two or more Parties to be referred to the International Court of Justice, it is necessary to have the consent of all States Parties to the dispute in each individual case.

Poland

The Government of the Polish People’s Republic does not consider itself bound by article XLVII of the Convention.

Romania

Reservation

The Socialist Republic of Romania declares, pursuant to article XLVIII of the Convention on the Contract for the International Carriage of Goods by Road (CMR), done at Geneva on 19 May 1956, that it does not consider itself as bound by article XLVII of the Convention, under which any dispute between two or more Contracting Parties relating to the interpretation or application of the Convention which is not settled by negotiation or other means may, at the request of any one of the Contracting Parties concerned, be referred to the International Court of Justice.

The Socialist Republic of Romania considers that such disputes may be referred to the International Court of Justice only with the consent of all parties to the dispute in each individual case.

Declaration

The Council of State of the Socialist Republic of Romania declares that the provisions of article XLII, paragraphs 1 and 2 of the Convention are not in keeping with the principle that multilateral international treaties must be open for participation by all States for which the aim and purpose of each treaties are of concern.

The Council of State of the Socialist Republic of Romania declares that the maintenance of the dependent status of certain territories to which reference is made in article XLVI of the Convention is not in conformity with the Charter of the United Nations and the documents adopted by the United Nations concerning the granting of independence to colonial countries and peoples, including the Declaration on Principles of International Law concerning Friendly Relations and Cooperation among States in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations, unanimously adopted in 1970 by the General Assembly in its resolution 2625 (XXV), which solemnly proclaims the duty of States to promote realization of the principle of equal rights and self-determination of peoples in order to bring a speedy end to colonialism.

Spain

Communication

The Government of Spain declared in its instrument of accession to the Convention that Spain did not consider itself bound by the United Kingdom communication notifying the extension of the Convention to Gibraltar, since it would not apply the Convention to Gibraltar by reason of the fact that article X of the Treaty of Utrecht signed on 13 July 1713 did not grant Gibraltar communication by land with Spain. In a subsequent communication, received on 12 February 1974, the Government of Spain stated that in making the above-quoted declaration its intention was not to formulate a reservation that might be covered by article 48(3) of the Convention, but to place on record the fact that Spain did not consider itself bound by the communication from the Government of the United Kingdom, a communication which had no legal force whatever inasmuch as it was contrary to article X of the Treaty of Utrecht.

Subsequently, on 11 September 1974, a communication was received from the Government of the United Kingdom to the effect that that Government did not accept the statements made by the Government of Spain in its instrument of accession and in the letter received by the Secretary-General on 12 February 1974, concerning the effect of article X of the Treaty of Utrecht and the legal force of the notification by the Government of the United Kingdom of the extension of the Convention to Gibraltar.

Turkey

The Republic of Turkey does not consider itself bound by article 47 of the Convention, under which any dispute between two or more Contracting Parties relating to the interpretation or application of the Convention which is not settled by negotiation or other means may, at the request of any of the Contracting Parties concerned, be referred to the International Court of Justice.

Ukraine

Pursuant to paragraph 1 of Article 48 of the Convention Ukraine does not consider itself bound by the provisions of Article 47 of the Convention.

U.S.S.R.

Declaration

The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics declares that the provisions of article XLVI of the Convention on the Contract for the International Carriage of Goods by Road, 1956, to the effect that Contracting Parties may extend the Convention to territories for the international relations of which they are responsible, are outmoded and at variance with Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples adopted by the United Nations General Assembly [resolution 1514 (XV) of 14 December 1960].

Reservation

The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics does not consider itself bound by the provisions of article XLVII of the Convention on the Contract for the International Carriage of Goods by Road, 1956, to the effect that disputes relating to the interpretation or application of the Convention may be referred to the International Court of Justice at the request of any one of the parties to the dispute, and states that the referral of such a dispute to the International Court of Justice must be subject to the agreement of all the parties to the dispute in each specific case.