Can Interpretative Committees Be Created to Improve Uniform Interpretation of International Transport Conventions?
Author: Prof. Cécile Legros
Uniform law designates all international legal instrument designed to apply identically in different States.
International conventions on private law issues aim to create rules uniformly applicable in the contracting States in order to avoid the disparities of domestic legislation otherwise applied through a conflicts-of-laws mechanism. One of the advantages of such a system is to reduce legal uncertainty and to encourage the development of international trade.
But adopting a uniform set of rules is not efficient if these rules are not applied uniformly by the Courts seized in the different countries parties to these conventions. And yet, there are various examples of diverging applications of international conventions.
The main reason of the existence of divergent interpretations is the lack of an international court having the competence to render binding decisions on issues deriving from uniform conventions. As the creation of such a Court is not likely to happen, other solutions must be considered.
This discussion concerns all uniform conventions but a special attention will be given to transport conventions.
Among the different possible remedies, the creation of interpretative committees must be considered. Some conventions already include provisions. Other legal grounds can be found in the statutes of international transport organizations.
And even if no legal ground can be found, private initiatives such as the CISG Advisory Council can be studied to serve as a model for international transport conventions.
The purpose of this communication is to review the different reasons that can lead to interpretation discrepancies of international transport conventions, but above all to discuss on the potential remedies that may be proposed. Specially, we will discuss about interpretative committees.
