If you had been told before you decided to attend this seminar that one of the speakers would discuss proposals for a draft International Convention which may never come into force; if you had then been told that the subject of the proposed Convention was so wide that it could scarcely be properly covered in a fortnight, still less in a talk lasting some 30 minutes; and if, finally, you had been told that the subject of the proposed Convention had little to do with the subject of this seminar (which is alleged to be that of marine insurance)—if you had been told these things, all of you would have registered varying degrees of mild surprise, some might even have wondered whether it was consistent with preserving their sanity to attend the seminar at all and whether it was not safer to stay away. Yet these are some of the disadvantages inherent in my subject—the draft cargo rules proposed by UNCITRAL. It is possible that these difficulties may not have been fully and frankly disclosed to you earlier. In case they were not, I would like to do so now.

As I have mentioned, the new cargo rules proposed by UNCITRAL still have a long way to go before, if ever, they come into force. The starting point of the new proposals was a report published by UNCTAD (the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development) in December, 1970, that is to say about six years ago. That report had a difficult objective. It was, to quote the terms of reference:—

“To review the economic and commercial aspects of international legislation and practices in the field of bills of lading from the standpoint of their conformity with the needs of economic development in particular of the developing countries and to make appropriate recommendations.”

I think you will agree that this is something of a mouthful. Also it is at first sight a strange springboard for a study of the terms of bills of lading to start with the