the travaux préparatoires hague rules hague-visby rules - Comite ...

PART II - VISBY RULES 709Article 10 - Scope of applicationcomity of Nations which are recognised in its legislation, and applied in its Courts.With regret, however, it cannot accept the Stockholm Draft which in its view conflictswith these principles in so far as it binds Contracting States to disregard the law of thecountries having real connection with the bill of lading if the port of discharge happensto be situated in a Contracting State. This involves an assertion on the part ofContracting States of the right to dictate the terms upon which persons who are nottheir nationals may enter into contracts in a non-Contracting State for the carriage ofgoods from such State in ships which are under the flag of a non-Contracting Statenotwithstanding that the terms so dictated are contrary to the law of the non-ContractingState in which the contract is made.[707]The United Kingdom delegation considers that the amendment to Article 5 whichit now proposes, and which does not offend against the general rules of comity whichits Courts apply, would in practice cover as large a proportion of the maritime commerceof the world, as is covered by the Stockholm Draft although that small partwhich escaped the application of the Hague Rules would not be identical with thatwhich would escape under the Stockholm Draft.[727]CONN. 25Original: EnglishAmendment submitted by the Delegations of Denmark, Finland, Norway,Japan, Sweden, United Kingdom and the United States of America(In substitution of Amendment CONN. 24)Article 5Each Contracting State shall apply the provisions of this Convention to every billof lading relating to:a) carriage between ports in two contracting States;b) carriage from a port in a Contracting State to a port in a non-Contracting State, andc) any other carriage if the contract contained in or evidenced by the bill of ladingprovides that the rules of this Convention or legislation of any State giving effect tothem are to govern the contract,whatever may be the nationality of the ship, the carrier, the shipper, the consignee orany other interested person.[732]CONN. 27Original: English and FrenchAmendment submitted by the delegation of BelgiumIn substitution of Article 5 of the draft protocol now under discussion:“Each Contracting State shall apply the provisions of this Convention to every billof lading for carriage of goods from one State to another, under which bill of ladingthe port of loading, of discharge or one of the optional ports of discharge, is situatedin a Contracting State, whatever may be the law governing such bill of lading andwhatever may be the nationality of the ship, the carrier, the shipper, the consignee orany other interested person.The national legislation may however decide that the provisions of the Conventionshall not apply to the bill of lading for goods whose port of loading is not situated in aContracting State.In any event, each Contracting State shall apply the provisions of this Convention