The Hamburg Rules and multimodalism

5.1 The factual context of the shipping industry changed substantially between the drafting of the Hague Rules and the Hamburg Rules.1 Containerisation revolutionised the carriage of goods by sea, and re-shaped the shipping industry as a whole. As Wyatt notes, the ability of containers to travel between different modes of transport (the foundation of multimodalism) further complicated the relationship between shippers and other parties.2 Despite their versatility, containers can present more problems, especially if cargo is damaged or lost. Determining not only who is liable but also during which leg of the multimodal chain3 the cargo was damaged or lost, and, consequently, which liability scheme is applicable, is now a difficult task.4