The background – the Harter Act

4.1 The Harter Act1 has been selected for this analysis even though it is not an international convention and is applicable only to carriage of goods from or between ports in the United States and foreign ports.2 The reason for this is that the contemporary story of regulating the relationship between the parties interested in the venture and liabilities for cargo starts with the Harter Act. The act was the first attempt to draw a compromise between carriage and cargo interests.3