Arrangements of intermodal transport in the field of conflicting conventions

The continuing advance of containerization emphasizes the need for a more uniform legal approach to international intermodal transport. With the current lack of a uniform instrument regulating such transport, the next best solution - both in legal theory as well as in practice - seems to be the broadly accepted network system knitting the existing unimodal transport regimes together. However, problems arise in reconciling the principles of the network system with the more desirable uniform approach of multimodal transport operations. This article looks at the `maritime plus' approach in the UNCITRAL/CMI Draft Instrument against the backdrop of the scope rules of the existing unimodal transport conventions, and the CMR Convention in particular.