Rotterdam Rules 2008
The door-to-door carriage convention adopted in 2008 and why it is not in force.
The Rotterdam Rules are the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Carriage of Goods Wholly or Partly by Sea, adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on 11 December 2008 and opened for signature at Rotterdam on 23 September 2009. They are not in force.
Article 94 requires 20 ratifications. The UNCITRAL status page consulted on 1 September 2026 recorded 5 ratifications against 25 signatories, so the convention remains a proposal rather than a regime, and no fixture is governed by it.
The full article will cover the door-to-door scope, the volume contract carve-out, the liability and limitation structure, the electronic transport record provisions, and the reasons the major maritime States have not ratified.