International Trade and Transport

Introduksjon

The course focuses on the risks that may arise in international commercial sales and how the sale contract and associated contracts, particularly the contract of carriage of goods by sea, manage these risks. It provides a legal framework for international commercial sales covering key principles, rules, and practices, and how they interrelate. The course addresses legal issues throughout the value chain, from negotiating an international sales contract to delivering goods to the buyer. 

The course is divided into three parts. All parts address risk distribution under international contracts of sale and carriage of goods by sea, as well as the complexities of unregulated multimodal contracts. Most of the rules discussed in the course originate from international conventions. The legal perspective is nevertheless Norwegian law. How international conventions are implemented in national Norwegian law and how they impact national law will accordingly be discussed.

• Part I introduces the challenges of trading across different legal systems and cultures and the role of the legal persons involved in the process, including the seller and the buyer, the shipper and the carrier, and contractual representatives such as freight forwarders and commercial agents. It also briefly introduces the students to questions related to jurisdiction, choice of law, and arbitration in international commercial sales and carriage of goods. Part I furthermore examines the sales contracts essential for international agreements, focusing on passing risk and risk distribution according to the CISG (Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods) and various INCOTERMS, as well as clauses designed to protect parties against breaches of contract and changed circumstances (e.g., hardship)
• Part II explores rules and practices related to the Contract of Carriage by Sea and associated agreements, such as cargo insurance. The part focuses on the Carrier’s transport liability under the Contract of Carriage by Sea, and how this is governed by mandatory rules in the Nordic Maritime Code, which implements international conventions such as the Hague-Visby Rules and the Hamburg Rules (the Nordic Compromise). The part also addresses the Carrire’s liability related to misinformation in the transport documents (The Bill of Lading and the Sea Waybill), it also addresses the problems which arise when a Bill of Lading is issued under a Charter Party (Tramp Bill of Lading). The section furthermore covers payment modalities (such as documentary credits).
• Part III introduces the current regulatory discussions related to the international carriage of goods, initiated by the European Union (EU), and the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL).  UNCITRAL’s pending Convention on International Carriage of Goods wholly or partly by Sea (the Rotterdam Rules) intends to fill a regulatory gap, whereas EU’s initiatives emphasize the need for multimodal transport by shifting road traffic to sustainable transport modes (rail, inland waterways, and short sea shipping) to increase the competitiveness of multimodal transport, and hence to achieve emission reduction targets. Part three includes the geopolitical risks including sanctions, and how private law responds to sanctions.

Kursets innhold

• The primary objective of this course is to provide an in-depth analysis of the private law rules relevant to the international sale and carriage of goods, including selected provisions of the Vienna Convention on the international sale of goods (CISG) 1980, related instruments like INCOTERMS and their influence on Norwegian and Nordic law. The course will also cover rules on documentary credit and various aspects of international transportation of goods by sea and other modes of transport, with a focus on carrier liability, cargo insurance, and overall liability distribution. The students will be given an overview of the in- and outbound freight transport volumes for various cargo types, along with a review of the mode selection decision aspects (including sustainability issues) related to characteristics and requirements of the shipper’s supply chain.
• Key conventions related to the carriage of goods by sea, such as the Hague-Visby Rules, the Hamburg Rules and their implementation in Nordic and Norwegian Law, as well as the proposed Rotterdam Rules, will be examined. Special attention will be given to addressing the legal gaps in multimodal transport. Additionally, the course will explore various rules and standard contracts related to intermediaries, highlighting the liability of different parties in international commercial shipping transactions. The course introduces the International as well as the European discussion on a legal framework for multimodal carriage and its connections to the European Green Deal and connected programs.
• Business ethics and environmental issues will be integrated into the course.
• The course content takes into account the opportunities for learning and legal problem-solving that are provided by the use of artificial intelligence. The course is oriented towards preparing students for a work environment where artificial intelligence is used as an aid for legal work. For this purpose, it is not considered necessary to spend time on instruction in the use of artificial intelligence. Instead, the course aims to equip students to use artificial intelligence in a legally defensible manner when addressing questions related to international trade and transport.