Hatzl v. XL [2009] EWCA Civ 223
Citation: Hatzl v. XL [2009] EWCA Civ 223
Rule of thumb: How do you sue a road-carrier for not delivering goods correctly? Under the ‘Carriage of Goods by Road Convention. The Law of Carriage in the UK is generally regulated by the 1956 Geneva Convention on the Contract for the International Carriage of Goods by Road, known as the CMR, incorporated into an Act of Parliament with the Carriage of Goods by Road Act 1965. The natural English dictionary word definitions is to be taken of the words & Articles in this in order to find if the road-carrier law has been breached.
Judgment:
'In 1967 the United Kingdom acceded to the Convention on the Contract for the International Carriage of Goods by Road (“the CMR”), which was signed in Geneva in 1956. The CMR is given the force of law in the United Kingdom by virtue of section 1 of the Carriage of Goods by Road Act 1965 (“The 1965 Act”) which into force in October 1967... 33. The starting point for the interpretation of international conventions is to consider the natural meaning of the language of the provision in question. But it is necessary to consider the convention as a whole and give it a purposive interpretation. The language of an international convention should be interpreted unconstrained by technical rules of English law or by English legal precedent, but on broad principles of general acceptation. The Court may have regard to the decisions of foreign Courts on the convention and the prevailing current of foreign opinion on its application. 34... The schedule (of the 1965 Act) sets out the English text of the CMR. The execution clause of the CMR provides that the English and French texts are equally authentic. Although the execution clause is not reproduced in the schedule to the 1965 Act, resort to the French text is a legitimate tool in the process of interpretation... 53. The argument can be supported by the fact that it has been said that the provisions of the CMR become terms of the contract’, Lawrence Collins LJ
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