The Regime of Multimodal Carrier's Liability for the Transport of Goods, Passengers and their Baggage, with Particular Regard to the Italian Legal System, within International and Comparative Perspectives

The article deals with the current problems regarding the definition and regime of multimodal transport with particular regard to the MTO’s liability. The main problem is indeed the absence both of any international uniform law and of a specific domestic regime in many Countries. The scientific analysis is based on a deep research of the relevant law, case-law and doctrine, both at international and domestic level, including contract forms of the international transport and trade sector and the praxis developed by the latter, with the aim of identifying the definition of multimodal transport and the related concepts, distinguishing the specific typology of transport from other contractual typologies that could be confused with the former, and to deal with the issue concerning the different criteria for establishing the legal regime of the multimodal transport contract of goods and thus the liability regime of multimodal carrier. First of all the legal regime of the multimodal transport is examined with a comparative perspective of the relevant law, case-law and doctrine, with particular regard to Common Law systems, the Netherlands, Germany and Italy (including the issue of the relationship - of autonomy or specialty - between Maritime and Air Law and Civil Law within the Italian legal system, according to the existing case-law and the works of scholars), in order to identify the regime of multimodal transport of goods with an original scientific method. The article deals also with the issue of multimodal transport of passengers, which has never been deepened before either at international or national level, even if it is not merely a theoretical topic, but concerns actual transport services and contracts. In particular, the problems deriving from the absence of co-ordination among the different EU Regulations on the passengers’ standard rights in each transport mode, and the subsequent issues, are examined with a critical approach. The article is published in a book that collects the articles of a solid group of international scholars and young researchers on the main current issues of international Maritime, Transport and Trade Law, under the supervision of Prof. Stefano Zunarelli, of the Alma Mater Studiorum – University of Bologna, Prof. Frank G.M. Smeele and Prof. Hercules Haralambides, both of the Erasmus University Rotterdam. The book belongs to the book series “Seminari del Master in Diritto ed Economia dei Trasporti e della Logistica e del Dottorato di Ricerca in Diritto dei Trasporti Europeo”, whose Director is Prof. Stefano Zunarelli, internationally renowned Professor of Maritime and Transport Law. The book has been internationally distributed.