In his capacity as President of CMI, Karl-Johan Gombrii participated in the Signing Ceremony for the Rotterdam Rules last week, when 16 states signed the new Convention. Together with the Dutch Minister of Transport and the Secretary of UNCITRAL, he also addressed the participants in a concurrent Colloquium with a view to present the Rules to the shipping community.

As has been widely reported in the maritime press, the Rotterdam Rules have gained considerable momentum following the signature of the Convention by 16 states, including Norway, Denmark and the United States. The hope is that the Rotterdam Rules will eventually replace existing cargo liability regimes (Hague, Hague-Visby and Hamburg Rules), but the Convention will not come into force until one year after it has been ratified by 20 states.
 
The potential impact of the Rotterdam Rules will be addressed in a future issue of Medlemsbladet.