Lloyd's Maritime and Commercial Law Quarterly
The centenary of the Hague Rules: Celebrating a century of international conventions governing the carriage of goods by sea*
Michael F Sturley†
2024 marks the centenary of the Hague Rules, which still play a central role in allocating the risk of cargo loss or damage. To celebrate that milestone, it is valuable to review the history, beginning with the pre-existing risk allocation. When maritime nations applied widely accepted principles differently, efforts began in the late nineteenth century to achieve uniformity by international agreement. Those efforts failed until domestic legislation exacerbated the problem and created greater pressure for a solution. Even after agreement was reached in 1924, however, another fourteen years passed before the Convention was widely in force. Since then, international uniformity has been challenged in multiple ways, and the story continues to this day.
I. INTRODUCTION
On 25 August 1924, the international community concluded a multilateral treaty formally titled the “International Convention for the Unification of Certain Rules of Law Relating
* A version of this article was delivered as the Berlingieri Lecture at the CMI Colloquium in Gothenburg, Sweden, on 23 May 2024.
† Fannie Coplin Regents Chair in Law, University of Texas at Austin. I was involved in several of the initiatives (starting in 1992) that are discussed in the final sections of this article, particularly the Rotterdam Rules and the US Maritime Law Association’s efforts in the 1990s to amend the US Carriage of Goods by Sea Act. But I write here solely in my academic capacity and the views I express are my own. They do not necessarily represent the views of, and they have not been endorsed or approved by, any of the groups or organisations (or any of the individual members) with which (and with whom) I served on those initiatives.
The following abbreviations are used:
Colinvaux: Raoul P Colinvaux, The Carriage of Goods by Sea Act 1924 (1954);
Dor: Stephane Dor, Bill of Lading Clauses and the Brussels International Convention of 1924 (Hague Rules): Study in Comparative Law (JM Bokownew, English translation, 1956);
Hague Conf Rep: International Law Association, Report of the 30th Conference (Hague Conf, 1921);
Knauth: AW Knauth, The American Law of Ocean Bills of Lading, 4th edn (1953);
Legislative History: MF Sturley (ed), The Legislative History of the Carriage of Goods by Sea Act and the Travaux Préparatoires of the Hague Rules (1990), 3 vols;
Liverpool Conf Rep: International Law Association, Report of the 10th Conference (Liverpool Conf, 1882);
London CMI Conf Rep: Comité Maritime International, London Conference, October 1922;
Hague-Visby Travaux Préparatoires: Comité Maritime International, The Travaux Préparatoires of the Hague Rules and of the Hague-Visby Rules (F Berlingieri, ed, 1997);
Stockholm Conf Rep: Comité Maritime International, Report of the 26th Conference (Stockholm Conference, 1963);
Sturley, Fujita & van der Ziel: MF Sturley, T Fujita and G van der Ziel, The Rotterdam Rules: The UN Convention on Contracts for the International Carriage of Goods Wholly or Partly by Sea, 2nd edn (2020);
US Delegates’ Rep: Report of the Delegates of the United States to the International Conference on Maritime Law (1923).
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