The development of modem containerized shipping services has seen the creation of not just the multimodal transport operator but also the growth of value added services in which a total logistics package can be provided to merchants on top of traditional ad hoc transportation and forwarding services. In turn, merchant companies making use of such services may be more or less involved in analysing not just quality of service but also the implications for their interests in the choices involved in respect of trading conditions offered by service providers. This book seeks to trace something of these developments and extrapolate the range of competing interests and consequent implications for choice in the bargaining relationship between operator and customer. Its avowed purpose is to assist both cargo and carrier interests in making an informed choice between the various sets of multimodal rules potentially applicable to transport contracts. The choice presented is between the International Chamber of Commerce Rules for a Combined Transport Document 1975, which, until recently, formed the basis for much documentation used in practice, the UN Convention on International Multimodal Transport of Goods 1980 and the UNCTAD/ICC Rules for Multimodal Transport Documents 1992.

A review of third-party logistics and an analysis of the competing interests and perspectives of cargo owners and carriers leads to a review of the basic provisions of the different rules concerning liability and limitation of liability. These provide the basis for the central core of the book, which utilizes four practical case studies in order to put the various rules into an illustrative factual context. The case studies assist in drawing out those areas of crucial interest in any analysis of multimodal transport, starting with the central difficulty of providing an appropriate basis for liability where it is not possible to localize the stage of transit where the damage to the goods has occurred. The remaining case studies deal with where the relevant stage of loss or damage is known, liability for delay and liability for consequential loss. The concluding part of the book overviews the chief features of the remaining aspects of the rules and provides an evaluation of the choice of rules, particularly in the light of the preferences of the respective interests identified earlier. The discussion at each end of the book is underpinned by material drawing on research dealing variously with business practices, claims data, insurance and loss prevention strategies.

The book provides some thought provoking and stimulating insights. It will be useful for various professionals wishing to obtain a practical overview and grasp of central features of these particular rules at a fair level of detail and analysis. This reviewer, however, could not help feeling that there was a touch of unreality about the book. Partly this was due to the feeling that most cargo owners are likely to fall into the category of disinterested rather than that of attentive cargo owners (discussed pp. 17-22). They are unlikely to engage in detailed negotiation with operators about standard conditions unless dealing with tailor-made services. More crucial is the fact that these rules currently can only operate as contract terms. They exist almost in a contractual ether in a world dominated by mandatory rules applying unimodally. Once such unimodal rules touch on any part of a contract, even when purporting to be a multimodal contract, the contractual terms find themselves being scrutinized for consistency with the mandatory rules, which may well produce quite a different result from that seemingly negotiated by the parties. Perhaps more useful to operators will be a guide as to how to make most use of concessions permitted by the unimodal rules and to cargo owners a guide as to how to encourage operators to impose terms most likely to be struck down by mandatory rules!

A further difficulty with the book is that a certain looseness in comment on and description of the rules tends to pervade it. This is most noticeable in respect of the ICC Rules 1975. There are