Marius Lucien Laleye

The contract for the multimodal transport of goods Marius Lucien Laleye

The connection of transport contracts, in particular the contract for the carriage of goods, to the category of contracts for services has been broken. This break, announced in 1958 in the Civil Code (art. 1786), has now become a reality in several legal texts existing in domestic and international law. These complete the qualification and regulation of contracts of carriage of goods from which the contract of multimodal carriage of goods cannot be excluded. Thus, to the following question: is the contract of multimodal transport of goods a named or unnamed contract? the answer seems to come easily that it is a named contract. The doctrine in general, considers it as a named contract, because the law apprehends any contract of carriage of goods as such. However, when considering the characteristic features of the said contract and its name, a doubt arises in the mind. The remark is made that it does not obey the real criteria of qualification of named contracts. A relevant analysis should qualify it as a draft named contract (I) whose specialization must be completed (II), for the security of the parties.